Life is new beginnings. Getting up in the morning is the beginning of a new day. Sunday is the beginning of a new week. The 1st is the beginning of a new month. January 1 is the beginning of a new year.
Our lives, too, follow this pattern of new beginnings. From the moment of conception, we are a new ‘image and likeness of God’ in creation. From the moment we are born, we begin engaging with parents and family. From the moment of our baptism, we are “a new creation”, children of the Father, temples of the Holy Spirit, members of the body of Christ. Infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood are all new beginnings. From our first day at school, we begin our formal education. From our first day at work, we begin our career paths in life. From the moment of choosing a partner, we begin a new unit in society. From our last day of work, we begin the new stage of retirement. From our last breath, we begin eternal life in God’s presence.
My Columban life has followed this same pattern of new beginnings. After ordination, I was among the first Columbans assigned to Pakistan, a new beginning for the Society. After twenty years on mission on the highways and byways of Pakistan, I had a new beginning in the pristine halls of the academy, doing post-graduate studies and later teaching courses on Islam and Interreligious Dialogue. The Columban apostolate in Sydney transitioned from the seminary of my former years, to a residential institute for the formation and renewal of missionaries, to four Centres of mission priorities, to the single Columban Centre for Christian-Muslims. I became part of that pioneering work in interfaith relations in Australia and just recently, Pope Leo appointed me as a Consultor to the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims, another new beginning of interfaith work at the international level.
The Columban Society, too, has followed this pattern of new beginnings. We began in 1918 as a society of priests for mission to China. In the 1950s, we began working in other countries in Asia and Latin America. In the 1970s we accepted Columbans from those countries. In the 1980s we developed partnerships with Columban Lay Missionaries. Now, as the number of Columban priests declines and our ages increase, we again face new beginnings. Roles once done by priests are now done by lay professionals. The priests, once the protagonists of mission, are now the supporters of the laity who are taking on their baptismal responsibility for mission.
The history of the church has followed this same pattern of new beginnings, from apostolic times in 1st century Jewish culture, to the patristic era of Greek culture, being established in the Roman empire, revived by Irish missionaries, the settled monastic centres of education and culture, the roving missions of the mendicant orders, the scholasticism of mediaeval times, new beginnings in Asia and the Americas and now a universal church.
For this new era, Pope Francis has pushed the church towards a new “missionary impulse capable of transforming everything”. (Evangelii Gaudium, 27) He has promoted synodality, the equal responsibility of all the baptised for the mission of the church; fraternity, the universal solidarity of all peoples as sisters and brothers; and ecology, caring for our common home. “Whenever we make the effort to return to the source and to recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and words with new meaning for today’s world. Every form of authentic evangelisation is always ‘new’.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 11) I and the other Columbans face our new beginnings in Oceania, as a Society and as Church, with confidence, assured by Christ’s promise to be with us always (Mt 28:20), the presence of the Spirit within us (Jn 14:17), drawn by God whom St Augustine confessed as “O Beauty ever ancient, ever new.”
Rev Dr Patrick McInerney
Regional Director of Oceania
directoroceania@columban.org.au
Listen to "From the Director – Even new beginnings"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - January/February 2026
