Words said through the windscreen and other closed windows in the car won’t be heard by those who you talk to some metres away. This is what I try to tell Anne, a special girl in our orphanage in Thailand. However, Anne does not bother about it and keeps shouting her ‘good byes’ and ‘I’ll miss you’, and she is convinced that her words are being heard.

This threw me back to something I do which may even be a bit similar. Sometimes I simply bless people silently so that they don’t even know, or notice.

The Fall of Saigon in 30 April, 1975, a historical event for not only the Vietnamese but also many Australians, was significantly engraved into many people’s minds with a historical photo that captured an US helicopter on the top of a building in Saigon during the last minutes before the city fell into the hands of Vietcong.

During his prime, Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight-boxing champion of the 60s and the 70s proclaimed one day, “I am the greatest! I am the greatest!” 

When I found this phrase in today’s Gospel, it touched me quite deeply and made me to ask some questions about the way I do my thinking.

Being dumb and deaf, in his time and culture, it was a curse. In that state, he was considered unclean and to be shunned though he might have been born that way. 

There was an old woman who was very conscious about observing the “one-hour fast” before receiving communion.

…So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? 

…So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? 

The movie “Alive”, which came out in 1993, featuring John Malcovich and Ethan Hawke, is about the Uruguayan Rugby Team whose plane crashed on the side of the Andes 

Dear friends, over the last three Sundays, we have been following the discourse on the Bread of Life.

During my childhood in Vietnam, it was a common experience for many people, and it is still even up to this day around the world, that I went to bed with an empty and very hungry tummy.

When I just landed at a refugee camp, feeling hungry and exhausted, I was given a bowl of fresh and warm rice. How delicious was its smell! 

As missionaries we get used to saying ‘good-bye’ to people and places and we probably develop some kind of a routine in farewell scenes. Honestly, the ones who are ready to move on usually are in the better position. After a moment of sadness, the excitement of the new life that is going to come through is bigger.

Toub, our new SVD confrere from Laos, is getting ready to take up his assignment for language and theological studies in Australia. I was privileged to visit his family with him and to experience their love and care which really touched my heart.

^{I read Angela’s Ashes, a memoir of Frank McCourt, an Irish American, in which he vividly and dramatically portrayed his early childhood in Ireland.}