Ditching the Desk
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.
By Columban Fr. Kurt Zion Pala
March 1, 2017Compassionate Mission
I still have vivid memories of my first awakening in Lima, Peru, on June 24, 1971. The population all around our mission was made up of thousands of Peruvians from the highlands, who had ventured to the coastal cities looking for a better life for their children.
By Sr. Eileen Rabbitte
March 1, 2017
Resilience Admidst Suffering
In the history of human life suffering is what every person will encounter in their lifetime. Not even Jesus, the Son of God, was spared from pain as He too had to suffer to fulfill the plan of the Father for His people.
By Angie Escarsa
March 1, 2017
Breaking the Bonds of Poverty
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.
By Sr. Young Mi Choi
March 1, 2017
Be My Feet and Be My Hands
I started to write these two poems last year during a workshop training on poetry writing in my ministry with asylum seekers.
By Ger Sampson
March 1, 2017
Adult Baptism by Immersion
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.
By Columban Fr. Frank Hoare
March 1, 2017
Why is That Day Called "Good" Friday?
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.
By Columban Fr. Frank Hoare
March 1, 2017
Glimmers of Light
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.
By Columban Fr. Tomas King
March 1, 2017
Thief
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.
By Columban Fr. William Lee
March 1, 2017
Mother of Divine Mercy Village
On the night of December 16, 2011, a sendong or typhoon struck the northern coast of Mindanao, the main southern island of the Philippines.
By Fr. George Hogarty
December 1, 2016
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.