Out of the Rubble Filipinos, devastated by a typhoon, found meaning in their broken religious images.

Transcription

1 MAGAZINE OF THE COLUMBAN MISSIONARIES Out of the Rubble Filipinos, devastated by a typhoon, found meaning in their broken religious images. A Song of Love Anthony and his Buddhist wife Ratana renew their marriage vows in the Church. Taiwan s desperate migrant mothers The plight of foreign brides in Taiwan.

2 JANUARY/FEBRUARY CONTENTS PANORAMA Where do you come from? Fr Pat McInerney reflects that we must emphasise first our common humanity rather than our differences. 06. A Life in Korea Ellen Teague interviews Fr Donal O Keefe about his almost forty years on mission in Korea. 08 A Pilgrimage Towards Dialogue Fr Frank Hoare led young Fijians on a pilgrimage of dialogue with non-christians Out of the Rubble Denis Murphy explains how Filipinos, devastated by a typhoon, found meaning in their broken religious images. 12. Columban, Pilgrim for Christ Our series on Columban looks at the significance of pilgrimage in the saint s time and in our own day. 14. A Song of Love Anthony and his Buddhist wife, Ratana renew their vows in the Church Taiwan s deperate migrant mothers Jens Kastner writes of the plight of foreign brides in Taiwan. 18. A Genius of Micro-finance Fr Seán Connaughton writes about Nobel Prizewinner Muhammad Yunus. 18. Obituaries 19. Reflections 20. Saints for our Times 21. Stories from the Bible 22. Childrens Section Panorama A Turning Point for Ecumenism? In the efforts to achieve full unity with Orthodox Christians, the Catholic Church does not intend to make any demands, other than the profession of a common faith. Pope Francis said this in a speech he pronounced before Patriarch Bartholomew, in Istanbul, on the feast of St Andrew, last November. His words were few but to the point and suggested an unprecedented step laden with consequences for future relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Churches. The Pope s words suggest that he believes communion between Catholic and Orthodox Christians is possible right now, without the need to impose any theological or legal preconditions on his Orthodox brothers. The main reason for this is that the Orthodox Churches have real sacraments and above all, they have the priesthood and the Eucharist by virtue of the apostolic succession, the Pope said quoting the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis points towards the common path to be taken by both Churches, giving pointers as to how to resolve the historical and doctrinal problems that have accumulated over centuries of division. Bearing in mind what the Scriptures teach us and the experiences of the first millennium, we are ready to search together for ways in which we can guarantee the unity of the Church which is so necessary given the current circumstances. - Vida Nueva The Choice We must choose between inter-faith and inter-nihilism. Cynicism is not parochial. Should religions insist on the illusion of complete isolation? Should we refuse to be on speaking terms with one another and hope for each other s failure or should we pray for each other s help, and help one another in preserving one s respective legacy, in preserving a common legacy? - Rabbi Heschel in God in Search of Man Equality Between Men and Women Franciscan Theologian, Sr Mary Melone, recently appointed Rector of the Antonianum University in Rome, is the first woman to head a Pontifical University. In an interview she revealed that there were some who were not happy with her nomination because of her gender. I am well aware of the opposition that exists in the world of the Church: after my nomination there were numerous expressions of joy at the umpteenth sign of a new spring, linked partly to the Pope. But I also received some messages asking me to resign, in the name of St Thomas and St Paul, because I had been chosen for a role that was not suitable for a woman. This shows just how far we are from a free vision of a Church that symbolises communion, the theologian said. My colleagues did not vote for me based on gender criteria but on academic and scientific criteria which determine a persons s suitability according to tenure and research, she pointed out. - vaticaninsider.lastampa.it Blaming Secularization? While it may be convenient to dismiss the sidelining of religion in Ireland as evidence of a growing secularization, there may be a simpler truth about our inability as Church to retain the support of our members. We lack the vision and the leadership to become a Church that will retain the support of our people in a very different Ireland. Repeating the old answers to questions people don t have, while refusing to address the new questions is a strategy that is contributing to the ongoing decline of our Church, even though so many are still holding on grimly to the vestiges of their religion. We need to start opening doors, not closing them; not standing like sentries defending the indefensible but pointing a direction along the way; to be not, in Pope John XXIII s famous words, curators of museums but tillers of gardens with all the variety and colour of God s world. We need respect rather than condescension, encouraging debate rather than telling people what to do, hearing what people are saying rather than just pretending we are listening, walking the walk instead of just talking the talk, in essence the Church Pope Francis is opening up for us. - Fr Brendan Hoban Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. His words were few but to the point and suggested an unprecedented step laden with consequences for future relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Churches. 2 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY

3 The Far East: Published seven times yearly by the Missionary Society of St Columban (Maynooth Mission to China). Its purpose: To promote an awareness of the missionary dimension of the Church among readers; report on the work of Columban priests, Sisters and lay missionaries; seek spiritual and material support for missionaries. Subscription: 5 a year. Cheques/postal orders to be made payable to: The Columban Fathers FROM THE DIRECTOR S DESK The Example of St Columban Most of us like a good story. The better the story, the more we lose ourselves in it, eager to know how the plot will unfold and the suspense be resolved. We feel close to some characters in the story and distant from others. We can be quite moved by the events and issues presented in the story. Having been drawn into the story world, we sometimes find ourselves able to face events and issues in our own world with new perspective and energy. Thus, engagement in the story can be a transforming experience. ISRAEL Where do you come from? Editor: Cyril Lovett SSC editorfareast@gmail.com Assistant Editor: Sr Redempta Twomey Layout & Editorial Assistant: Breda Rogers Manager: Tom O Reilly SSC Original Design: Tanika, Dublin Printers: Southern Print, Dorset Columban Websites News, reports, reflections etc. Missionary Society of St Columban Widney Manor Road, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands, B93 9AB. Tel: (01564) Columban Sisters 209 Quebec Drive, East Kilbride, Glasgow, G75 8BB. Tel: (013552) Cover: Ana from Fiji plays with a friend. Photo: Fr Frank Hoare The Gospels are transforming stories. Every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist we hear the story of Jesus. And the story is told, not just to give us information about past events, but to draw us into a meeting with Jesus in the present. In that meeting, we can at times find ourselves struggling to understand Jesus or even resisting him. Or we can feel drawn by the gentle invitation to follow him, adopting his way and trusting in his promise to support and guide us. Hopefully, we