Below are stories from past issues of Columban Mission magazine. The Columban Fathers publish Columban Mission magazine eight times a year. Subscriptions are available for just $15 per year. Sign up to receive our next issue. Read more about Columban Mission magazine.
On the night of December 16, 2011, a sendong or typhoon struck the northern coast of Mindanao, the main southern island of the Philippines.
The snow outside is tapering off. There is a Christmas concert on public television. Surely it is time for me to reflect as Christmas approaches.
Aside from my parish involvement, one of the most memorable experiences that I had in Peru was my ministry in Manuel Duato, a special institution which provides basic education for persons with special needs. The school was founded by Fr. Agustin Garvey and Sr.
There is something about life on an island. The past number of years I’ve been blessed to spend three weeks on an island called Negros Oriental. Every year after the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, I pack up my bag and my books and head out.
Columban Fr. Donald Kill writes about the celebration of the Christmas season at the “Balay San Columbano” home in the Philippines. This home was founded by Fr. Donald to give the children of alcoholics and drug addicts better opportunities in life.
The tall elderly man leaning slightly on his cane, stands out among the people of the Andes. Most Andean folks reach only to his shoulders, and his white and ruddy skin, burned by the cold, contrasts with the coppery skin of the local residents.
There are times when God is near to us and helps us through the day
No matter what the obstacles, the worries, the cares on top of us
We bare the marks of his great Cross
Triumphantly all the way.
Like the majority of Columban missionaries, it is usual for me to spend the Christmas season far from my family.
I am not a writer, but I’m writing this reflection for myself and for others hopefully to be enlightened more about the Trinity’s love and God’s desire for each one of us to become a messenger of His love and the Holy Spirit, who is the Giver of Life.
On a September morning in 2014, I arrived in Iquique in northern Chile on a flight from Santiago. I was coming to visit the Korean Associates who work with the Columbans in a parish in the new city of Alto Hospicio which has formed in the hills above Iquique.
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.