People Power Hits Indonesia
By Fr. Ernesto Amigleo, cicm
Reforms, we need political and economic reforms! President Suharto and cronies, resign!
Lower the prices of commodities and gasoline! Stop corruption, collusion and nepotism!
May-June 1999
God’s Movie Company
By Ben Yalung
He is driving the helicopter through the clear sky when suddenly, an enemy chopper comes out from nowhere. Burly men in the chopper aim machine guns at him. They shoot and hit the engine of his helicopter. They chopper is exploding any minute now! Quickly, he checks the parachute strapped on his back. Then in a second, he jumps out of the chopper. The men at the other chopper. The men continue to fire at him, but he escapes their bullets and he lands safety on the ground.
French Monk Forgave Future Algerian Killer In Letter To God
The family of Christian de Cherge, one of the seven French Trappist monks killed by Algerian terrorist in 1996, released his last testament, a Dieu (To God), “to be opened in the event of my death.” Some extracts taken from the translation by the monks at mount Bernard Abbey, Coalville, Leicester are given below.
If it should happen one day- and it could be today- that I become a victim of terrorism... I would like my community, my church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and this country.
I ask them to be able to associate such a death with many other deaths which were just as violent but forgotten through indifference and anonymity. My life has no more value than any other. Nor any less value.
Know Jesus…..Through The Gospels
Introduction
The visitation is the story of Luke’s gospel which tells of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth. Mary was pregnant with Baby Jesus and Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist. The story tells of how John even from his mother’s womb recognized Jesus still in Mary’s womb. As a result Elizabeth received the Holy Spirit.
The Visitation
Prayer For Busy People
By Bo Sanchez
How to pray when you’re not a priest or nun but a regular office employee who rides the Tamara FX to work for two hours, raises three kids who need help in their homework and does the family’s laundry during weekends.
Do What Works
There is no one way of praying. Continue to search for the way of prayer that enriches you, that blesses you, that allows God to speak to you more or work in your life more. You’ll know. Because I’m a writer, I pray by writing in my journal. And that blesses me immensely. I get up from my prayer time refreshed, restored, and energized! If you were to tell me that this isn’t the proper way of praying and that I should kneel down and be quite for thirty minutes, I’d tell you to ask Him why do I feel more blessed with my improper way of praying and feel totally bored and tired with so-called ‘proper’ way. Does He like to torture me and make my time with Him totally unenjoyable?
The Giant Of Africa
By Fr. Enrico C. Eusebio Jr., sj
June 20, Biyernes nang gabi iyon, umuulan at walang kuryente, noong dumating ako dito sa Nigeria, sa Lagos, sa parokya kung saan ako nadestino, Christ the King Catholic Church. Mababaw ang tulog ko noong gabing iyon, puyat kinabukasan, pero napasabak na agad ako sa trabaho. Tinulungan ko ang sangol. Kinahapunan, 4:00 hanggang 6: 30 ng gabi, nagpakumpisal kami ng tuloy-tuloy at walang putol. Kinalingguhan, namuno ako sa kaunaunahan kong Misa dito sa Africa. Grabe at nakaka-overwhelm na karanasan iyon! Bagong karansan para sa akin ang makaharap ang 2 libong taong ibang-iba sa hitsura at kulay ko.
The Inside Story
Continuing the Diary of Msgr. Desmond Hartford
Friday, 31 October
Slept quite poorly. Bananas, sky flakes, and coffee for breakfast. Then to the river to bathe and wash our clothes. The local sultan was waiting for me at the hut when I returned. He had a letter from Aleem Elias Macarandas. Elias is a very good friend of ours in the dialogue movement. He assured me in his letter that the MILF are now in charge of my security that I’m in safe hands and it is only a matter of time until I am released. More rain so most of the time is spent under the mosquito net. One of my guards is interested in English. We spend some of the afternoon translating phrases from Maranao and Visayan into English. It is frustrating to think that many people are worried because of me. This is the part of the powerless. Being held at gunpoint leaves one very few options. I feel that at times I should be more resistant. A trust has been built with my guards. Today just one guard assured me that they had nothing to do with my kidnapping.
I Hear The Karens Calling
By Gee-Gee O. Torres
Fr. Leo Ochoa, SDB is from Isabela, Negros Occidental. He was sent to Thailand while he was still a cleric and for the past 25 years he has been devoting himself to missionary work there. He kindly agreed to be Misyon’s guide in Thailand. He helped Editorial Assistant, Gee-Gee Torres, contact the different Filipino missionary groups. He drove her to almost all the places she went to. Here Gee-Gee tells her story about Fr. Leo.
Miss Me But Let Me Go
Auring and the late Pilar Tilos
By Auring Luceño
“Don’t look too far in the future, Auring. Live life each day for you will never know what will happen tomorrow.” These were the last words I heard from Pilar that evening a few hours before she died. Auring Luceño tells the story of Pilar Tilos from Negros, her co-lay missionary in Pakistan
My Last Dance With You
By Sr. Mercedes Yañez, rvm
I live in an old people’s house in Italy. The ‘olds’ love to dance, to chat, to take a walk as they wait for their last moment to part from this world. Our main activity here in Casa di Riposo with the old people is journeying with them, listening to all their tales of past successes and failures, health problems and aspirations.
One Last Party
So, in between my work in the office as the directress of Casa di Riposo, I find the time to be present to them. Every month we have a day to celebrate their birthdays. It’s a day they always look forward to – a toast of champagne, a gift, a cake to sliced and shared, and most especially a special dance for each celebrant! So on this occasion I try my lost tango, waltz, cha-cha, lambada. Sometimes one dies on the very same night after the birthday party, and then we are left with the memory of that last dance.
Revolution In Zaire (Or The Same Again?)
By Peng Reyes, cicm
Sometime ago we all watched Laurent Kabila as he advanced victoriously through Zaire and overthrew the dictator Mobutu and changed the country’s name to Congo. Fr. Peng Reyes is there now and tells us some of the inside story.
I was already at home in med-September 1996 when the Battle of the Great Lakes in Central Africa exploded. It was called the Battle of the Great Lakes because it involved at least five countries located near the great lakes of Tangayika and Victoria.
Woman For All Seasons
Next year is the 20th anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day. One of the great ‘saints’ of the century. Dorothy lived voluntarily in the slums of New York and from there her light has shone out throughout the world.
Dorothy Day of New York (1897-1980)
Dorothy Day helped found the Catholic Worker movement. She spent the last 48 years of her life as a Christian anarchist on the margins of society. In a church organized like a pyramid, her Catholic worker houses were small, informal and decentralized. She traveled alternative paths where other members of the church often found it difficult to go. “The only way to live in any true security”, she would point out, “is to live so close to the bottom that when you fall you do not have far to drop, you do not have much to lose. “
The “Runaway’ Train
By Fr. Wens Padilla, cicm
Father Wens Padilla, cicm, a native of Tubao, La Union, was ordained in 1976. The next year he was sent to the mission in Taiwan, and eventually he became the Provincial Superior of the CICM Chinese Province. Then he and two other confreres were appointed the first Catholic missionaries to go to Outer Mongolia. Today there are six CICM men in Ulan is the Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Father Wens is the Superior there. He tells us of the street children apostolate which the CICM have set up in Ulan Bator.
Dorjoo and his family members were in tears as they embraced each other after not having seen one another for half a year. He was brought to his home in Darkhan, 150 miles away from Ulan Bator City, by two CICM Zairian Brothers and friends of the Catholic Church Mission. But that’s the end of the story.