leave our celebration better able to find Jesus in our daily lives and to live by his values. In following Jesus we are surrounded and supported by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1-2). And so, to inspire and encourage us, the Church in the liturgy often celebrates stories of saints who identified with Jesus and were transformed by the power of the Gospel to a remarkable degree. During 2015, we will recall in a special way the story of St Columban, our patron, on the occasion of the 1400th anniversary of his death. The power of the Gospel led Columban to leave his homeland and spend his life in exile, often in hostile situations. He journeyed tirelessly through many places in present-day Europe to help people meet Christ. For Columban, his missionary discipleship meant losing his identity in Christ: Let us belong to Christ, not to ourselves. He relived the story of Jesus in his own life and mission. Fr Tom O Reilly, Director, Region of Britain. Inspired by the example of St. Columban in following Jesus, we cross boundaries of language, race and culture to proclaim the story of Jesus. And we see how that story transforms seemingly insignificant lives. We see people struggling in the face of dehumanizing poverty, yet strengthened by faith in Jesus who came to proclaim Good News to the poor. We see unjust situations being challenged by people inspired by the values of Jesus. We see people tirelessly working for reconciliation between those in conflict, because they are followers of Jesus who was born to bring peace on earth. The Gospel story is heard not in word only, but also in power (1 Thessalonians 1:5). And our lives are transformed by what we experience in mission. In the pages of the Far East we share some of that experience with you. As another year begins and our life story continues to unfold, we pray that the story of Jesus and our story may fuse more and more till we can say with St. Paul: It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20). We thank you for your partnership with us in the ongoing story of Christian mission. Happy New Year to all our readers. Tom O Reilly Regional Director By Fr Patrick McInerney As I walked the venerable cobblestone streets of old Jerusalem where Jesus once walked, the shopkeepers called out to me, Where do you come from? When I answered, Australia, they urged me in English to buy their wares. Such is their linguistic adaptability that had I answered, France, they would have spoken French, Russia, they would have spoken Russian, and so on. I quickly learned to deflect their commercial enticements by asking in turn, Where do you come from? Mostly they answered, From here! From Jerusalem? Yes! Mabruk! (You are blessed!) In the Muslim quarter the answer was often, From Palestine. This proud national sentiment was also a political statement, leading to interesting conversations about land, identity and occupation. One day when I asked, Where do you come from? the shopkeeper replied, From my mother! I laughed. This unexpected reply was so startling that I started using it too, to the puzzlement and amusement of my questioners, leading to very different conversations about identity, nationality and politics. As I reflected more on this seemingly humorous answer, I realised that it is actually very profound. Each one of is us born of our mother. There is no exception, not even Jesus! If we recognised our common humanity first, rather than our national, ethnic or religious identity, then we would know that the other is our brother and sister and mother, then we would truly realize that we are all children of the one Father in heaven, then we would celebrate our national, ethnic and religious differences, not as dividing us from one another, but as enriching our shared humanity. Among all the wonderful goods and souvenirs on sale in the markets of Jerusalem, this realisation was the most precious gift of all and it costs nothing other than letting go of the narrow stereotypes that limit our appreciation and opening ourselves to the riches which we are to each other. The new question becomes, not Where do you come from? but Where are you going? v Columban Fr Patrick McInerney is the Director of the Columban Mission Institute, Coordinator of its Centre for Mission Studies and Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations, and the Coordinator of Missiology at the Catholic Institute of Sydney. If we recognised our common humanity first, rather than our national, ethnic or religious identity, then we would know that the other is our brother and sister and mother On the streets of Jerusalem. Photo by Pat McInerney. 4 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY

4 KOREA A Life in Korea Korea, Donal works with a multicultural group of Columban priests and lay missionaries from Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Fiji, Chile, Korea and Ireland. The commitment to Justice work now includes initiatives for Peace and Ecology. Following the leadership of the Bishop of Jeju Diocese, Columbans have supported the people of Gangeong Village on Jeju island in challenging the construction of a naval base which will destroy the local environment and raise tension in NE Asia. The base is being built only 300 miles from China and will be used by the US military. We must address the issue of militarization, warns Donal. Fr Donal O Keeffe is interviewed by Ellen Teague In Korean the word used for Catholics is church friend and the Chinese character for friend is one that symbolises the equal relationship between believers. I 1978 and Irish Columban Donal looked out over the Yellow Sea and I felt at home. It was 25 December O Keeffe had been in Korea for three years. Now, more comfortable in Korean, he had gone to a coastal island to celebrate Christmas with a small Christian community and was walking along the beach after Mass. When he joined the Columbans he hoped to be sent to Latin America. With an uncle a priest in Scotland, he had considered the priesthood while at school. He was drawn to Latin America after studying Spanish at University College, Cork, and being inspired by the college chaplain who had worked in Peru. He entered the Columbans in 1971 and was ordained at Easter 1975 but was appointed to Korea! So, just 24, and excited about a fresh challenge, he arrived in Seoul. For the first few years the focus was on language, but he got involved with industrial workers through visiting a centre for Young Christian Workers (YCW) run by the Columbans. Here he met young people who were inspired by their faith to improve their working lives. Later appointed to work full-time with workers in Incheon Diocese, he was based in Bucheon city for nine years in the 1980s. It was a time of terrible oppression when many activists were fired or jailed. I saw so many of them giving their lives for justice and saw Korea anew through their eyes, says Donal; It was a huge privilege and inspiration for me. In 1983 he did a three-month Columban Justice and Peace workshop back in Ireland, receiving a spiritual injection. Lay Koreans who participated included a staff-person of Caritas Korea, went on to produce a range of social justice formation resources, which became widely used throughout Korea. In Bucheon he lived above a centre for workers. He and the labour apostolate team ran regular five-week courses for them. Church groups were the only organisations able to get involved with workers Donal recalls. Young workers from rural areas, some as young as 15, were coming into the cities and going straight into factories. They had little education and no confidence. With personal formation courses, conducted in 01 the evenings after work, and education on the SEE JUDGE ACT process those young people blossomed and many later joined the labour movement. Donal returned to Ireland in 1989 to do a Masters in Practical Theology at Trinity College, Dublin. He wrote his thesis on the workers movement in Korea, focusing on how religions empowered workers. He says in my work I had seen Christian workers being inspired by the image of Jesus the craftsman; I saw others energised by reflecting on the compassion of Buddha; I witnessed workers getting new life from Shamanist rituals and so I became very interested in how Christianity, Buddhism, and various faiths interact and became sources for empowering and liberating workers. 02 In 1992 Donal returned to Korea and launched into ministry with the urban poor. Living in a poor area he worked with families, supporting community organisations. Housing issues were prominent because poor communities often saw their houses demolished by property owners keen to upgrade housing stock, to attract affluent residents. Donal helped Catholic groups articulate their faith in terms of challenging structural injustice. They also sat in front of bulldozers, blocking the machines that were demolishing houses. Today, as Director of the Columbans in Donal has enormous respect for the Korean Church. The lay people brought the faith into Korea and faced terrible persecution, with more than 50% of Korean Christians being killed in the nineteenth century. In Korean the word used for Catholics is church friend and the Chinese character for friend is one that symbolises the equal relationship between persons. From the very beginning believers saw themselves as people who strove to live the values of equality and fraternity. Donal also recalls Columbans who made their mark in Korea, including the men who stayed on during the Korean War. Seven were killed in 1950, some being dumped alive into a well. One of them said of his decision to stay with the people, I am the pastor if I left I couldn t live with myself. Those seven Columbans are now among a group of modern day witnesses to the faith who are being presently advanced for beatification by the Korean Church. Donal describes this as a validation of the contribution of past Columbans to the spreading of the Christian message and the establishment of the Church in Korea. A major thrust in the work of Columbans today in Korea is helping the Church to become a missionary sending Church. However that is another story! v Ellen Teague is Media Coordinator of the Region of Britain and part of the Justice & Peace Team. 01. A younger Donal and friend block a bulldozer. 02. Fr Donal O Keeffe today. Photos courtesy of Ellen Teague and Donal O Keeffe. 6 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY

5 FIJI: Series : My Pilgrimage in Inter-Religious Dialogue A Pilgrimage towards Dialogue By Fr Frank Hoare The youth replied that he was impressed by the sincerity with which the people we met practiced their faith and prayed. It made him realize that he was a lukewarm Christian... Pilgrimage is common to all religions. People undertake a pilgrimage to experience a more intense connection with the divine. They believe that journeying to a holy place which has associations with a divine or saintly person will change them for the better. They expect to have particular petitions granted. Pilgrims leave aside for a while the ordinary routine of daily life. Inspired by the pilgrimage experience they return to ordinary life with renewed faith. In Fiji Catholics like to carry the cross on pilgrimage during Lent and especially in Holy Week. But this kind of pilgrimage remains within the boundaries of our own religious tradition. In pluralist Fiji where Catholics are only 10% of the population we need a way to dialogue with Hindus, Moslems, and Sikhs, fellow travelers, whose journey may be along a different path but who are aspiring to reach the same destination. For this reason on the day before Diwali, the Hindu festival of Lights, a group of thirty young Fijian Catholics came together to make a pilgrimage of dialogue. A bus dropped us at a Sikh temple about twelve miles from Ba town. Bearded turbaned men greeted us hesitantly at the gate. This was a new experience for them too. Before entering the temple we left our shoes outside and covered our heads with the scarves they supplied. We all sat on the floor of the temple in front of a baldachin with a large lectern on which was placed the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scriptures. A Sikh priest, swishing a fly whisk in front of the holy book, chanted some verses. The president of the community, a high school teacher, explained the prayer in English and went on to explain the main teachings, rituals and symbols of the Sikh religion. Sikhism which was founded in sixteenthcentury India puts emphasis on the equality of people, on prayer and hard work and on hospitality to strangers. Our group experienced this when our Sikh hosts served us a tasty lunch before we departed. We walked for two hours towards Ba, arriving at a Moslem mosque in Varavu around 4 p.m. The president and some committee members of the mosque invited us to sit together in the porch of the mosque. We asked to hear about the main beliefs of Islam and how worship was conducted at the mosque. Our Moslem hosts were very happy with this. They seemed to have feared a debate about whether Islam or Christianity is the true religion. Afterwards they presented me with a copy of the Holy Koran, invited us to 01 return again and to visit their high school at Ba. Again we were offered refreshments before we continued our journey. About an hour later we arrived at a Hindu temple at the edge of Ba town. The temple priest and an Indian lady devotee explained to us the layout of the temple and the identity of the different statues. It was remarkable that the images of the high gods, Shiva and Vishnu, were outside the main temple at the back porch whereas five female goddesses were enthroned inside with various pictures and items of worship on the ground in front of them. The central goddess was believed to have power to cure female infertility. Some grateful devotees had placed small dolls in the temple in thanksgiving for the children they had conceived. The temple catered for the everyday problems of life which are believed to be the special preserve of the female Hindu deities (whereas salvation is the preserve of the male deities). This explained why the female deities held center stage. It also seemed that the mosque did not cater for some of the needs of Moslem women and so they came to the temple. This, of course, did not mean that they were changing their religion. That evening we went to the Sai Baba temple in Ba town. His devotees believe that Sai Baba, who lives in South India, is an avatar (incarnation) of God. Here we participated in celebrating Diwali, the feast of lights which commemorates the return to his kingdom of Lord Rama, believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu, from 14 years exile. We joined in lighting candles around the periphery of the temple symbolizing joyfully the victory of good over evil and then sat inside for an hour as the devotees chanted hymns in Hindi and English. Our group sang a hymn when requested and I, on behalf of the group, explained our mission pilgrimage. Some weeks later I heard a Fijian elder ask one of the youths who had participated in the mission pilgrimage what he had learned. The youth replied that he was impressed by the sincerity with which the people we met practiced their faith and prayed. It made him realize that he was a lukewarm Christian and it motivated him to deepen his commitment in the future. Different as it seemed to a traditional Catholic pilgrimage our Fiji pilgrimage of dialogue also brought us to a deeper sense of God in the world and in our lives. It helped us to develop friendly and respectful links with fellow believers in God in a multicultural and multi-religious country where reconciliation, respect and co-operation are so important to peace and progress. v Ordained in 1973, Fr Frank has worked among the Fijian and Indian Christians in Fiji. 01. Hindu priest stands in front of statues of Vishnu and Lakshmi in the Sangam temple. 02. Labasa Catholics on their interfaith pilgrimage. 03. The mosque president, with Maulana, speaks to the Catholic group. 04. Sikh priest s wife reads from the Guru Granth Sahib. Photos courtesy of Fr Frank Hoare. 8 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY

