By Fr Niall O’Brien

More than thirty years ago when I arrived first in the Philippines and was learning the language in Kabankalan I was called out one night on a sick call. A young man had been stabbed. I can’t remember now what I did. I suppose I anointed him. But I do remember that as soon as it was clear that he was dead, his brother cried out to the heavens with a terrifying voice swearing that he would have revenge. I was profoundly shocked. Maybe I wouldn’t have been if I had known a little more about my own ancient Celtic heritage. Now I know that in the pre-Christian Irish tradition and even many years after St. Patrick Christianized Ireland, revenge was considered almost a sacred obligation.

Photo: Benjo Rulona

By Kris Mina

Malate Church and parish community is in the heart of Manila. It is aware of the growing catastrophe being caused by the destruction of the environment all over the Philippines and all over the world. Part of its response is to set up the farming community called Center for Ecozoic Living and Learning (CELL), an hour’s drive from Manila. There in Cavite, Kris and Roberto Mina have done something wonderful to our eyes – they have created a beautiful world which the parishioners and diverse visitors are invited to experience and learn from. Below, Kris tells us about this extraordinary experiment in promoting God’s Kingdom in a novel and vital way.

We are into organic farming, but we do more than just farming. Our family lives and works in an ecological spirituality center, my husband Roberto and I being staff members. We are on land not our own, with an area of 1.2 hectares, a quarter of which is devoted to receiving visitors who stay for a day or overnight. They usually ask at the beginning of their stay, “Where is the farm?” They look for vast rice fields and rows of vegetables and cash crops, and we have nothing much of that. The kind of farming we do is PERMACULTURE, which encourages food to be grown and forest, animals and flowers.

By Fr Enrico Eusebio SJ

Nigeria is one of the largest and richest countries in Africa yet it has more problems than most. Its famous oil fields are in chaos and it has just emerged from a series of military dictatorships which were very destructive and corrosive. At present it is faced with an entirely new danger: many Muslim areas wish to introduce Sharia Law, the law based on the Koran, into daily life. Naturally the Christians are against this; for example a woman (not a man!) caught in adultery will be stoned to death. Being on mission in Nigeria today is no easy task though Fr Eusebio, in his story below, rightly looks on the bright side of life, as indeed a Christian should.

When I was a novice in 1986, the superior of the Jesuits in Thailand came to Sacred Heart Novitiate in Novaliches, Quezon City. During one of our recreation nights he shared with us about missionary work in Thailand. He invited us and encouraged us to consider the foreign missions in the future. That night I didn’t think about foreign missions at all.

By Elena Ang

Since my childhood days I’d always dreamed of acquiring a college degree when I grew up and being a successful professional one day. By a twist of fate, I failed to realize it due to financial constraints. Mother left us for her final resting place when I was barely six years old. At the age of thirteen, I took the yoke of caring for my sick father and three siblings. Though financially drained, I insisted on finishing high school without my father’s approval. Painfully, I recall those times I was driven out of the classroom for failure to settle school financial obligations. I reported to class on an on-and-off basis. I used to leave the classroom with a heavy heart, tears rolling down my cheeks.

Playing the triple role of father, mother and big sister to three small boys wasn’t an easy game. Herding them to bed at night like motherless lambs, not knowing where to get their next meal the following day, shattered me into pieces deep inside. “If I could only provide them with better things in life,” I always told myself.

A book review by Fr John Schumacher SJ

Jesuit Fr Schumacher is a well-known historian of Philippine Church affairs. He has taken time out to do a review of the book: The Columbans in the Philippines (Vol. 1). It is a book which shows the extraordinary effect a small group of highly motivated missionaries can have, a book which gives encouragement to young Filipino missionaries setting out on the same task now to another countries.

CICM Missionaries in Manila prepared this service for peace in East Timor and in the southern Philippines. We have slightly adapted it. It is particularly suitable for Lent as we pray for the healing of our broken world and our broken country.  

All: (Please stand) Bless your people, Lord, who have walked too long in this night of pain. For the child has no more tears to cry, the old people no song of joy to sing, and the blood of your youth drains away in the gutters. The cry from the Cross is heard throughout the land. The pain in His nailed hands is carried by the worker. Terrible thirst is in the throat of the farmer. Too many women mourn the loss of their sons. And all the earth is turned into another Calvary. With your spirit, Father, we cry for peace. With your Spirit we struggle to be free. Bless us with the wisdom of our ancestors and the courage of our martyrs, that the resurrection of Jesus may be ours to claim and all people embrace the earth in the harmony of peace springing from justice. Amen.

Based on an article by Declan Fahy The Irish Times

Sierra Leone is a part of the world where children have suffered the worst forms of child exploitation, now a global issue. It had an estimated 6,000 child combatants during the war. A further 5,000 were used as forced labor in rebel camps. The war was fought from 1991 between government forces and armed groups, including the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC)