O Mary, I earnestly desire to place my person
and my desire for holiness under
your maternal protection and inspiration
so that you may bring me to that conformity
with Christ, Head and Shepherd which is necessary
for entering the glorious gates of Heaven.
April 5, 2019
April 4, 2019
O God, who taught Adam the simple art of tilling the soil,
and who through Jesus Christ, the true vine,
revealed yourself the husbandman of our souls,
deign, we pray, through the merits of blessed Isidore,
to instill into our hearts a horror of sin
and a love of prayer,
so that, working the soil in the sweat of our brow,
April 3, 2019
Yes to you, Jesus
as you offer me your love;
as you letter my life with yourself;
as you encourage my transparency;
as you ask for my honesty;
as you desire my everything;
as you speak through all I do;
as you continue my transformation;
as you challenge my weaknesses;
as you bless my giftedness;
April 2, 2019
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, but in Chile I have grown used to not understanding things. On the other side the bigger ones play soccer, and the ball ricochets in all directions. Miraculously it misses a head by inches.
April 2, 2019
O most holy Saint Francis,
God gives wisdom to the simple
and makes the merest child wise.
Pray that He grants me this reward
He promises to the humble through your intercession.
Help me always to make a good examination of conscience and confession.
Amen.
April 1, 2019
It all started as a simple idea. I remember Columban Fr. Dom Nolan and Lourdes de Guzman both of Mission Awareness asking us if we would accept some donations for a garage sale. They must have heard that lay missionaries and staff used to have an auction during their Christmas party as a way of raising money for some projects. We were reluctant at first.
April 1, 2019
As he lies in his sick bed, Columban Fr. Frank recalls some of his mission outreach:
April 1, 2019
Dear God, please find for me the things I’ve lost.
Find for me a heart of hope and of trust.
Find a love that runs silent and strong
through dark days as well as bright.
Find a ribbon of truth to tie around
each fragment of my life.
Find a joy and a peace
that I can give to every hurting one.
April 1, 2019
I’m at the Namata Ashram running a Hindi-speaking lay leaders course. I’ve just had a meeting with a Fijian seminarian. I was supervising him on his cross-cultural pastoral experience a few months ago. He reminded me of the first week he stayed with his Indo-Fijian family. “I haven’t slept all week,” he told me at our meeting at the end of that first week.
March 31, 2019
Immaculate Heart of Mary
help us to conquer the menace of evil
which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today,
and whose immeasurable effects
already weigh down upon our modern world
and seem to block the paths toward the future.
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.