6 PHILIPPINES Out of The Rubble By Denis Murphy Making your Will? The local people I spoke with, whether young or old, see in these statues a message of death and resurrection. Some said that their houses exploded when the 20-foot-high storm surge hit. Parents and children were torn from each other s arms. The boats and nets used by the people to earn a living were gone. For days there was little food or water. Across the Philippines more than 6,000 people were killed in November 2013 when one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded fell full force on some of the most ill-prepared and impoverished people in the world. Typhoon Haiyan struck the fishing village of Costa Brava on the shoreline of Tacloban City especially hard and levelled the village. In my work through Urban Poor Associates, I visited many of the survivors, nearly all Catholics, and 01 asked them how they related to God in the midst of this tragedy. The story the people tell is that a few days after the storm, a woman who lived far away and had no connection with Costa Brava had a dream in which a statue of the Sacred Heart told her to come and find it under the rubble left by the typhoon. She went to the area. Local people say they saw her walk directly to a spot, dig there and recover the statue. There was a hole where the statue s wooden heart had been fitted, though the wooden heart has not been found. The woman wanted to take away the statue but the people stopped her and put the statue on the altar of the chapel in the centre of the village. To be more precise, they placed it in what remained of the chapel - the rear wall, along with a portion of the roof that reaches out over the altar. The discovery prompted others to go out and to dig, in an effort to find all the other sacred statues they could find and put them on the altar alongside the Sacred Heart. It may be strangest group of statues ever brought together. There is a life-size statue of the Blessed Mother without hands; a statue of St Dominic without a head (we thought it was Jesus until we saw the rosary around his neck). There are angels without wings, and numerous small statues of saints, all maimed in one way or another. In the centre stands the Sacred Heart with the hole where his heart once was. The local people I spoke with, whether young or old, see in these statues a message of death and resurrection. One woman at the community meeting explained, The statues were all dead and then God found them under the stones and rubbish and brought them back to life. And so it is with us. We were dead during the storm and now we live. God has given us back our lives. He has shown us mercy. As she spoke the people around her nodded agreement. Another time I asked three young girls why they prayed in the chapel instead of in one of the city s big churches. They told me God had brought people back from the dead in this place. A young theologian might say the poor people have hopelessly mixed up the physical realities of death and life, living people and statues. An older theologian might say, Lets listen to them first. If God wanted to give the people a sign that he was with them in their suffering, could he have chosen a more tender and apt way to do so that to remind them that Jesus and Mary, and all the saints had been with them and come alive again with them? Jesus and Mary suffered the pain of the typhoon just as the people had. Their images had emerged, changed, but still able to stand. How could God come closer to the poor fishermen and their families than to meld their lives with those of the these images of his son and all the saints? We stood there a long time looking from one statue to another wondering what God s message could be and how to move forward. We were like visitors standing before the crib at Christmas time. In the crib as in Costa Brava, God s message is both simple and complex. These characteristics seem to be the signature marks of God s works. And so we are witnesses to this experience of God making himself known anew, even as, all along, he had remained with us in his own exquisite manner. v Denis Murphy works with Urban Poor Associates. This article first appeared in the magazine America, and is reprinted here with the editor s permission. 01. An artists impression of the effect of the broken images. 02. Typical result of Typhoon Haiyan. Photos courtesy of America and Fr Shay Cullen. 10 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY Please remember the needs of the Columban missions. Without your help we cannot continue our work. Missionary Society of St Columban, Widney Manor Road, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands, B93 9AB. Any Old Irish Currency? Sincere thanks to our readers who have sent their pre-euro currency as a donation for the missions. We are most grateful for your generosity. Donations can be sent to Missionary Society of St Columban, Widney Manor Road, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands, B93 9AB.

7 Series: 1400th Anniversary of St Columban s Death Columban, Pilgrim for Christ The aspect of pilgrimage as a penitential journey was strongly present in monasteries of the medieval period. Some years ago when a group of us Columbans were preparing to celebrate Jubilee 2000, we wanted to do something out of the ordinary to mark the occasion. We focused on the idea of a pilgrimage following the footsteps of Saint Columban. Many of our generation in Britain and Ireland have had an experience of pilgrimage. It may have been our weekly pilgrimage as we walked along the road to the local church for Sunday Mass, doing the stations of the Cross, going to a holy well or journeying to places of devotion like Knock, Walsingham or Lourdes, Fatima, or Medjugorje. Some of us have done the old Celtic pilgrimages; be it climbing Croagh Patrick, or fasting and praying on Lough Derg, even perhaps walking to Santiago de Compostela. Our Christian life is wrapped up in pilgrimage as we move from birth to death and on to life eternal. As Columban missionaries following our patron s footsteps across Europe, we rediscovered some important aspects of Columban s own understanding of pilgrimage. Columban, or Columbanus, was undoubtedly a pilgrim for Christ. His initial encounter with the person of Christ was an interior journey to the depths of his own being. To accomplish this, Columban took his inspiration from the Desert Fathers, especially Saint Anthony the Abbot. He sought out places of solitude. There, leaving what was familiar and comfortable, he faced his own spirit, his demons, and embarked on a life of conversion that would lead him to the authentic truth, to the person of Christ. The aspect of pilgrimage as a penitential journey was strongly present in monasteries of the medieval period. The Celtic monks embraced it as the consequence of the sin of the world. Columban took upon himself the sins of others and gave his life to saving people from the wrath of sin, and leading them to Christ. His life was focused on Christ and his pilgrimage was a journey to eternal life. He saw the penitential way as a means of reaching that destination. Columban s vocation to