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Courage to live a Lent

By Fr Warren Kinne

A Lenten reflection from an Australian Columban who spent many years in Mindanao. Ash Wednesday falls early this year, on 13 February. Easter Sunday falls on 31 March. The article originally appeared in The Far East, the Columban magazine in Australia and New Zealand, in March 2012.

Fr Warren Kinne with Xiao Ai

Before the great Feast of Easter when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Church goes through a period of preparation by prayer and fasting. We call this Lent. In the northern hemisphere, where Christianity started, it was celebrated in spring and slowly, throughout that time, the dead of winter burst forth into the luxuriance of new growth, signifying life and the resurrection.

 

 

 

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An Ordeal - then a Miracle

By Beth Sabado

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8).

Marveling at the beauty of God's creation with my cousin Marley.

I was granted a single entry visa to Canada, all we needed to fulfill the plan to drive Montreal and Quebec City. This was a post-birthday present from my sister Gondee and her family, an unexpected yet highly appreciated opportunity to be with my cousin Marley Dacanay who used to be a Columban Lay Missionary in Taiwan. Marley is now a Lay Associate of the Foreign Missions Society, formerly Prêtres Missions des Étrangères (PME), and was preparing to leave for Brazil the Tuesday afternoon we arrived. We were amazed at how our visit came just in time to give her our family support. We felt nothing but wonder at the very favorable weather, the breathtaking scenery, as it was the peak of the autumn foliage. We also became the beneficiary of a free parking pass for a day to the most coveted parking area in Old Quebec City from a stranger. Our hotel accommodation was also beyond our expectation; everything was working out for us!

 

 

 

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When I pray the Our Father

By Maira San Juan

Maira San Juan is from Taytay, Rizal, near Manila, and worked as a Columban Lay Missionary in Korea from 2007 till the end of 2012.

It’s been five years since I arrived in Korea as a Columban Lay Missionary from the Philippines. Within my nine months of language study I have been immersed in ministry with a community of persons with AIDS. On my first day there I felt a mixture of excitement and fear: excitement because it was my first time meeting people living with HIV and I was curious to know how they were coping after learning that they were HIV-positive; fear because at the back of my mind I was thinking I might get the HIV virus through them since we ate at the same table, used the same toilet, talked to each other and so on. But through the years I have been with them, my thinking and feelings have changed, not only about them but also about life, about people, about me and about God. Being a missionary involved in AIDS ministry has helped me to grow not only as a person but also as a woman called by God to be a part of his mission. Throughout my journey, the prayer that has helped me and acquired a new personal meaning is the Lord’s Prayer.

 

 

 

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VICTORIA MALACAPAY ANDAS: A Catechist to the End

By Jayson B. Arcamo

The author, who is based in Bacolod City, works full-time with the Columban Mission Office.

Victoria Malacapay Andas was born on 30 September 1929 in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental, and died on 11 August 2012. She was eighth among the ten children of Justina Rojas Malacapay and Remegio Libo-on Andas who were both public school teachers during the time of Maestro Emong (Geronimo Abada Sr.), the first district supervisor of Kabankalan.

Victoria, while still in high school, started helping her sister Milagros to teach catechism in the Flores de Mayo after World War II. Padre Juan Garcia was the parish priest at that time. She wanted to become a religious sister and joined the Sisters of Charity. After a year as a novice she had to leave for health reasons.

 

 

 

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A ‘Pilgrimage of Life’

A reaction paper by Mitch Owen Gil G. Ledesma

The author is studying Medical Technology at Colegio San Agustin, Bacolod City (CSA-B).

This year we celebrate the Year of Faith. Because of this we had a ‘Pilgrimage of Life’ on Saturday 1 December 2012. A pilgrimage is a journey of grace, it a spiritual journey of faith towards God. Pope Benedict XVI began his apostolic letter Porta Fidei, announcing the Year of Faith, with these words: The ‘door of faith’ (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church . . . To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime’. The ‘Pilgrimage of Life’ made me ask how strong my faith in God is and what I must do in order to serve Him.

During the pilgrimage we visited many churches here in Negros Occidental and I learned a lot about their history. One example is San Isidro Labrador Church in Binalbagan. I learned that that was where the Augustinian missionaries first planted the seed of Christianity and that San Isidro is the Patron of Laborers, a true model of hard work.

 

‘Pilgrimage of Life in the Diocese of Kabankalan’

A reaction paper by Maria Gezell T. Taborada

The author is studying Medical Technology at Colegio San Agustin, Bacolod City (CSA-B).

A pilgrimage is a journey to the door of faith. It is a search of moral and spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person’s belief and faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into one’s own beliefs.

When I heard about our department’s ‘Pilgrimage of Life’ I was bothered much. Should I join? What popped into my mind was that if I didn’t I’d attend my NSTP (National Service Training Program) class and perhaps regret not joining. But my apprehension was wrong. The pilgrimage was fun and exciting, the day extremely wonderful and worth it.

 

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May God, the source of hope, fill you with joy and peace in the faith, so that your hope may increase by the power of the Holy Spirit (Christian Community Bible).

~ Romans 15:13 ~

 

Now, a new creature, I in Christ am born,
The old man stripped away; -- I am new-made;
And mounting in me, like the sun at morn,
Love breaks my heart, even as a broken blade:
Christ, First and Only Fair, from me hath shorn
My will, my wits, and all that in me stayed,
I in His arms am laid,
I cry and call –
‘O Thou my All,
O let me die of Love!’

~ Blessed Jacopone of Todi, Franciscan poet (1230 – 1306) ~