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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
The Subanens are an indigenous people whose ancestral habitat is the highlands of northwest Mindanao in the Philippines.
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.
Chased from his parish by a volcano! That is the story of Fr. Laurence Lulkon. Little did I think when I taught Laurence as a seminarian in Fiji that I was preparing him to deal with volcanoes.
December, January and February are the wedding months. All the Parkari parishes here are busy attending weddings and being involved in some of the preparations. The wider Sindhi society is much the same. There are weddings on the move constantly.
Every morning on my way to the office I often see a woman with a dog in a small playground outside the Columban office gate in Hong Kong. I often see both of them sitting on a bench while she would be talking on her phone.
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.