The attached letter was written by Mother Teresa of Calcutta to President Jimmy Carter on November 17, 1979.
The most obvious characteristics of her handwriting are legibility and neatness. While many busy people write very fast and lose legibility, Mother Teresa’s hand remained disciplined and neat.
This legible, clear script indicated that she was sincere, honest, purposeful and straightforward, but the large secondary loops in her small o’s also showed that she was secretive. When she said something it was true, but there was much she kept to herself.
The fact that the middle zone of her handwriting was large when compared to her upper and lower loops show that she was practical, realistic, determined, and strong-willed. She had very strong opinions and it would be easy to confuse her willfulness with stubbornness. She was certainly aggressive, goal minded, disciplined, and enthusiastic. She expected the best of herself and others, so her energy and enthusiasm were contagious.
When these fine human characteristics were combined with her spiritual message, she became a dynamic and charismatic force, while remaining meek and humble.
The sharp angles in Mother Teresa’s letters (especially in the small ms and ns) prove that she was disciplined, serious, decisive, conscientious, and reliable. She had a strong sense of obligation to duty and a contempt for easy living. She was goal-directed, hard working, and steadfast in her convictions. Her determination to succeed made her appear to many to be uncompromising, rigid, unyielding, unsociable, and lacking in sympathy. Her writing also gives some evidence that her convictions caused her to have inner conflicts (she eventually left her religious order and started her own community of sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, which is one of the few religious orders in the Catholic Church that continues to grow and prosper).
The sharp angles of her letters show that she was very intelligent. She had a penetrating, fast, and intuitive mind so she learned quickly. Her writing was also heavy so we know she was tenacious, had the ability to make decisions, and was not afraid of accepting challenges. She had great energy, optimism, and vitality, and when these qualities were combined with her idealism, spirituality, dignity, and the righteousness of her cause, she became a dynamic force for good.
Her poverty, self-abnegation, and dedication to the poor made her one of the most loved and respected people in the world.
Mother Teresa died in 1997 and is considered a sure bet to become a saint in the Catholic Church.
Like President Jimmy Carter, she was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr. Murray is a certified writing analyst, graduate of the International Graphoanalysis Institute and a member of the American Association of Handwriting Analysts. He is also an experienced educator, school social worker and family therapist in Forest Park.
If you would like to have your handwriting analyzed, send a sample of your writing on unlined paper. Please state your age and sex and any specific questions you would like addressed in the analysis. Send to: James Murray, Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302. Your name will not be used.
