After a happy six year break back in Australia as editor of The Far East magazine and working in Columban promotion in Adelaide, I have returned to Santiago, Chile, where I had previously worked for many years. While naturally missing friends and family back in Australia, it is good to be back as a Columban missionary in Chile.
November 19, 2018
My dear Redeemer,
it is not from custom or human respect
that I come to receive You;
but it is solely to love and be united with You,
to be delivered from my miseries,
to clothe myself with Your virtues,
to strengthen myself against my enemies;
it is to ask from You the exaltation of the Church,
Your beloved spouse,
the conversion of sinners,
November 18, 2018
O dear Jesus,
I humbly implore You to grant Your special graces to our family.
May our home be the shrine of peace, purity, love, labor and faith.
I beg You, dear Jesus, to protect and bless all of us,
absent and present, living and dead.
November 17, 2018
My Lord God,
even now I accept at Your hands,
cheerfully and willingly,
with all its anxieties,
pains and sufferings,
whatever kind of death
it shall please You to be mine.
Amen.
November 16, 2018
Jesus, Son of God and our Savior,
have mercy on all who wound your Sacred Heart by sin,
unfaithfulness and neglect.
O loving Heart of Jesus,
broken by our ingratitude,
pierced by our sins, yet loving us still,
accept in reparation the suffering
I now make to you of all that I am and all that I have.
Draw me ever nearer to your Sacred Heart:
November 16, 2018
There were 152 Columbans in 71 parishes. There were 51 Columbans in the south, in Kwangju, and the rest were in Chuncheon and Wonju north of Seoul. There were just two priests in pastoral work in Seoul, in the parish of Donam near the present Columban Center House.
November 15, 2018
Thank You, Lord, for bringing us together.
May we learn to appreciate one another more and more.
May we cherish the gift of each other.
May we share our feelings openly and honestly.
May we listen not only with our ears and minds
but also with our hearts.
May we grow in compassion for one another.
May we admit our failings and limitations.
November 14, 2018
In mid-September 2017, a family of three, Aik Ket aged 30 years old, his wife San Bu, also 30 years old, and their only child Chit Oo Mya, just three years old arrived at our shelter at the Hope Center. Before Aik Ket married his wife four years previously, he had worked in the jade and gold mines at Hpakhan, Kachin State.
November 14, 2018
Jesus, You have given Yourself to me,
now let me give myself to You;
I give You my body,
that it may be chaste and pure.
I give You my soul,
that it may always love You.
I give You every thought, word,
and deed of my life,
and I offer all
For Your honor and glory.
November 13, 2018
I consecrate my mind to you,
that you may enlighten me in all things,
with the light of faith;
my heart,
that you may keep it full of love for Jesus and Mary;
my will, that you may forever
keep it submissive to that of God;
and my body,
that you may make it forever
the temple of the Holy Ghost.
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.