Below are stories from past issues of Columban Mission magazine. The Columban Fathers publish Columban Mission magazine eight times a year. Subscriptions are available for just $15 per year. Sign up to receive our next issue. Read more about Columban Mission magazine.
The phone woke me from a deep sleep. I turned on the light. The clock read 2:35 a.m., and the caller was Saiyun, a church leader in DaGuan village. Her mother is elderly and in poor health. I thought something had happened to her mother, and I answered the call.
“I dream of an Amazon that struggles for the rights of the poor ….”
“I dream of an Amazon that sustains the richness of its cultures ….”
“I dream of an Amazon that guards its astonishing natural beauty ….”
In February 2020 some eighteen priests and Sisters participated in the Mission Education Program for Korean missionaries going overseas at our Center House in Seoul. It was directed by Columban Fr. Thomas Nam Seungwon and the staff at our Mission Center in Seoul.
A while ago I was feeling discouraged and someone reminded me that “a hundred-yard dash is not over at the 99th yard.” In other words, “don’t give up too early.” It was good advice.
During my vacation back home in Ireland, much of my time is spent visiting family members, neighbors and friends in the countryside.
In the Gospel of Matthew 13:52 Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as being like a householder who brings forth treasures new and old from his storeroom.
It is part of our daily morning exercise routine for myself and my fellow lay missionary, Lenette Toledo, to pass by the busiest market in Bhamo. Bhamo is a city in the Kachin State in the northernmost part of Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Sharing my vocation story stirs up mixed feelings within me. On the one hand I think of a vocation as something personal and sacred, but I remember that such stories shared by priests, the religious, and lay people have helped me throughout my faith journey.
“Hope springs eternal” goes the phrase, even in the saddest of situations, and surely none can be sadder than the case of young Andrea Alvarez.
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.