Nobel Lecture

The lecture Mother Teresa gave in Oslo on 11 December 1979, after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. She opens by asking the audience to pray with her the prayer attributed to Francis of Assisi, then speaks of the love of God shown in Christ's birth and death, and of Christ who identifies himself with the hungry, the naked, the homeless and the unwanted. She tells of an old people's home where the residents, though well provided for, watched the door for children who did not come, and argues that the poverty of being unloved is found in the rich West and in families. She names abortion as the greatest destroyer of peace, speaks of her sisters' answer to it through adoption, and tells stories of the poor and dying they have cared for. The text is printed in Nobel Lectures, Peace 1971-1980 (1997) and published by the Nobel Foundation on its website.