By Peter Dong

Peter Dong with Fr. Felisiano Fatu, Rector of the Columban Formation Program, Philippines

The author is a Columban seminarian.

I took the Clinical Pastoral Education program at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. There were nine of us. I thought CPE was about helping the sick deal with sufferings and death. However, along the way, I gradually discovered that it was not only about helping the sick, but also helping my own self. While doing my patient visitation rounds, I recognized my own issues and weaknesses. I, too, need to grow and be healed. Many times, it was not I who comforted the patients, but instead, they were the ones who comforted me, with the way they went through the process of healing. This gave me hope. The group processing helped me face my own shortcomings and affirm the goodness in myself.

Will I Wait for the End of Time?

By Larry G. Duerme

The author is a Columban seminarian from Salawagan, Quezon, Bukidnon doing his spiritual formation year in Cubao, Quezon City. Here he shares to us the poem he wrote as product of his reflection attending the Laudato Si’ – Awakening The Dreamer Workshop.

Will I wait for the end of time?
When the last heave of breath is gone?
When all that I see now are dead?
When the beautiful created things of this life are already shattered?

Knowing God in Life’s Circumstances

By Hazel Angwani

Hazel is from Bontoc, Mountain Province and is currently undergoing the Columban lay missionary Orientation program with Ma. Fe Corazon Arienza.

I have always believed that life is full of choices, and that the circumstances that surround us in life are not for us to suffer in agony but to learn about ourselves and God. I had a very beautiful and enjoyable childhood, and I can still vividly remember some of it. But there comes a point in life when in a blink of an eye, we are forced to grow up, consciously or unconsciously, not entirely forgetting how to be childlike but we begin again to learn how to adapt to life’s circumstances.

From the Editor

How do we live for Christ?

By Arlenne Villahermosa

At this present age and time, with the advancement in technology and social media, we ask ourselves, “How do we live for Christ?”

When the founders of the Missionary Society of St. Columban said YES to the call, they did not know where it would lead them yet, with faith, trust and love in their hearts, they sailed on, going beyond their fears and limits, responding to the needs of the people, and constantly being open to be lead to something new, some place new. They lived for Christ. So did the Columban Missionaries who have gone before us and many others who simply lived the Word in the silence of their hearts . . .

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