I remember how I silently uttered a prayer to bless me in my desire to become a missionary when Pope John Paul II visited the Philippines in 1985. Years later when I watched a movie about Mother Theresa's life I started to feel remiss about something. I had always thought that by virtue of our baptism we are all missionaries wherever we may be.
March 1, 2017
Ana Flores Huaman is a Columban lay missionary with nearly eight years of experience, and this is her story. I first knew Ana when she was accepted into the Columban lay mission sending program in Lima, Peru, in 2007.
March 1, 2017
Shwe Mya was a dignified 40-year-old mother of two children. Her oldest son had been sent to a Buddhist monastery when he was six years old because Shwe Mya was too poor to feed him. The younger daughter lived with her grandmother whose village was very far away from Myitkyina. The difficult journey to the HIV clinic in Myitkyina would have taken the grandmother at least two days.
March 1, 2017
"What do you know about Ireland?" I asked the third grade class that was excited to have just learnt that I was from there. "St. Patrick was from there" responded a girl in the front row. "So did that mean that he was Irish?" I inquired, my tone betraying an element of doubt. "Yes!" came back a chorus of voices, filled with disbelief that I would even pose such a question.
"So what did St. Patrick do in Ireland?" I asked. "He told the people about God. He was a missionary" responded a boy in the third row. "And how was it that St. Patrick knew about God, while the Irish people around him knew nothing?" I inquired.
February 28, 2017
Columban Fr. Bobby Gilmore recalls the day he met Johnny and June Cash.One day when I was working in Montego Bay, I got a call from the bishop requesting that I go out and bless the foundation of a new hotel, the Ritz Carlton. He was invited to perform the ceremony but due to other engagements couldn’t make it. Reluctantly, I set off not realizing that it was a formal occasion attended by all the great and the good of Jamaican life.
February 28, 2017
To be human means to live from day to day,
Searching the way forward, Inching towards a clearer sense of identity and purpose. I wonder what it was like for Jesus? I imagine a growing sense of belonging in God, warmed, supported, strengthened by the Father’s love;
February 28, 2017
Bennie had a thin, hollow face, the picture of malnutrition at 22 years of age, and had never been to school for more than a few months, could not read or write and he was a one-meal man. He ate once a day. He was dressed in shorts and a dirty t-shirt. His flip-flops were worn thin.
January 31, 2017
Father, take the lives of our teens.
We offer them to You with open hands.
Through the example of Jesus,
each them to surrender their lives fully to You.
January 25, 2017
Lord, please put Your peace in my heart. I'm worried and anxious. My mind races and obsesses. I can't help thinking about my problems. And the more I think about them, the more depressed I become. I feel like I'm sinking down in quicksand and can't get out. Calm me, Lord. Slow me down, put Your peace in my heart.
January 24, 2017
O holy Angels, watch over us at all times during this perilous life: O holy Archangels, be our guides on the way to heaven; O heavenly choir of the Principalities, govern us in soul and body; O mighty Powers, preserve us against the wiles of the demons; O celestial Virtues, give us strength and courage in the battle of life; O sacred Thrones, grant us peace with God and man; O brilliant Cherubi
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.