Let the entire creation

Rise in adulation

At the beatification

Of the diminutive nun

Whose miniature frame

Housed the monumental heart

That throbbed with compassion

And hands that trembled with affection

For those consigned to the margins

Of affliction

Let the whole world

Stand still in salutation

At the elevation

Of the frail and fragile woman

With an iron will

Who from the ghettos

Of humiliation and destitution

Rose to conquer

The world of power and prestige

Consumption and destruction

Let the mass of humanity

Freeze for a minute

And savour in solitude

The glorious triumph

Of the meteoric star

Of our century

Whose luminosity

Dazed and dazzled

Hindus and Buddhists

Christians and Muslims

Palace in-mates

As well as slum dwellers

Let the tide of history

Halt for a moment

And celebrate the graduation

Of the saint of the gutters

Whose unusual ministry

With the dregs of humanity

Was a loud witness

To the civilization

Of love

Let the clouds vanish

From the sky

And the rainbow adorn

The horizon

As the heavenly hosts

Applaud the crowning

Of Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Who taught humanity so eloquently

That participation in God

Is motherhood.