We've stated in our last issue that Spiritists do not believe in praying to individuals.  But someone has asked "Don't we honor people like Mother Teresa and others that do great works among the living?"
Yes.  Spiritists do have a similar system for declaring a person a Lord or a Holy Teacher, and allowing people to name Temples and Societies after them to do good works in Their Names, Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods, who devote their lives to doing good works can acknowledge themselves as followers of such a Teacher.  There have been such Societies from The Beginning Of The Way.
We would have no objection at all to a Society named The Daughters Of Mercy Of Lord Teresa.  It would be perfectly acceptable to us.  Such Societies could keep pictures of the honored individual in their house and tell people of their accomplishments during their life.  Dedicated Temples could also display pictures of the individual, the only thing we object to is the idea of praying to such individuals.  This is totally unacceptable, and is not permitted in the Spiritist Faith because all Great Teachers admit that They are only a small part of a Greater Whole.  It is that Greater Whole that is The Power And The Glory, not the Individual.
Whatever we choose to call That Greater Power we serve it, we become part of it.  Therefore, we cannot claim ourselves to be superior to it.  And when people start to pray to Individuals they put them into a state higher than others, which should not be.  For they are merely the focal points.  They are The Voices Of The Lords.  And all those that work with Them are Their eyes, Their hands, Their ears, Their true extended bodies that help Them do the will of that Superior Power and The Good.
That is why we allow Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods, that the Spiritual Body this Individual has created shall never pass away, but as long as it continues to do good work that Individual's ideas, hopes and dreams will continue to fulfill themselves.
We will always honor Mother Teresa.  We will always respect the body that she has created, and we hope it will always continue to live among us.