It was in June 2021 that I got back to Peru, my own country, and once again had the opportunity to be with people who were displaced and in distress, especially since it…
march-april
“Youth for Change” was the theme that the Youth in Raiwaqa Parish (Fiji) chose for their revival program after the Covid-19 pandemic. Being with the youth felt like I was…
A shimmer of light I saw
Beckoning me to go…. Ah! HOPE
To freedom I go
Out of this dark, cold, filthy tunnel
In Quezon City, a poor neighborhood on the north side of Manila, Philippines, I found a small room where I could live among the locals. At the time, I was focused on…
On Good Friday last year, the Columban formation community in Seoul, Korea, participated in the Good Friday liturgy organised by the Korean branch of the Global Catholic…
A holy memory from my childhood remains with me. I was five years old, and I remember going with my father through the mud and slush of early 1950’s suburban, Melbourne,…
“I’m the last of the Wanaurnys in the USA” …. a chuckle …. “and maybe the last in the entire world!” Th is was how Fr. John Wanaurny mused from time to time during the…
On Saturday, August 19, 2023, Deacon Vincent Tawake CM was ordained priest by the Archbishop of Suva, Dr. Peter Loi Chong. Some 30 priests attended the ordination. I had…
It has been a while since the parish youth ministry prepared for a big event. After arriving back in Myanmar (formerly Burma) from my home vacation, the youth ministry…
In 2020, Fr. M was looking forward to celebrating his 25th ordination anniversary. Ordained in 1995, he was one of the first priests from Myanmar (formerly Burma) to…
Even though it was my first time to visit to Fiji, my short stay in Holy Family Parish in Labasa felt like a homecoming! Situated among the sugarcane plantations, I…
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. It is a happy occasion, a planned entry into Jerusalem which gathered disciples and followers to hail Jesus.
Once, Columban Fr. Bill Morton was reminiscing with me about his seminary days in the early 1980s. At that time, the most popular theologian in the Western world was Karl…
Last January, the newly elected Chilean president, a 35-year-old former leader of the students movement, announced who would be accompanying him to govern the country in…
I first came to Japan 66 years ago. My appointments after language school were to remote country villages. The people at that time were still in shock after defeat in war…
On the night of Palm Sunday, when all my pastoral activities in the Migrant Center were done, I arrived home, got a simple dinner and yet instead of getting myself ready…
It is amazing how things, situations, history and peoples can be so connected and tied with one another. We moved to the north of Myanmar (formerly Burma) from Yangon to…
Today was Palm Sunday, and a very busy one for me, serving as the lone priest here in Christ the King, Ba, Fiji. We have three Masses each Sunday, one in the main town…
These are the words inscribed on a plaque in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. They come from the pen of George Mackay Brown (1921-96), regarded by many as Scotland’s greatest…
On Saturday July 23, 2022, Columban seminarians and their formator held two Come and See programs together in Fiji. The day long face-to-face program was conducted at the…
After a two-year hiatus due to COVID, face-to-face Art Recollection was back in 2022! The first communities that got to pray and reflect on their faith life through visual…
“Sister, this is the call of God that I have been waiting for. I had a sense of having a call and not knowing what it was.” This was Mrs. Theresa Nath’s reaction, at the…
It has always struck me that the Fijian translation of Good Friday is simply and literally, “Day of Death.” No massaging, no theological euphemisms, just saying is “as it…
My vocational road to missionary priesthood had many invitations, but one of the most important invitations to mission occurred near the end of my first year in the…
During my sixth year in the Columban seminary in Sydney, Australia, my classmates and I were asked where we would like to work after ordination. Up to that time, the…
The latest letter of Pope Francis, the Encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Brothers and Sisters All, should touch every heart, stimulate all minds, awaken consciences, warm our…
A holy memory from my childhood remains with me. I was five years old.
