O Blessed Mary, in the presence of all the heavenly court
I choose you this day, for my Mother.
I deliver and consecrate to you, as your servant,
my body and soul, my goods and even the value
of all my good actions, past, present and future.
All that belongs to me is yours according to your good pleasure,
for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity.
September 4, 2020
September 3, 2020
Mary, you are the vessel
and tabernacle containing all Mysteries.
You know what the Patriarchs did not know;
you experienced what was not revealed to the Angels;
you heard what the Prophets did not hear.
In short, everything that was hidden
from preceding generations
was made known to you; even more,
most of these wonders depended on you.
September 2, 2020
I venerate you with all my heart, O Virgin most holy,
above all Angels and Saints in paradise,
as the beloved Spouse of the Spirit of God,
and to you I consecrate my heart and all its affections,
imploring you to obtain for me from the Most Holy Trinity
all the means of salvation.
September 1, 2020
There are times in my life when I feel I am at a crossroad, not knowing which way to go. In those moments, it seems all I can do is to stop and pray, or otherwise, I can just pack my bags and go back home to be with my family and get on with my life. But I feel that God has a different plan for me. I just let things happen.
September 1, 2020
A case of gang rape of a 19-year old young British woman in Ayia Napa in southeastern Cyprus by 12 youth 15 to 18 years old in July 2019 received international attention. Ayia Napa is a town described as the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Mediterranean and the sex, alcohol and drug abuse capital of Cyprus. The justice system in Cyprus is far from just in this case, it seems.
September 1, 2020
September 1 has been designated for us as World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. Pope Francis asks us to “let our prayer be inspired anew by closeness to nature which spontaneously leads us to God the Creator.” (Message Sept. 1, 2019).
September 1, 2020
In 1981, Columban Fr. Frank Hoare was at the Namata Ashram running a Hindi-speaking lay leaders course. He shared with us the following story from that time. I’ve just had a meeting with a Fijian seminarian. I was supervising him on his cross-cultural pastoral experience a few months ago. He reminded me of the first week he stayed with his Indo-Fijian family. “I haven’t slept all week,” he told me at our meeting at the end of that first week.
September 1, 2020
Dear Mother Mary, with this virus going around
I ask you to pray to Jesus for my children.
How I would love to make the world safe for them.
But deep down I know that is impossible and yet I wish I could.
Nonetheless, I pray that I may be able to pass on to them
the gift of faith and a heart with the impulse to pray.
August 31, 2020
My Queen! My Mother!
Remember I am thine own.
Keep me, guard me,
as thy property and possession.
August 31, 2020
When Maria was first appointed to Taiwan in 2014, she immediately became involved in prison ministry. She worked with both youth and adults that were confined. Since 2018, she has been a member of the youth ministry coordinating team in the diocese of Shinju. She says that when she returned to Taiwan for her second term she received an invitation from Fr. Francis Rex who was in charge of the youth ministry for the diocese.
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.