the contemplative life was accompanied by a great desire to share the riches of the gospel with those who had not yet converted to Christ and his Kingdom. Living out this commitment led him to cross oceans, navigate rivers, hike over mountains and negotiate difficult terrain to meet peoples and kings in order to celebrate the presence of the risen Christ in their midst. He did not compromise on the Gospel message nor did he try to accommodate the teachings of Jesus to the likes and dislikes of his listeners. This often brought him into conflict with local kings and bishops and eventual led to his expulsion from the Burgundy region then known as Austrasia. Columban had respect for the terrain on which he journeyed. The pathways were sacred ground. He was walking in the footsteps of Christ, whose presence was there long before him. He came to encounter Christ in the solitude of the forest, the sound of lapping water, the music of the wind, and the roar of the bear and the song of the birds. Tradition has it that it was a bear that brought him wood, and was, in turn, rewarded with wheaten cakes. He sang the psalms to the humming of the birds and gave comfort to the animals in wintertime. The power of the Creator was carved on the rocks and crevices of the caves where he found refuge to pray and be alone. God s presence in creation was always a living reality for him. An essential aspect of pilgrimage for Columban was community. Though he spent many hours in solitude, he lived in community. He founded monastic communities and invited people to come, stay and live under the Rule. The Gaelic term for monastery, mainistear, is cognate to muintear meaning household, family or community. For Columban, to be disciple of Christ was to live in community. Eucharist was at the heart of that community. This did not mean that the Eucharist was celebrated daily in Columban monasteries, but rather that the centre and source of communion for Christian people, and therefore for every monastic community, is the person of Christ present in the Eucharistic Bread and viaticum (food for the journey). Not only is the wanderer nourished by wheat and rice, but with the Bread of Life, the Bread of the Word, the Eucharistic Bread. Columban could spend many days fasting from bodily food, but never went without celebrating his communion with the Lord and with his brothers. Following the footsteps of Saint Columban in the 21st century took us through towns and cities, shopping malls, farmer s markets, social housing schemes, built-up wealthy residential areas, dangerous highways, roads congested with traffic, open spaces, deserted hills and ancient pathways. Amid the crowd and noise of our surroundings we, like Columban, experienced moments of the sacred that gave us renewed energy to go back to our habitual place of work and mission, to continue on life s journey and pilgrimage. v The author of this series of articles on Columban wishes to remain anonymous. 01. Columban pilgrimage, held in 2010, heading towards the Alps. 02. Fr Tommy Murphy SSC talks to the pilgrims at the foot of a Statue of St Columban in the Seminary at Luxeuil-les-Bains, France. Photos: Derry Healy 12 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY

8 HONG KONG A Song of Love By Sr Isobel Loughrey Their love and sensitivity towards one another are a reflection of God s love for us all. While the Synod of the family comes to an end and we get news of the outcome, some positive and some a little disappointing, we continue to journey with people in the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows of their lives. I was privileged to attend a special marriage recently and experience the joy it brought to us all. Last year I wrote an article in the Far East about my friend, Anthony, who at the age of eighty had re-discovered his Catholic faith. Since then he has very much been part of our Shek O community and is savouring his coming to know Christ again 01 in his life. His faith has deepened, his life of prayer bearing visible blessings. Anthony married his much younger Thai wife in a civil ceremony sixteen years ago, some time after his first wife passed away. Ratana is a devout Buddhist and a very gentle, kind lady. As Anthony often tells us, Ratana has been the best thing that ever happened in his life, and it is obvious on seeing the relationship they share. Recently he mentioned to Columban Father Pat Colgan, that he would like to have a wedding ceremony in the Church. Realizing this was also the wish of Ratana, his dream was fulfilled on November 1st in our little Chapel in Shek O, Hong Kong. Fr Pat Colgan officiated at the ceremony and Sister Patricia and I were happy to be the witnesses. Ratana also had two of her Buddhist friends present, one who had designed and made the beautiful Thai dress she wore for this special occasion. Her friends both entered fully into the service and offered prayers for the couple. It was a joy to see Anthony arrive first for the ceremony, and to note the glint in his eye as he said his beautiful bride was on the way with her friends. She came exquisitely dressed and with a lovely corsage prepared for each of us. In preparing the Chapel, we in turn had tried to add a little touch of the East by using red candles in Lotus holders on the Altar, at each side of the Unity Candle. Our readings centered on God s love and faithfulness. Fr Pat s homily on the wedding feast at Cana touched our hearts and we could identify with the sensitivity of the Mother of Jesus in that scene. On the Altar, a marriage Icon of our Lady, representing the Church embracing the couple, highlighted the reading. Anthony and Ratana were quite emotional as they exchanged their wedding vows again and lit the unity candle. At that moment I marvelled at the way two people from two different cultures, two different religions and different in age and background could form such a wonderful bond in marriage. Anthony treasured the fact that the candle also symbolised the light of Christ coming into their marriage, for him a light that could not be extinguishes just like his recent experience of coming back to his faith. This was dear to the heart of his Buddhist wife as she too had been praying that Anthony would rediscover his own religion. On preparing the service and wondering what song would make a fitting ending to the ritual, his wife suggested the CD of The Priests singing the Irish Blessing. Ratana knew this was one of Anthony s favourites and they both sang along with the tape. In doing so they were blessing us as we rejoiced with them on this happy occasion. Their love and sensitivity towards one another are a reflection of God s love for us all. After exchanging congratulations and savouring this time together we set off to enjoy a delicious meal. I know that as God has brought Anthony and Ratana to this day He will continue to hold them in the palm of his hand. This is our wish and prayer for them. v Sr Isobel Loughrey has served in Hong Kong since Anthony and Ratana. 02. Anthony and Ratana renew their vows. 03. Anthony and Ratana with Fr Pat Colgan and Srs Isobel and Patricia. Photos: Sr Isobel Loughrey 14 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY

