Columban Martyrology:  A generation of martyrs   and leaders

TIM LEONARD, CORNELIUS TIERNEY, FRANCIS DOUGLAS, PATRICK McMAHON, PETER FALLON, JOHN HENEGHAN, PATRICK KELLY, JOSEPH MONAGHAN, JOHN LALOR, TOM MURPHY, ANTHONY COLLIER, JAMES MAGINN, PATRICK REILLY,   PATRICK BRENNAN, THOMAS CUSACK, JOHN O'BRIEN, FRANCIS CANAVAN, THOMAS FLYNN, JOHN WALSH, MARTIN DEMPSEY, JOAN SAWYER, JAMES DONOHUE, VINCENT J. POWER, RUFUS HALLEY.

I was really struck and confine in seemingly pure admiration to the Columban fathers’ of such generation their life to Christ, alone they have offered. I am so grateful to attain such information of their Holy bravery in the face of sharing ones life to others so that they may discover God’s chosen path, and to discover also others to discover themselves.

I was deeply move by the gravity of pureness to the love, to the Eucharist, to the existence of God’s passion to his people through the Columban fathers’ who have dedicated unselfishly, the life that is so imperative to the Gospels Jesus has handed over to his disciples.

The uniqueness of their servanthood to the everyday faces of Christ which can be seen to the oppressed the captives the forgotten, the hopeless, the faithless, the desperation and the disillusioned individuals of our time today, through their faith in God with their ordinary life with so powerful extra ordinary works they have battled to the world.

The Columban fathers’ is an act of the Holy Spirit driven by the First Father’s of the Church, their involvement to the community that needs prayers of faith that works, performs them so well with such enthusiasm. Their stories bring tears to me over flowing with joy from my heart.

One story was about   Fr. John Heneghan his maturity to the greatness of the spirit his faith dedicated to the realism that God is not all about being saved by him, not just the breaking of the bread but surely willingness to offer self to the drinking from the Chalice, the cup of suffering through the will of God alone.

Fr. Patrick Heneghan captures the true identity of being a servant of Christ, amidst the threat of death in execution from the Japanese imperial army  he remain in his final hour committed to the spirit of servanthood to God. With head vow as he marched to his end a fervent prayer was the only thing he has and that shows his unwavering life to serve not just the breaking of the bread but also to the drinking the raising of the Chalice.

As of my life today the example of  the Columban Fathers feathers in me the ideal hope of venturing into the calling from God , which I am now discerning with the prayers emanated from the guiding  light of the vocation under the accompaniment of the Columban Fathers and I’m  thankful to the Gates of Saint Peter to  have met under the spiritual tutelage of  Fr. Rolly Aniscal Fr. Jude Genovia, Kuya Bernie and  Fr. Paul Glynn of  the Society of Saint Columban Bobbio.

Soli Deo Gloria!