For many years, Maryknoll’s Father Bob McCahill has been sending an annual letter to friends in which he chronicles his experience living among the people of Bangladesh. The following is an edited version of his letter received at the completion of 2013.
Fr. James Kroeger enjoys life of Maryknoll missionary
“A thousand years in your eyes are merely a day gone by, before a watch passes in the night, you wash them away; they sleep, and in the morning they sprout again like an herb.” Psalm 90:4-5
As the sainthood cause for a Vietnam War chaplain gathers momentum, the priest was remembered at a memorial Mass Wednesday [September 4] as a man “completely dedicated to the spiritual care of his Marines.”
During his first overseas trip, Pope Francis encouraged all Catholics to become animated missioners without borders.
“Where does Jesus send us?” he asked World Youth Day pilgrims on July 28 in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. “There are no borders, no limits: He sends us to everyone.”
Will you answer the Pope’s call to mission?
For more than 100 years, Maryknoll missioners have been living the message of missioners without borders. Maryknoll has been the heart and the hands of the U.S. Catholic Church serving those who are most in need around the world.
The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers is a community of Catholic priests and Maryknoll Brothers who work as missioners in 27 different countries, including the U.S. For more information visit www.maryknollsociety.org or visit the Maryknoll Vocation’s website.
The Maryknoll Sisters is a congregation of women religious, who are dedicated to mission working with those in need throughout the world. They currently minister in 26 countries. For more information: www.maryknollsisters.org
The Maryknoll Lay Missioners is a Catholic organization inspired by the mission of Jesus to live and work in poor communities in Africa, Asia and the Americas, responding to basic needs and helping to create a more just and compassionate world. For more information: www.mklm.org
The Maryknoll Affiliates are communities of people who commit themselves to the mission goals of Maryknoll in the context of Chapters in the U.S. and overseas. They challenge one another to witness to mission as a way of life while striving for peace and justice for all of God’s creation. For more information visit www.maryknollaffiliates.org
A delegation from the Diocese of Oakland, along with people from Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, joined Maryknoll in the summer of 2013.
Father Dae Kim (김 대욱) remembers that he was called to the priesthood at, of all the places, a bowling alley in Queens, New York. That is where he definitely decided to join the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.
Father Kim was born in Busan, South Korea, as the only child of Kwan Mo Kim and Sang Soon Pak. Though his parents had been baptized into the church, religion was not a component of the family’s structure when Father Kim was a child. The family emigrated to America when he was 10 years old, and his so-called personal “epiphany” occurred during his final year of college.
Fearing that he might fail an important project that would jeopardize graduation, then-student Kim visited the university chapel to sit, think and pray.
“At the time, I was feeling empty and lost,” said Father Kim, who found peace as he continued to visit the chapel and deepen his faith.
Baptism, Teaching Lead To Maryknoll
He passed the class, graduated and decided it was time that he was baptized into the Catholic Church. After graduation, Kim landed a good-paying job in the corporate world, but again he felt lost since “all I wanted was to make money and enjoy the privileges of rich people.”
Kim decided to volunteer as a teacher’s assistant at the St. Paul Chong Ha-Sang Korean Catholic Church in Flushing, New York. While there, a Maryknoll priest who is a teacher at the church’s Sunday school program and helped prepare Kim for his baptism and confirmation, extended an invitation to a Maryknoll Vocation Discernment retreat. A couple of years later, during a night out for students and teachers at a local bowling alley, Dae Kim announced that he was ready to apply to Maryknoll.
“I have been called to go out and invite all people to eat at the great banquet of our God, especially the most vulnerable – the poor, the oppressed and voiceless,” said Father Kim. “My ordination is my radical response to living out our baptismal call to mission. Being a missioner is to continue the prophetic mission of Jesus.”
Learn more about Father Kim from Maryknoll magazine.
Father Bob McCahill, M.M. recently sent several stories from Bangladesh, where the Goshen, Indiana, native serves in mission. Father McCahill is known as the “Bicycle Disciple,” since he travels the countryside on his bike to serve the sick and the poor.
The following Christmas letter from an early Maryknoll missioner to China was submitted to Maryknoll magazine by Louise Moresco of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, who was given it in 1950 and saved it as “a reminder of all the good works our missioners do around the world.” The writer, Father Gerard A. Donovan, served in China from 1931 until he was kidnapped and murdered by bandits in late 1937. In the letter, Father Donovan refers to Father Edward A. Weis, a Maryknoll priest for more than 50 years.
Maryknoll missioners often explain that their work in mission is rewarded many times over with the hospitality, warmth, love and prayers that they receive from the people they serve. One example of this resulted in a gift of a lifetime.
ABOUT MARYKNOLL
We are a Catholic Society of priests and brothers based in the United States. We are dedicated to missionary work overseas in over 20 countries. Additionally, we animate Catholics in the United States to follow their own baptismal call to share God’s compassion and love with the poor, the sick, and all those in need.
OUR GENERAL COUNCIL
(Fr. Lance P. Nadeau, Fr. James M. Lynch, Fr. Timothy O. Kilkelly, Fr. Juan Montes Zúñiga)
The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers is overseen by our General Council, led by Superior General Rev. Lance P. Nadeau, M.M.
OUR FOUNDERS
(Our Co-Founders Father Price and Father Walsh)
MISSION MINISTRIES
PLACES WE SERVE
EVANGELIZATION, PARISHES, AND PROJECTS
STORIES OF MISSION
The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers Africa Region will provide tuition assistance to African clergy, male and female religious at institutes of higher education or specialized training. Read More
NAVIGATE MARYKNOLL VOCATIONS
The calling of a lifetime
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