9 TAIWAN Taiwan s desperate migrant mothers When the marriages don t work out, Taiwan s foreign brides often face desperate circumstances. By Jens Kastner That move made her one out of the nearly 20,000 Vietnamese workers currently missing, according to statistics from Taiwan s Council of Labour Affairs (CLA). I lost 10 kilos in the first year saving as much money on food as possible for my parents, and after I ran away to make more money on an illegal job, I met the boy s father, she says. I got pregnant, but cancer killed him so we did not have time to marry even though both of us wanted to do so. The undocumented workers typically have nightmares, being afraid of arrest and deportation When Shao Lee, a divorced Cambodian immigrant, illegally residing in Taiwan, wants to be with her teenage daughter and toddler son for half an hour, she sneaks into the first floor flat in Taipei, where her children live together with her mentally handicapped Taiwanese ex-husband. Every time she does this she is terrified by the thought of his clan (living on the second floor) getting wind of it. Because, if they did, Shao Lee says, they would have her deported in order to cut her ties with the children forever. East Asian economic powerhouse, Taiwan has opened its doors wide to blue-collar workers and brides from China and Southeast Asia. According to the Ministry of the Interior there are 41,000 foreign spouses who have not yet acquired Taiwanese nationality residing on the island, and one out of every 10 Taiwanese primary school children now has a foreign-born mother. Despite these dramatic changes to Taiwanese society, the country s immigration laws have been largely left untouched, failing to adequately protect the bond between immigrant mothers and their Taiwan-born children, when cross-border marriages go wrong. This holds particularly true for the fouryear period during which the foreign bride is banned from applying for Taiwanese citizenship, because if her husband wants her gone in that time, she has no automatic right to remain in the country. The Court s paramount consideration in respect to guardianship is the financial ability to raise the child, and that is surely to the detriment of the immigrant mothers who come to Taiwan with nothing, observes Columban Fr Peter Nguyen Van Hung, the Executive Director of the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office based in Taoyuan, Taipei. He adds, the four-year period after which a foreign mother could gain permanent residency is meaningless, since her husband might not let her apply for it in the first place, in order to prevent her from leaving him once she has the Taiwan ID. Fr Hung elaborates that Taiwanese men usually take foreign brides many years their junior, meaning the husbands tend to be jealous. He also observes that Taiwan s harsh immigration law has created in the island s central mountain range a whole village inhabited by undocumented foreign mothers and their Taiwanese children. Shao Lee eventually turned to Taipeibased, NGO TransAsia Sisters Association for help after desperate years in hiding from Taiwan s police and the National Immigration Agency (NHI). Another case, Nguyen Thi Dao, a Vietnamese mother (of a toddler son), whose Taiwanese father died of lung cancer (two months after the child was born out of wedlock) reached out to Columban Fr Hung for support. Nguyen came to Taiwan as a blue-collar worker in 2005 after her family in Vietnam took out a $6,000 bank loan to pay the cross-border labour broker, she says. But toiling away for one year in a nursing home for the elderly for $265 a month, she came to understand that she would never be able to break even and thus absconded. Nguyen elaborates that because Taiwan fears fake marriages between its nationals and Southeast Asians, it imposes a deliberately cumbersome and lengthy review process, too lengthy for her boyfriend as he lay in hospital dying. Making matters worse, Nguyen, as an illegal alien, had to bear the child using another woman s identity. If police were to pick her up today, she says, she could find herself in one of Taiwan s grim detention centres, presumably a bad position from which to convince the authorities to replace the Name on the boy s Taiwanese Birth Certificate with hers. Mental Scars Columban Fr Hung says that he has seen many foreign mothers and immigrant workers developing signs of mental illness because of their ordeal in Taiwan. Bluecollar workers come to Taiwan heavily in debt, and foreign brides often encounter abuse from the employer or husband s clan - while not knowing the local language and laws well enough, or not having the support of someone who does. The undocumented workers typically have nightmares, being afraid of arrest and deportation, and if you talk to them, there is only uncertainty, anxiety and hopelessness,... Many of the young women eventually consult psychiatrists, who do nothing except put them on medication. Ho Thi Ngoc Lang, an unmarried Vietnamese mother with her baby girl, also reached out to Fr Hung for support and shelter in his church. According to Fr Hung, Ho is a runaway worker, who stands accused by prosecutors of having let gangsters use her cell phone SIM card in a crime. Accordingly, she may even face a gaol term, causing her to become so depressed that the baby s skin is covered with a rash, Hung says. Patchy Support Earlier this year, the Taiwanese media was abuzz with the bizarre story of a Vietnamese woman, who turned herself in after having hidden for more than a year in a tomb in the mountains near Taoyuan, together with her five-year-old daughter. The woman s sick and impoverished Taiwanese boyfriend had wanted both of them to stay in Taiwan, but because the mother was in the country illegally and a DNA test ruled out the boyfriend as the child s father, they were deported. This is another example of the desperate circumstances faced by Taiwan s foreign wives and mothers, explains Columban Fr Hung. v This article was written by, Jens Kastner a Taipei-based journalist. It appeared first in our Australian magazine The Far East A migrant mother selling on the streets. 02. Fr Peter Nguyen Van Hung works with Vietamese and other migrants. 03. and 04. Single migrant mothers with their children. Photos courtesy of Fr Hung. 16 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY

10 OBITUARIES Rest in Peace Fr Seán Holloway was born in Horseleap, Co. Offaly, on 25 August He was educated at Horseleap NS, Tubber NS and St Finian s College, Mullingar. He came to Dalgan in 1941 and was ordained priest on 21 December Assigned to the Philippines, he spent the first two years in Mindanao, the southern island, before being assigned to Negros Occidental where he would spend the next 18 years in the Parishes of Isabela and Himamylan. Seán was among the first Columban group to be assigned to this new District. It covered a huge area, had been served by a bare handful of priests, and few of its old churches were standing. Building up the existing parishes and developing new ones was a herculean task. Sean had the gift for bringing the best out of laypeople. Working with the help of innumerable presidia of the Legion of Mary, he wore himself out over the following two decades. Assigned to the Region of Ireland in 1970, he spent three years on Vocations Ministry, A Genius of Micro-finance By Fr Sean Connaughton On 18 October 2014, Dublin City University conferred the award of Doctor of Philosophy (D. Phil. Honoris Causa) on Professor Muhammad Yunus (pictured right) of Bangladesh. In 1976, Dr Yunus established the Grameen or Village Bank. Since then Grameen has disbursed loans totalling over nine billion Euro to 7.4 million borrowers. He and the bank were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006, for their efforts in economic and social development. followed by five years as Farm Manager and Bursar of Dowdstown House. Availing of the expertise of competent lay friends, he established the beginnings of the present cattle herd. He was also responsible for developing and sustaining Dalgan s muchadmired network of forest walks. There followed a twelve-year period as Assistant and later Parish Priest of St Joseph s, Balcurris, Dublin. As in the Philippines, his charm, friendliness, and reliance on the laity won him many friends. He established a school for the travellers and helped integrate