It had been a long time coming. After about thirteen years of active fund-raising, planning, prayer, and hope, the new church of St. Mary’s in Fontana, California, was…
may
In the “Kingdom” at 94, I am a senior citizen. Sometimes I have an experience like this: I see something that triggers images of an event or of a person from long ago. Do…
During a mission in the Narulang community of Barra in Misamis Oriental, Mindanao, I met many people, especially women, who face various problems and hardships. Many…
I live in a neighborhood where migrants and asylum seekers dwell side by side. One section has already been vacated due to redevelopment, and all access routes have been…
Before entering the seminary, I was interested in studying architecture. And I still enjoy looking at buildings. I think that the first step in doing a painting is…
Ciudad Juarez, located on the U.S.-Mexico border across from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the most significant transit points for migrants attempting to enter the…
Father, in this month of May, with blossoms all around, I am reminded of Your unfailing faithfulness. Thank You that when seasons change, You remain the same—steadfast,…
Faith traditions are living streams, handed down from generation to generation, shaping not only what people believe but also how they live, hope, and love.
St. Thérèse, the “Little Flower,” entered the Carmelite convent at fifteen and died at twenty-four, yet her mission continues to inspire millions. Her “Little Way” — doing…
Fr. Clarence Beckley had many stories about his mission experiences. Clarence was from Iowa and had a keen interest in farming and gardening. I knew Clarence for a long…
My encounter with patients during a visitation helped me reflect on my relationship with God as I look at my own journey as a person of faith and a Columban missionary. It…
Pentecost reminds us that the mission of the Church is impossible without the Holy Spirit. When the disciples gathered in fear, the Spirit descended like fire,…
Greetings once again to all who are reading this magazine. As I reflect, what comes to mind is the picture of an ancient couple that I visited in their home in a run-down…
Abi Yendole was the faith in Action volunteer for 2024 with the Columban missionaries in Britain. Her weeks were filled with engagements in the areas of JPIC and IRD.…
Nurturing life-giving relationships between people of different faiths and backgrounds has been identified as one of the Region of Britain’s mission priorities over the…
Marion Carroll grew up in a very different Ireland, where the arrival of the Far East magazine every month was a highlight, providing a glimpse into the world and peoples…
John P. O’Brien was born in Donamon, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, on December 1, 1918. He wrote the following letter to Fr. John Blowick, Director of the Columban Fathers, on…
On May 13, 1947, four Missionary Sisters of St. Columban left Ireland for our first foundation in Burma (now Myanmar), a country that was once known as the rice bowl of…
As Columban missionaries, we try to live out the Gospel message through witnessing the love of God to others, especially in responding to our mission priorities of…
In August 2023, I arrived in El Paso, Texas, after a sixmonth language immersion in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Then I underwent a tedious, seven-month visa application process.…
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you…
The Joti Educational and Cultural Center is the catechetical center of Hyderabad diocese, Pakistan. It is generally known as Joti Center. “Jyoti” is a Sanskrit word…
Abraham figures prominently in Genesis 17:3-9 and John 8:51-59 and Psalm 104.
Columban Mission: Until the end of 2021 you were regional director of the Columbans and well-known to our readers; what have you been doing since?
“Father Frank, you are a good friend of mine. But if you ever ask me to take that girl back again or even to talk to her again, we will be friends no more!”
I’m an American from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and work in Fontana, California. Aren’t the Columbans supposed to be “cross-cultural missionaries?” Yes, we are. After about…
The Republic of Ireland is known as the "land of a thousand welcomes." It has welcomed 19,846 Filipinos who are now permanent residents or Irish citizens, data from the…
Out of 3,558 Catholic churches in the Philippines, more than 800 have the Blessed Virgin Mary as their titular patron. She is a familiar face in almost every Catholic home…
Columban missionaries arrived in Korea in 1933 at the invitation of the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP) Bishop Demange of Daegu Diocese. As many of the MEP priests had died…
For almost three decades, working with young people has been part of my ministry as a parish catechist in my home country of the Philippines and now as a Columban Lay…
It was a sweltering afternoon when I was travelling back home, and it reminded me that God’s love is for anyone, not just a few chosen pious or law-conforming individuals…
I stand at the perimeter, never seen, never heard.
