Sharing My Life
When people ask me about my job, I still hesitate with my answer. I find that I don’t fit in with a conventional category of any job listing. Even within our own Catholic tradition, many clergy find it strange when I answer that I am a lay missionary, along with my family.
The Joy of Sharing
One day, words on the poster at a local charity shop caught my attention.
Life on the Streets of Hong Kong
Simon unfurls his tattered sleeping bag under the shelter of a park pavilion in one of the biggest parks in Hong Kong, a city where sky-high property prices and a yawning wealth gap have helped fuel a surge in homelessness.
Mission in the Mountains of Taiwan
It was a Sunday morning. I was turning the pages of my Mandarin Chinese prayer book looking for suitable prayers for the dead. I was in one of the eight villages of our parish in the Dabaijian mountains in Taiwan.
Mission in a Muslim Country
Columban Fr. Daniel O’Connor is part of a small group of eight in the Hyderabad Diocese, Pakistan, where they manage a health and tuberculosis clinic in the Badin Parish Church Compound in the interior area of Sindh.
The Journey of the Magi
The Christmas/Epiphany cycle offers us generous glimpses into the mystery of the birth and manifestation of Jesus. The story of the Magi comes at the end of these glimpses and rich reflections of the Christmas season.
Christmas Present for a Missionary
I would like to share with you one of the most delightful Christmas presents that I have ever received. In the mission parish of Katase in Yokohama Diocese where I was stationed we had a special catechumenate class for couples where the wife was baptized, but the husband was not.
Bringing God's Kingdom to Birth
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” This insight comes from the pen of Helen Keller who, though blind herself, inspired countless others gifted with sight to discover its truth in their own lives.
Roses in December
The story begins in the early morning hours of December 9, 1531, when a 57-year-old Indian peasant named Juan Diego was walking along the path of Tepeyac Hill on the outskirts of Mexico City on his way to Mass.
Born to Change the World
Christmas is a festival of children. We see images of a child born in a stable surrounded by animals with Mary and Joseph by the crib.
Christmas Cards Tell the Story
The Subanens are an indigenous people whose ancestral habitat is the highlands of northwest Mindanao in the Philippines.
And on Earth Peace ...
Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia is a nation of scintillating beauty, copious resources and a wonderfully diverse population. There are eight major tribes and 135 subtribes. This a colorful nation which was once the envy of Southeast Asia.
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.