On Good Friday 2021, the Columban formation community in Seoul participated in the Holy Friday Liturgy organized by the Korean Branch of the Global Catholic Climate…
The wrapping on the small parcel resembled a brown paper bag rather than an envelope while Fr. Elmer’s name and address were written in bold, clear letters. Perhaps it was…
A few months ago, I had this strange experience of having my hands washed by an old lady in the village. She grabbed my hands and started washing them. I did try to stop…
The celebration of 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines was a momentous event that needed to be celebrated and remembered.
Born on St. Columban’s Day, baptized by a Columban priest, ordained by a cousin and namesake – it seems I was marked out from the start
The ripening corn sparkled in the sunlight as we set off. Birds chattered in the bushes around the fields. Two copses of trees perfectly framed the tower of a mediaeval…
Fiji’s Archbishop Peter Loy Chong, like many others, realized the importance of social media when COVID-19 caused all churches to be closed down. English is seen as the…
Often, we missionaries are assigned to areas that are poverty stricken and lack the basic needs that many are accustomed to such as employment, water, food, housing and…
My ministry work includes providing education, training and assistance to enable church leaders and migrant communities in the Hsinchu diocese to respond to the realities…
Steven Ram Narayan (universally known as “Sonny Boy” or “Uncle”) was born in April 1947 to Ram Garib and Marion Bennion of Elevuka, Ba, Fiji. That was both an interfaith…
I never thought that my photo would be on the front cover of a book – admittedly with fourteen others! All of us, in our 80s, are foreign missionaries still working in…
Part of life while growing up was the occasional phone call I would receive from my uncle, Columban Fr. Tomás King, who is a missionary priest in Pakistan.
During the celebration of the Easter Vigil last year, this verse from the Exsultet resonated deeply within me. As the Paschal Candle, signifying the risen Christ, was…
“Ever seen a mushroom grow? asked our gardener one morning in the grounds of the Columban Center House in Peru, as he pointed out to some of us a particularly fine example…
Music is in Fr. Gabriel’s blood. He was born and raised to the notes of song and guitar. From his home in the high Andes to the teeming cities of Pakistan and now to the…
Like many other Columban missionaries before me, I have devoted many years to trying to promote harmonious relations between Christians and Muslims in the Southern…
Razia is a Pakistani woman of small stature and big heart. She has known the Columbans since about 1985, and from that time, has been involved in bringing education to the…
The village of Parola, Tondo, Philippines, is a shantytown where the Pasig River and Manila Bay waters meet. It has been five years since a huge fire completely gutted it…
We always hear the expression “Time flies!” and indeed that is true. In 2020, I suddenly realized that I was already celebrating my 10th anniversary as Columban Lay…
Recently Pope Francis said, “Kindness frees us from the cruelty that at times infects human relationships, from the anxiety that prevents us from thinking of others, from…
In August last year, I arrived at St. John the Apostle Parish in Natovi, Fiji, to begin my ministry, where, among other things I would help facilitate church programs,…
“How old are you?” is a question that I’m very often asked in Pakistan, and when I tell my age, 75, the response is something like, “You look very fresh,” or “You’re still…
My name is Uakeia Tawaia, and I come from the Kiribati Islands. In 2016, I was studying Accounting at the Kiribati Institute of Technology (KIT) and was focused on…
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, or Udang Poi, is a huge celebration in the Diocese of Myitkyina, Myanmar (formerly Burma), which attracts thousands…
Every day in our lives we meet people of various ages and from different backgrounds. Many of them we don’t know but some of them we get to know and interact with. And…
After completing my six year term as Regional Director for the Columbans in Ireland I had the opportunity to pay a return visit to Pakistan where I had worked for a number…
It started, really, with an invitation from catechist Tobia to come and talk about the Marian Movement of Priests. I checked with the pastor, Fr.
Strolling along the path, I turned a corner and suddenly my eye caught a statue. At first, I was unsure if the figure was male or female, human or angelic, but its pose…
For the past seven years, I have traveled on Fridays to the Carmelite monastery located in a mountain canyon known as the Cajon del Maipo.