When I am noticed, they call me names:
It was Easter 2012 and I was acting Parish Priest of the Columban Parish of Ba in Fiji. The Ba River had burst its banks once more on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, and…
Before a huge crowd of young people in Portugal Pope Francis said, “Dear young friends, today we too need something of this burst of light, so that it can fill us with…
Back in September 1990 I came home from Korea for a sabbatical after two terms as pastor of two parishes. It was a blessing for me to be able to attend a program at the…
Every first Sunday of the month, the diocese weekly newsletter advertised the Come & See gathering for prospective participants in the Columban Lay Missionaries. Most…
What happened at Antioch, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles 11:19-26, when some of the believers decided to go out and preach to the Greeks has been variously called…
The Sunday Feast of the Pentecost in 2023 fell on May 28. What is the Feast of Pentecost some people might ask? As described in that Sunday Gospel Reading in John 20:19-23…
Columban Father Michael O’Grady lived through the momentous events of May 1980 in the city of Gwangju, events which were to bring democracy to South Korea - but at a cost…
If I could stand before the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary what would I feel or think? What would I do or say? What would you do or say? The connotation of the word…
I was preparing to say the monthly Mass at Votua village in Western Fiji. A family approached and requested me to accept a whale’s tooth at the beginning of Mass as an…
I participated in a Holy Land tour in October 2022 with two parishes from Nebraska. It was a gift from my parents who also went on the tour. I had never been to the Holy…
In 2017, when Sr. Joyce Arevalo, OSA, our pastoral coordinator in Hsinchu Cathedral asked me to be the directress of the Filipino Legion of the Mary, the only answer I…
People’s activity is usually their response to the historical situations in which they find themselves. In 1918, Lady Frances Moloney had in mind “some kind of Sisterhood…
Two years ago, I was invited by the staff of the Al Jia Development Center to help prepare two students to receive the Sacrament of Baptism. Although they also have…
The Catholic Church has, over the last 100 years, undergone a complex shift in its population distribution, and consequently its institutional identity and place in the…
Sisilia Sigatabu, born on August 16, 1942, began life at a settlement at Nadarivatu (the deep interior of Fiji) because her father Valerio was a carpenter there. She was…
During the pandemic, gatherings are not allowed so as to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. It was difficult for everyone, especially being locked down. There was a…
See God everywhere, and we will have a deeper and deeper faith in Him. See Him in the sunrise and sunset, in mountain brooks and the mighty oceans, in storm clouds and…
I have traveled here in the U.S. on several occasions, but I didn’t get the chance to visit Omaha during those travels due to limited time. I am glad to have been granted…
When I joined the Columban Lay Missionaries I was 24 years old. My first mission assignment was to Taiwan, and my ministry was in the field of HIV/AIDS. I journeyed for…
Columban supporters rarely become famous, but they just MIGHT know people who do. I recently had the good fortune to deliver an appeal on behalf of the Columbans at “…
There is an old saying, which some attribute to St. Teresa of Avila, which says that God writes straight with crooked lines. It means that though our human life often…
Throughout the western world, the growth of women’s and children’s rights has changed much of societal and cultural expectations for both groups. However, some areas still…
It was only recently that I first heard of “everyday mysticism.” It is such a perfect way to describe how many live. So often we think of mystics as people who have…
The pandemic has shown how unequal our world is, particularly for those suffering with a mental illness. Though mental illness is considered a long-term illness,…
“I really only understood the Our Father when I became a father myself,” said the Anglican vicar to me. I believe he was just sharing something of his spiritual experience…
When Pakistani people first meet me wearing a shalwar kamiz (long shirt with loose fitting trousers) they think that I am a Pathan, from the north of Pakistan. A Pathan…
The Community of Hope Special Education Center is a religious and charitable organization run by the Columban Sisters. It delivers services to children and young adults…
