Lord you are kind and merciful.
You forgive us.
You are always available to welcome us back
after we have failed.
It is not easy sometimes to offer kindness or mercy
or to forgive others when we have been offended.
It is particularly difficult when we are under stress
as so many are now with the coronavirus.
May 20, 2020
May 19, 2020
Dear Lord Jesus,
When I look at other people’s houses from the outside,
I imagine they are all enjoying days of coziness and companionship.
Forgive me, Lord, but I envy those people who have a tranquil home.
As day after day, I ‘shelter in place’ in my house,
I find that this is not a refuge from tension, anger, shouting, and worse…
May 18, 2020
From May 11-13, 2020, a small group of Columban companions represented by myself, Josefa Vasakula (National Coordinator) and Columban lay missionary Jennifer (Jake) Lunor led a workshop, in Fijian, on the meaning of the Liturgy, especially the Eucharist, given that we are in a time when the vast majority of Catholics are unable to access to Mass, except online. The ideas for the seminar were prepared by a liturgist Sr. Carmel Pilcher, who had given input to our spiritual year seminarians a few weeks previously.
May 18, 2020
I grew up on a farm in Co. Clare, Ireland, with four brothers and five sisters. We all did our share on the farm, helping out during the holidays. My brother John, who was five years older than me, joined the Columbans after school. When a Columban priest came to my school to give a talk on the Maynooth Mission to China, I understood John’s decision. I too decided to join. At the time I had never been outside Co. Clare. I was ordained in 1952 and set off for the Philippines on June 24, 1953, where I was assigned to the mountains of Candoni, one of the towns in the south of Negros Island. The only available transport at the time was by horseback.
May 18, 2020
Holy Immaculate Mary,
help all who are in trouble.
Give courage to the faint-hearted,
console the sad,
heal the infirm,
pray for the people,
intercede for the clergy,
have a special care for nuns;
may all feel,
all enjoy your kind and powerful assistance,
all who now and always render and will render,
May 17, 2020
Lord in our present suffering from the coronavirus we call to you.
You have delivered us from our fears in the past.
Please hear us in this special time of anxiety.
But we are confident that even in this time you are watching over us.
Please give your consolation to all of us
but especially those suffering from the present uncertainty.
May 16, 2020
O most blessed Virgin,
obtain for me of your dear Son,
our Lord and our God, a lively faith,
firm hope, perfect charity, true contrition of heart,
unfeigned tears of compunction, sincere confession,
fitting satisfaction, abstinence from sin,
love of God and my neighbor, contempt of the world,
patience to suffer affronts and disgrace,
May 15, 2020
Dear Mother Mary, with this virus going around
I ask you to pray to Jesus for my grandchildren.
How I would love to make the world safe for them.
But deep down I know that is impossible and yet I wish I could.
Nonetheless, I pray that I may be able to pass on to them
the gift of faith and a heart with the impulse to pray.
May 15, 2020
The city of Wuhan where I live is always changing. We can see new public slogans almost every day. Jobs and government policies change very frequently, and buildings are been constantly knocked down and replaced by new ones. Even the weather in Wuhan is always changing fast. Unpredictable events take place at breakneck speed.
May 14, 2020
Oh Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I give you my heart.
I want to love you.
I want to love Jesus,
the Father,
the Holy Spirit,
and this world through your holy heart.
My dear mother,
I place myself in your heart,
I know you will care for me in all my needs.
I give myself to you,
Mary, my mother.
I love you so much!
Amen
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.