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.
"What do you know about Ireland?" I asked the third grade class that was excited to have just learnt that I was from there. "St. Patrick was from there" responded a girl in the front row. "So did that mean that he was Irish?" I inquired, my tone betraying an element of doubt.
It was about three in the afternoon on a Tuesday. I was seated at my desk in the parish office chatting with a young couple who had come to ask for baptism for their newborn baby.
Now that I'm home, I realized I do not have a room to call my own. My room is the bag I carry on my back every time I move from one mission to another. Right after high school I left home to pursue a childhood dream– to become a priest.
I still have vivid memories of my first awakening in Lima, Peru, on June 24, 1971. The population all around our mission was made up of thousands of Peruvians from the highlands, who had ventured to the coastal cities looking for a better life for their children.
In the history of human life suffering is what every person will encounter in their lifetime. Not even Jesus, the Son of God, was spared from pain as He too had to suffer to fulfill the plan of the Father for His people.
My name is Sr. Young Mi Choi, and I live and work in the parish of Cristo Liberador, (Christ the Liberator), one of twelve parishes which comprise the district of San Juan de Lurigancho in the eastern part of Lima, Peru, in the foothills of the Andes.
It's been nearly six years since I arrived in Birmingham, England, as a Columban lay missionary. When I first came to this country, I honestly thought that I was going to give more and that people would learn more from me. The reality is that I receive and learn more from them.
We were told that we would be spending about five days in Agoo (the Philippines). We were all excited except that we had to walk for five days from Malolos, Bulacan, to Agoo, La Union, without money for food or renting a room.
Cricket is played everywhere in Pakistan. On streets, in parks and wherever there is an area big enough for the game. People of all classes and faiths play it.
I can still vividly remember the day when we first opened Ladies' Day in Christ Church, Farm Road. Most of us are volunteers, and there is only one Muslim lady who came in. We were hopeful that more women would come and hear about the new initiative we have in the neighborhood.
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.