them into the parish. He is remembered there with great affection. On returning to Dalgan in 1991 he served in other management roles until his health began to deteriorate. A man of great charity and generosity, there was a childlike transparency in Sean, and a great capacity for making friends, helping develop their gifts, and seeing creative possibilities in every situation. May he rest in peace. more benefits and prosperity to the family in terms of education and reinvestment. Grameen is not merely a bank. Charity takes away initiative and responsibilty from Fr Seán Holloway rate and simple orientation structure are most creative and self-sustaining. I take this occasion to thank the many readers who helped me establish and maintain more than three thousand successful branches, with more than 30,000 members, during my years in the Northern Philippines. However, in their last report, I found that we have unfortunately lost more than 2,500 members due to recent massive flooding and typhoons that destroyed many houses, and projects, and devoured our emergency fund. A number of friends and parishes in New Zealand, Ireland, Britain, Australia and US have been our mainstay over the years. Any help that you can offer will be most appreciated by REFLECTION The God Who Knocks and Waits To face the new year is to set out on a journey and, as Martin Buber once wrote, All journeys have a secret destination of which the traveller is unaware. We may have our own plans, our map for the journey but nevertheless we travel in faith with an openness to the happenings on the way. Remember the man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho? (Lk 10: 30-37). Or the two downhearted disciples journeying to Emmaus? (Lk 24: 13-35). Prepare to be surprised at what this year holds for you. My time is in your hands. Trusting in God, we can journey onward with faith and courage. We may be overcome by an unknown dread. Perhaps we face a terrible ordeal, a frightening diagnosis, a killing virus, a loved child s waywardness, the loss of all we hold dear. God is right there, and will be with us at every turn in the road. If not even a sparrow falls without his knowing it, how much more should we trust him who holds us as close as a hen holds her chicks. For much of our time we are unaware of his presence and look for the Lord in special places, at special times. But that he is really present in the run-of-the-mill happenings of our day, always there, can be hard to grasp. We meet our God in prayer, in Church, in holy places, but surely not when we are mucking about in the mundane? Look out! Look in! Who is knocking at our door? God is everywhere and the very ordinary experiences of our lives are a gateway to the divine. Every moment of life is a moment of divine revelation and to become aware of this, aware that God is right here, now, will change our life, our way of living. We forget the Gift that is ours, the Holy Spirit who will lead us, expanding our heart and our horizons as we journey through the day, through the year. It is he who will show us how to reach out and love others, love our fragile world and all in it. This New Year comes as a gift from our loving Father, and while we thank him we ask, with the psalmist, What return shall I make? Instead of plunging straight into making resolutions let us instead think of how we can respond to the Lord for his unfailing goodness to us. What is he asking of us now? Will we give even ten minutes each day to sit in silence, call on the Holy Spirit and give thanks? The Lord waits for us, standing at our door knocking (Rev 3:20), not forcing his way in, not coercing us. Just waiting. v S.R.T. We meet our God in prayer, in Church, in holy places, but surely not when we are mucking about in the mundane? Look out! Look in! Who is knocking at our door? The bank works through organised Photo: Stained glass groups of five. One of its remarkable window: Behold, I stand aspects is that nearly 100% of loans people. Social business provides at the door and knock. are made to women. It has found economic stability and genuine that they have a better repayment meaning, and helps establish record, and, more importantly, industries, healthcare and education. that investing in women brings Grameen s discipline, repayment members of this wonderful bank. v 18 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY

11 Bible Quiz No In Mark ch. 10, which blind man called out, Jesus, Son of David. have mercy on me? 2. In John ch. 19, which group of people said, We have a law and according to that law he must die? 3. In Esther ch. 5, Mordecai said, What is it Queen Esther, what is your request? True or false? 4. In Matthew ch. 8, who said, Save us Lord, we are sinking? 5. In Ruth ch. 3, who said, My daughter I want to see you settled happily? 6. In Matthew ch. 26, who asked the chief priests, What will you give me to betray him to you? 7. In Genesis ch. 24 which two family members called Rebecca and asked if she would go with the man? 8. In Genesis ch. 47, who asked Jacob his age?... Consult your Bible, answer the questions above and send your entry to: Bible Quiz No. 48, St Columban s, Widney Manor Rd, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands, B93 9AB, before 31st January Name: Address: Age: Saints for our Times The way of peace is really a seamless garment that must cover the whole of life and must be applied in all its relationships. A.J. Muste, A.J. Muste was arguably the outstanding exponent of Christian nonviolence in the 20th century. In season and out, in a career that spanned resistance to both World War I and Vietnam, he stood by his conscience and his convictions. An indefatigable activist into his eighties, he was esteemed by a generation otherwise distrustful of anyone over thirty. At the same time his civility and integrity won respect even from the members of the establishment he opposed. Abraham Johannes Muste was born in Holland on 8 January 1885, migrating to America with his family at the age of six. Though trained as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, he migrated through a number of denominations over his long career. For over a decade he was a dedicated Marxist-Leninist. By 1936 he had become disillusioned with sectarian politics, convinced that the Sermon on the Mount contained the most truly radical programme for social transformation. With this insight he returned to active church ministry and to the organised pacifist movement. In 1940 he became executive secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the leading religious pacifist organization. The advent of total war confirmed his belief that the principles of the gospel were not simply a utopian ideal but a practical imperative, Mankind has to find a way into a radically new world. Mankind has to become a new humanity or perish. Muste became an eloquent opponent of the Cold War and a critic of theologians who justified the resort to nuclear threats and the encroaching militarization of American culture. It seemed to him that the world was entering a new Dark Age in which the responsibility of the Christian was to nourish small oases of sanity and conscience amid the encircling gloom. He retired from his position at FOR at the age of 68 but the years that followed marked his most courageous activism. He was repeatedly arrested for protests at nuclear weapons sites. In 1960 he was a key architect of the broad antiwar coalition that emerged in response to the Vietnam War. In 1966, at 81, he was arrested in Saigon after attempting to demonstrate in front of the American embassy. He said, I don t do this to change the world. I do it to keep the world from changing me. He died the following year after returning from a trip to North Vietnam. He wrote, Joy and growth come from