My mind was significantly shaped by mathematics, logic and informal debate. Thinking things through, stating a position and articulating the case for a position has been…
Coming back to Taiwan as a second term lay missionary, I was very excited to go back to serve in the migrant ministry. I have a new assignment which is to help out in…
A few months previous, his health started getting worse, and he needed to have an operation because there was a tumor on his neck. The doctor, his family and the staff…
In 2007, during one of my weekly visits to the Hsinchu City Immigration Detention Center in Taiwan, I met Ani and Siti (not their real names), two young women from…
French Catholic missionaries first arrived in Fiji in 1844 at Lakeba, Lau. Missions were established in 1851 at Ba and Rewa on the island of Viti Levu, and at Solevu on…
Pope Francis’ pastoral visit to Iraq in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic as a Pilgrim Penitent and as a Pilgrim of Peace put me thinking. Age and diminishing health…
I met Loweza in the village named Mundiala Virka many years ago when I was on mission in Sheikhupura Parish in Punjab Province, Pakistan. She arrived at their simple…
The young people of the Pacific are the ones who have contributed least to planetary destruction, but they will suffer its consequences sooner and more than those who are…
“Go home.” These can be tough words for foreign missionaries and sometimes people can bluntly tell us to go back to where we came from. Such words can be said when what we…
A week ago, I heard on the coconut wireless that two men here in Nacamaki village had noticed a small shark in shallow water off the coast. They quickly took shovels from…
A youth march to highlight the climate crisis was suggested by Atelemo Cakaudrove, a student from the Fiji National University, Nasinu Campus, at a zoom meeting with other…
Jesus had a good following in Galilee but going into Judea towards Jerusalem He was meeting much resentment, opposition and obstruction from the religious authorities. He…
One summer, as a seminarian, I was a chaplain in a Level-1 trauma center at Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. Generally, I attended to the emergency room section.…
A parishioner, whose husband had died two years before, had now lost her only son. He had died of a heart attack while hiking in the mountains. His car was found in a…
For months, my family has been faithful in praying the rosary as requested by Pope Francis after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic.
In the parish of Hodogaya in Yokohama City, Japan, I was reaching a class of ten who were preparing for Baptism.
It was one fine Friday morning on the 21st of August when a young Hindu couple arrived to the parish’s tuberculosis clinic with their tiny baby. When their turn came to…
The Covid pandemic instigated hardship and tragedy to countless numbers throughout the world. However, it also has had the effect of bringing out the BEST in many people.…
2020 marked the 30th anniversary of the Columban Lay Missionary (CLM) program.
The Sema Livelihood Program began as a recycling project for the interested women in the parish during the 2019 Season of Creation observation at St.
This was the scene when the first three intrepid Columbans arrived from Ireland in 1952 to start our mission in Lima. The words are those of one of this gallant band, an…
The pandemic impacted everyone; I saw it as a crisis, because it limited my experience in Peru.
My name is Iowane Naio, a Columban seminarian from Fiji, doing my First Mission Assignment program in Lima, Peru, with the Columbans. I live in a multicultural and…
It is nice to hear someone say to you, “Make sure you stay in touch." You might be leaving to move to another place or to go on mission somewhere overseas.
Columban Father Chris Saenz returned to Omaha after many years as a missionary priest in Chile where he worked among the Mapuche people in the south of Chile and in the…
In March 2020, I was enjoying the sabbatical program “Ministry to Ministers” at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, when the program was suspended due to…
Before I arrived in my mission assignment in Britain, I spent my last few weeks in New Zealand busily saying goodbye to my dear friends, and all the while preparing myself…
I thought I’d share a few of my reflections with you concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. For me it has highlighted the vulnerability of humanity.
Have you ever thought about whether you have a philosophy of life? For most people it would probably sound pretentious to say you have one.
