Across the red dust roads and rivers wide,
Where hunger once walked barefoot in the sun,
Th ey came with faith not carried as a pride,
October 2026
October 2026
Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and playwright, once wrote, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” (The Decay of Lying: An Observation, 1889). There is a certain…
As a priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, I was given permission by my bishop to do missionary service for five years and was accepted by the Columban Fathers in…
Last year, in 2025, a major controversy emerged surrounding a proposed wind energy project near Mount Banahaw (in the Philippines), affecting communities in Laguna and…
“Happy Buddha’s Birthday!” It is a greeting rarely heard in the Philippines, where nearly 80% of the country’s 110 million people are Catholic. Yet on the second Sunday of…
There have been many significant landmarks in Columban Fr. Ray Collier’s sixty years of priesthood, but surely none can rival the moment in 2010 when, after collapsing in…
I wrote a song once, in a small wooden room on a humid night in the Fiji Islands. I did it in English and Spanish.
One of the great privileges of missionary life is the opportunity to encounter cultures profoundly different from one’s own. In interior Sindh (Pakistan), one immediately…
Earth Day is a tradition that began in 1970 when a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin organized a national demonstration to raise awareness about environmental issues. By the end…
The ethics of missionary work sit at a delicate intersection of faith, culture, power, and human dignity. At its best, missionary activity emerges from a sincere desire to…
As I was on the last journey of my initial formation in the seminary, I was privileged to share a couple moments with my fellow brother in mission, Fr. Amini Ravuwai, who…
