One of the gifts of being a missionary is the opportunity to share in the lives of people among whom we live and work at a level rarely accessible to an outsider. Columban Fr Donal O’Keeffe writes of this opportunity when on a visit to Peru from Korea he finds similarities between missionary works in both countries.
This August issue of The Far East magazine is an issue dedicated to vocations. It offers stories from around the world of Columban priests, sisters, lay missionaries and seminarians living out the Columban vocation.
Columban Fr Bobby Gilmore works with refugees in Ireland. He writes of a Nigerian woman who lived as a slave in Ireland for 10 years. Columban Fr Joe Brooder shares the amazing story of Miss Tsuneko Hinata, an intrepid catechist and parish worker with the Columbans for 50 years in Japan. Columban Fr Daniel O’Connor tells the story of a cricket tournament his parish organized in Pakistan to help build friendship between peoples of different religions.
Seminarian Erl Dylan Tabaco from the Philippines writes of the important lessons he has learnt during his pastoral experience with the parishioners of a Columban parish in Lima, Peru. Korean Lay Missionary Anna Noh Hye-In works in the Philippines. She tells the story of her work to help families living in poverty earn extra income from a candle-making project.
Columban Sister Mary Dillon writes of Shwe Mya, a woman who suffered from HIV/AIDS. The Sisters took care of her during her last few months of life at their House of Hope in Myanmar. Columban Fr Bernard McDermott tells us about 92 year old Annie McQueen, a long term Columban supporter in Scotland. Annie comes from the outer Hebridean Island of Barra.
Columban Fr Noel Connelly reflects on Pope Francis’ recent Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia and how Francis has extended the demand for a discerning, decentralised and consultative church into the area of the family and the formation of consciences.
Eco-theologian Columban Fr Sean McDonagh asks us to reflect on the amount of meat we consume, not only for health reasons but also for the negative effects an expanding meat industry has on the natural environment of the world.
The stories we publish in this issue illustrate the great diversity of manner in which the Columban vocation is lived out by women and men throughout the world.
Fr Daniel Harding
tfe@columban.org.au
Read more from The Far East, August 2016