We had planned to go on a picnic on this particular day, to the village where my sister, Paulini Maria, lives with her husband. She was informed of our coming, and her…
One of the many joys of being a Columban lay missionary is the joy of entering into a new culture and sharing my faith and experience with the people, while at the same…
“Why did you choose to join the Columban missionaries and not some other missionary organization?” is a question that I’m often asked.
I grew up on a farm in Co. Clare, Ireland, with four brothers and five sisters. We all did our share on the farm, helping out during the holidays. My brother John, who was…
The city of Wuhan where I live is always changing. We can see new public slogans almost every day. Jobs and government policies change very frequently, and buildings are…
Na yacamu? Na yacaqu, O Jinky mai, Philippines. What is your name?
Since I was appointed to mission in China I have been constantly asked what kind of ministry I have been involved in given that mission activity is banned in China.
In the Gospel we hear how Jesus performed a miracle by saying to the paralyzed man, “Rise up and walk!” Today He continues to work the same miracle, maybe not directly,…
A good friend of mine, a religious Sister, served on the missions in Ethiopia during a terrible famine there.
Talking about gratefulness, many people say that it is all about being appreciative of the good things in our lives. We appreciate the person who shows kindness or…
After I qualified as a veterinarian, I volunteered to work on an agricultural project in South Korea for two years which was started by Columban Fr. P.J. McGlinchey. While…
Opportunity comes once in a lifetime, and not all of us have the chance to be able to share with others the gifts that God has given to each of us: gifts such as life, our…
I responded to my baptismal call to become a lay missionary with the Columbans in 2017.
A few years ago the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year was “post-truth.” Every day people are subjected to many false words, “fake news,” “alternative truths,” and…
On February 20, 2016, the strongest tropical storm to hit the South Pacific region converged on the nation of Fiji. With winds reaching 185 mph, tropical cyclone Winston…
As we Columbans enter into our second century of mission to the world, I would not have imagined myself returning to the United States to do home mission.
In recent years, Chile has received hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants from other parts of Latin America. Fr. Daniel (Dan) Harding tells the story of some of…
I wonder what the first Easter was like. How did the disciples feel about losing their teacher and friend and then realizing the truth of His resurrection? What was the…
In December 2017, a generous Malate parishioner gave the Columbans complimentary tickets to watch Ballet Philippines perform "The Nutcracker" at the Cultural Center of the…
Every family in Kachin State in northeastern Myanmar, formerly Burma, seems to be affected by drug and alcohol addiction.
Protecting children from harm is the primary duty of all adults, yet millions of children are hurt and abused in the world these days.
Today I escaped from my Hindi studies to visit two veteran French missionaries, Frs. Cocereau and Debois at Naililili mission station. I was impressed by the fine old…
The new Columban century brought us a new Columban priest in Fiji. Deacon Martin Koroiciri was ordained a priest at the Suva Cathedral by Archbishop Chong on the vigil of…
My childhood dream was always to be a religious sister. The seed of this dream must have been sown by the Columban missionaries, Sisters and priests, who were my educators…
If you are a regular reader of Columban Mission, you are used to seeing Fr. Tom Mulroy's face on this page.
From the seclusion of his monastery in Kentucky, the Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton, reached out to the men and women of his time with a wise and compassionate heart.
What do we know of the woman we call Mother of God and Mother of the Church?
When I was growing up, I really didn't like reciting the Holy Rosary.
Why visit the prisoners? It seems that it would be a fearful activity to engage in. Columban Sister Joan Sawyer bravely looked that fear in the face and visited prisoners…
In 2012, while I was working in a parish among the aboriginal people called Atayal in the mountains of Taiwan, we organized a pilgrimage to the northern Philippines (where…
What was the first thing you did when you entered the church today? I assume you dipped your finger in the holy water and made the sign of the cross.
I live and work in a mountainous area of Taiwan with aboriginal people.
This year, as Columban missionaries look back on one hundred years of mission, we recall with gratitude our accomplishments in various distant lands.
