The Columban Interreligious Dialogue Desk in Fiji was initiated in May 2019. I was asked to advise and guide the coordinator, Ms. Priscilla Magdalin. Priscilla had worked for some years with Interfaith Search Fiji and had many contacts among leaders of religious groups in Fiji. We decided that our goal would be to interest young people in interreligious dialogue.
February 18, 2021
Lord as we suffer through this time of the virus
allow us to turn to You for strength and comfort.
I know that Your saving help reaches out
to those afflicted and in pain.
Grant us the faith to believe that You are here
with us and will grant us a consolation
beyond even our deepest desires.
— By a Columban Missionary
February 17, 2021
Grant to Your faithful, Lord, a spirit
generous enough to begin these solemn fasts
with proper fervor and to pursue them with steadfast devotion.
This we ask of You through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son.
February 16, 2021
Lord, send the new light of Your dawn
into my inner self.
Make shadows fade, pull back the blind,
let dazzling light cascade into every corner
of my mind.
Lord, send the new warmth of Your sun
into my heart, let me sense Your healing love,
like sun rising gently above sleepy land
on a misty morn to give me a fresh new start.
February 15, 2021
In his well-received book, The Gospel of Joy, Pope Francis writes: “Each particular Church should encourage the use of the arts in evangelization, building on the treasures of the past but also drawing upon the wide variety of contemporary expressions so as to transmit the faith in a new ‘language of parables.’ We must be bold enough to discover new signs and new symbols, new flesh to embody an
February 15, 2021
Almighty God; we make our earnest prayer
that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection,
that Thou wilt incline the hearts of citizens to cultivate
a spirit of subordination and obedience to government;
and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another
and for their fellow citizens of the United States of America at large.
February 14, 2021
O glorious advocate and protector, Saint Valentine,
look with pity upon our wants,
hear our requests,
attend to our prayers,
relieve by your intercession
the miseries under which we labor,
and obtain for us the Divine blessing,
that we may be found worthy to join you
in praising the Almighty for all eternity;
February 13, 2021
O Loving Mother,
Through you the heavens exult with joy,
the angels and archangels are glad,
demons are put to flight,
the demon tempter is cast out of heaven,
and our fallen nature has again
been assumed into heaven.
It is through you that the only-begotten Son of God,
who is the Light, shone amid the nations
February 12, 2021
God speaks to us through the Scriptures but also through events in our lives. For example, Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, was locked in his room depressed about the progress of his life and mission. Then he decided he needed a change of atmosphere. He went to watch a potter at his wheel.
February 12, 2021
Lord as we suffer through this time of the virus
allow us to turn to You for strength and comfort.
I know that Your saving help reaches out
to those afflicted and in pain.
Grant us the faith to believe that You are here
with us and will grant us a consolation
beyond even our deepest desires.
— By a Columban Missionary
The Columbans are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, who minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.