Jesus, my Lord, let me go to Mary
when suffering threatens to overwhelm me.
Ask your mother to stay with me
when I am afraid and tempted to surrender.
Let me look to Mary as my model for love,
as well as my haven of healing.
Make sure I am considerate of other people
and notice how they are affected by their suffering.
April 2, 2017
April 1, 2017
Life is for living. It is to experience freedom to love and help others, to be free to grow and have family. To be human is to be free from fear and punishment and ill health, poverty and hunger. Living is to be free to think, to speak our thoughts and freely choose the good. To be alive is to have justice and dignity and the fullness of existence. To be able say I am alive and I know that I am is to be aware of life. But millions are deprived of these basic values of human life. The death penalty is just another way to deprive people of life itself.
April 1, 2017
By Fr. Bobby Gilmore
What was it my father used to say? A bird stuck between two branches gets bitten on both wings. I would like to add my saying to the list now, Father: A man stuck between two worlds lives and dies alone. (Dinaw Mengestu-The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears)
April 1, 2017
I'm not the only one.
I beg you, Lord,
to help me grow in compassion.
If I am faithful to You
and close to Your blessed mother,
those who suffer will be comforted by my presence...
and they will gain courage
as I stand beside them,
by their cross.
Amen.
March 30, 2017
Most Holy and adorable Trinity,
one God in three Persons,
I praise you and give you thanks
for all the favors you have bestowed on me.
Your goodness has preserved me until now.
March 1, 2017
When I was sixteen years old, my father was diagnosed with cancer and died ten weeks later. Soon afterwards, I dropped out of high school to manage the family farm in order to support my mother and four younger siblings. For the next several years I worked on the land, deepening my love of nature, and growing in awareness of God's presence around and within me.
March 1, 2017
In my early days as a missionary in Fiji, I worked mainly among the Hindu Indo-Fijians around the town of Labasa. I was often invited by head teachers of primary schools to explain to their students the meaning of Good Friday and Easter Monday, since both were public holidays.
March 1, 2017
My name is Sr. Young Mi Choi, and I live and work in the parish of Cristo Liberador, (Christ the Liberator), one of twelve parishes which comprise the district of San Juan de Lurigancho in the eastern part of Lima, Peru, in the foothills of the Andes. It is one of the most densely populated districts in all Latin America, with a population of over one million people.
March 1, 2017
It was about three in the afternoon on a Tuesday. I was seated at my desk in the parish office chatting with a young couple who had come to ask for baptism for their newborn baby. As parish priest of the 90,000 parishioners of San Matias parish on the southern periphery of Santiago, Chile, a large part of my day was spent listening to the concerns of those who came to see me.
March 1, 2017
Now that I'm home, I realized I do not have a room to call my own. My room is the bag I carry on my back every time I move from one mission to another. Right after high school I left home to pursue a childhood dream– to become a priest.
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.