On August 1, 2017, I travelled from the height of the Korean summer to an equally hot Philippines to study English.
"Loneliness has become a silent epidemic; it is, as one doctor wrote, "the most unrecognized health crisis of this generation."
Although all Columbans may not agree with me, I think our life as Columbans has three important hallmarks.
Community
I would like to introduce Mr. Dismas Shigeru Kato. He was born 91 years ago in a small fishing village called Kushimoto in Wakayama Province of Japan.
In my ministry as a priest I have encountered many experiences of grief and loss, and, like any other human being, I have had to deal with these difficult emotions both in…
Although my mother uttered her first words in the Philippine Ilocano language, we are a Chinese family and along with my brothers and sisters, I was born in Hong Kong.
The Higher Education Center [HEC] is for poor but bright young women and men who cannot afford further education after high school.
The scene is one full of children waiting eagerly for their Easter meal. Noise levels reach a climax. In one corner the little ones are playing a game I do not understand…
In 2010, Kevin Sheerin was working in Dublin for the high profile computer software giant Microsoft, earning a good salary and living a comfortable life. That was the year…
Sport is always a great way to bring people together. This is especially important when you live in a barrio, an area with a high poverty rate, where there are migrants…
Language is a basic skill we need to communicate, to express our feelings and to understand others. But, we are divided by different languages used in nations or cities.…
"Lord, You created me through your love…" This is the first verse of a Korean morning prayer which I pray every morning. This beautiful verse has touched me deeply, and it…
My grandfather's name was Ireneo, but he was best known and called "Tata" by everyone in the family or Tatay Neo by everyone else who knew him.
Back in 1990 a missionary priest in Taiwan was the parish priest of a small parish that had a small kindergarten attached. The kindergarten was underused and struggling.…
When I was sixteen years old, my father was diagnosed with cancer and died ten weeks later.
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.
I started to write these two poems last year during a workshop training on poetry writing in my ministry with asylum seekers.
"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.
In my early days as a missionary in Fiji, I worked mainly among the Hindu Indo-Fijians around the town of Labasa.
In the history of human life suffering is what every person will encounter in their lifetime.
Ethnic Indian people are traditionally obsessed with matters of pollution and purity. Purity is a central value in the culture. The caste system in India is based on this…
I still have vivid memories of my first awakening in Lima, Peru, on June 24, 1971.
It was about three in the afternoon on a Tuesday.
My name is Sr.
Like the air we breathe, water is essential for our life and well-being. The average person here in the U.S. uses 80-100 gallons in a variety of ways throughout each day…
Tears flowed down the cheeks of Yudi’s face as he listened to the voice of his mother speaking through my cellular phone while he laid on his ICU (Intensive Care Unit) bed…
I left Taiwan three years ago and returned for a two-month refresher course in Chinese Mandarin in March 2015.
"What is it that keeps you going?" is a question that I frequently ask other Columban missionaries who live and minister in very difficult circumstances.
The Thar Parkar Desert is situated in the southeast of Pakistan in Sindh province.
When I was a very young priest just out of language school in Tokyo, my Japanese vocabulary was somewhat limited!
The Rainbow Community, a foundation offering services to peoples with intellectual disabilities in South Korea, founded by Irish-born Columban Fr.
Fr. Thomas Nan was ordained in 2002 and spent eight years in Peru as a Columban missionary. “When I was young I never knew the Columbans.
On September 6, 2015, I celebrated Mass for the last time in prison. For the past 22 years I have been working as a prison chaplain in Western Australian jails.
For many years, the Columbans have been sponsoring the Education Commission of Myitkyina and Banmaw Dioceses, in Kachin State, Myammar, in their provision of boarding…
It's hard to remind yourself to have faith every day. Especially when it comes to having patience or to being confident in God's plan when it is unknown to you.
I got off the minibus at the last stop on the hillside in Huaycan, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru.