Heading for Melbourne

St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne

Tomorrow I fly from Manila to Melbourne to do some mission appeals for the Columbans there. I spent two years on this kind of work in Britain, from 2000 to 2002, and have also done appeal work in the US midwest, during the summer of 1990, and later that year in Ireland, in Irish-speaking parishes. I love the 'buzz' around a parish on Sunday morning - and Saturday evening - and have found people and priests everywhere to be truly welcoming. The experience can give everyone, including the visiting missionary, a greater sense of the universality of the Church and of its mission to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.