following our deepest impulses, however foolish they may seem to some, or dangerous, and even though the apparent outcome may be defeat... There is no way to peace, peace itself being the way. With this issue we continue our series of stories from the Bible. Noah and his Ark God had created Adam and Eve so that their descendants would fill the earth. He wanted them to be kind and loving to each other. Instead, God saw that there was a great deal of wickedness in their hearts, that made him very sad. I shall rid the earth of all its people, as well as all the animals, plants, creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry I created them. But there was one man who pleased God, and that was Noah, who was always his loyal servant. God explained to Noah what he had decided to do: I am going to cause a great flood to destroy all life. I want you to make an ark out of strong wood. Cover it with pitch to make it waterproof. Then take your family into the ark, along with two of every kind of animal. In this way, I will be able to start afresh. Noah did just as God had told him. He made his ark strong and safe, and then he filled it with his entire family, and with a pair of every kind of bird and animal. Then God shut the door and the storms came. The rain fell for forty days. First the waters covered the land and filled the valleys, later they covered the mountains. Every living thing was drowned. But Noah and his family were safe in the ark with all the animals, just as God had planned. Eventually it stopped raining, but it was still a long time before the waters started to go down. After two months, Noah sent out first a raven and then a dove to look for signs of dry land, but there was nothing. Then he sent out the dove again, and this time it came back with an olive leaf in its beak. Now Noah knew that the earth was becoming dry again. Noah left the ark and immediately he made an altar to worship God and give thanks for their safety. God blessed Noah and his sons: Fill the earth with children, he told them. Look after the animals and birds, trees and plants. Follow my ways and I will always be your God. Then he made a solemn promise to Noah. Never again will a flood destroy all living creatures, or the earth be covered in water. There will be time to sow seed and harvest crops; cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. I will put my rainbow in the heavens as a sign of my promise to you and your children and to every living creature in the world. Read also Genesis Chapters 6 to 10. Bible Quiz No 46 Winners: Sr Elizabeth Morris, Northampton and Mrs Y M Bone, Poole. To read more, see All Saints by Robert Ellsberg, The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY Illustrations: Val Biro

12 KIDZONE Pudsy s Gallery Magical Magpies By Elizabeth McArdle Above is Isabella Garbutt on her First Holy Communion day at St John s Church, Wigan, Lancashire. Pudsy s Diry We had our annual Math Day at skool las week. An expert man was tellin us bout octagons, pentygons an pollygons. He sed these are more important than doin sums tho sum of you may nevir get beyon that. Dunno who he was talkin bout. I askd Grandad if hed herd of these things, he sed no but I cud xplain it to him anytime I might hev a mind to. I sed no problem but id have to use my magination an whas more if the parrot kem back twud change evrythin cos Miss Flynn wud say I wasnt listnin or payin a tention like the girls an gud skolars stead of chattin wid my pals. Grandad sed whas this yur talkin bout a parrot? So I sed Ha! Ha! 1. Did you hear about the race between the lettuce and the tomato? 2. What is the most hardworking part of the eye? 3. What runs but can t walk? 4. What did one plate say to the other? 5. Why can you never trust atoms? 6. Did you hear about the hamburger who couldn t stop making jokes? 7. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? 8. Why did the barber win the race? 1. The lettuce was a head and the tomato was trying to ketchup! 2. The pupil! 3. A tap! 4. Dinners on me! 5. Because they make up everything! 6. He was on a roll! 7. Frostbite! 8. Because he took a short cut! Above is a recent Colpaint winner, Maguriete Domaille from Guernsey. Marguirete is delighted with the mask and the books on dinosaurs and dragons she got with her voucher. well an octagon is an octagon jus like all other octagons an to me I think hes kinda related to an octypus. An a pentygon is a place you keep chickens or yur pet rabbits or pups or kittins in spose you hed any. But the pollygon is a hard one cept I remember our cuzzins showtin an cryin sumthin like that when the parrot flew away one windy day an nevir kem back. So thas what i sed an Grandad sed no dowt theres the makin of a genyus in yu an no dowt shud the parrot cum back yud have a pollybackagon. An I bet nobody in skool cud hev xplained things as well as that. Mebbe math cud be interestin after all. May Caffrey, who has been the sacristan in St Peter and Paul s Church, Walshestown, Clogherhead, Co. Louth for 37 years, is pictured here with Columban, Fr Oliver McCrossan. A Gaelic Proverb Muineann ga seift. Necessity is the mother of invention. Competition Winners November 2014 Colpaint Winners Aged 8 and Under: Jemima Horrocks, Middleton, Manchester. Over 8: Ella Simpkin, West Kirby, Wirral. My Diary John Liam Burke, Clermont-Ferrand, France. Bible Quiz No 46 Winners Sr Elizabeth Morris, Northampton. Mrs Y M Bone, Poole. There are some birds such as the gentle wren and the robin redbreast which are welcomed with open arms to our gardens. They fill us with delight and joy. The magpie, with its distinctive black and white plumage is certainly not one of these. In fact, I do not know of any other bird which provokes such passion and fury as the magpie. Despite their undeserved bad name, magpies are very dashing members of the corvidae (crow) family and Colour the drawing and send it with your name and address to: COLPAINT, St Columban s, Widney Manor Rd, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands, B93 9AB, before 31st January Prizes for under and over 8. Don t forget if you also send a corrected version of Pudsy s Diry you ll have another chance to win a prize. are believed to be one of the most intelligent of all creatures. They have demonstrated a remarkable ability to recognise their own reflections in mirrors, something that was once thought to be a defining characteristic belonging only to humans. Their very varied diet includes fruits, seeds, mice and other bird s eggs. They also enjoy dustbin leftovers, road carrion (rotting meat) and waste food casually discarded on our streets and because of this food banquet, magpie numbers have quadrupled in the last 35 years. The tradition of saluting one magpie for good luck has now become hard work because of their booming population. Magpies have the reputation of being cheeky sneak thieves and like we humans they cannot resist a bit of bling. It is claimed that aluminium foil, spoons, bottle tops, jewellery and even windscreen wipers have been found in their nests. God never creates anything that is not fascinating. The magpie is top of the list here. Its most defining feature is its tail which is roughly the same length as its entire body. Why they have such long tails is still debated by the ornithologist (a person who studies birds). So to end our tale, the next time you salute a magpie, remember that in God s opinion, this debonair and very handsome bird is one of His most loved and cherished living creatures. 22 FAR EAST JANUARY/FEBRUARY Name: Address: Age: Colpaint

13 Let Nothing Upset You Let nothing upset you; Let nothing frighten you. Everything is changing; God alone is changeless. Patience attains the goal. Who has God lacks nothing. God alone fills every need. St Teresa of Avila