Church and police authorities and non-government organizations (NGOs) came together recently in the Vatican under the Santa Martha Group headed by Cardinal Vincent…
I have discovered
that a buttercup has five petals,
that several colors enliven a patch of moss
that grass comes in near-infinite variety
In my new parish assignment, I am blessed to have met wonderful ladies who were named after our Blessed Mother. I would like to share my experience with them.
On Saturday August 12, 2017, I officiated at the wedding of my grand-nephew Killian to his bride Jenna.
For more than a year, I spent most of my time visiting the elderly while on mission in South Korea.
Some days when it feels that God is far from us we may begin to harbor a real doubt: Is there a God at all?
Aminiasi and I arrived in Lima on May 20, 2016, for our pastoral experience called FMA (First Mission Assignment). We arrived during winter, above all, at midnight.
Chile is very far from my native land, with different people, language, culture, climate and food. It is a Catholic country which is very abundant in resources.
One of the many gifts and blessings I experience in the United States as I travel during the summer for the church appeals is the universality of the Church and meeting…
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, was the result of the experience of the Second…
The following is an account of a visit by Columban Fr.
The Ocean's (Atlantic) Influence Island life is shaped by the ocean.
I once knew a priest who was the life of the party but prone to take over any party he attended.
I usually spend my summer break walking the sands and enjoying the beach but this time around I decided to walk the hills of Don Victoriano Chiongbian, a town of Misamis…
As a teenager I browsed whatever reading materials were left around my home: Sunday newspapers that my father enjoyed; novels that my older brother and sisters considered…
Fifty years ago I was pastor of an "old Christian" community on Amakusa Island in the far south of Japan. By "old Christian" I mean that a Jesuit missionary, Fr.
Rosi, in the photograph, was a six-year old child detained in the police detention cell of Police Station B on Magsaysay Drive in Olongapo City, the Philippines, some…
As part of the on-going formation and education of Columban lay missionaries, I was privileged to take a six-month course on facilitating retreats for young people.
St. Anthony is a favorite saint of South Indian Catholics. Today I celebrated his feast with the mainly Indo-Fijian congregation at Raviravi, a rural settlement on Fiji’s…
It was a great joy for me to be invited, two years ago, to return to Santiago, Chile, to celebrate 40 years of the Columban Sisters' mission in that beautiful country.
Once upon a time many years ago, a man and his wife lived in the countryside in Japan.
Fr. Kevin O’Neill, Superior General of the Columban Fathers and Fr. Patrick Colgan, member of the General Council, attended a meeting of leaders of Society of Apostolic…
My first experience of engaging in pastoral ministry in Japan was at a residential center, run by the Daughters of Charity of St.
You might call me a slow learner.
My name is Nilton Iman, and I am a priest of the Diocese of Chimbote, a land blessed with the blood of the first martyrs of my country, Peru.
Fiji for me will always be one of the most wonderful places in the world.
Welcome to Peru, Land of the Incas (Land of the Kings). Many would say that you’ve never really been to this resplendent country until you’ve set foot in the majestic and…
My name is Teakare Betero, age 28, and I have been with the Columbans for five years now. At the moment I am studying at the Pacific Regional Seminary.
In 2007 my father talked to me about the possibility of going overseas as a lay missionary.
I came to live in Fujisawa after getting married 58 years ago. I have been fortunate with my health.
We rejoice in the great gift of life. But as we grow older this gift is overshadowed by experiences of illness, pain, and loss.
It has been nine years since I started working as a personal counsellor in a Boy’s Secondary School in Dublin, Ireland, and also nine years since I started working in The…
Shusaku Endo, a Japanese novelist, died in 1996–almost 20 years ago. In Japan he is still featured regularly in television programs, magazine articles and exhibitions.
Editor’s Note: On Monday, November, 23, 2015, Columban Fr. YoungIn Kim celebrated the Feast Day of St. Columban in Cuzco, Peru.
