By Janine Morett, An Augustinian Volunteer in South Africa For the last 11 months, I have experienced the word “community” in several different ways but every time I experience it, I think of the words “love” and “ubuntu”. Ubuntu is an African word (and way of life) that means a person is a person through another person. Everyone is interconnected and therefore, forms one massive community that is full of love, acceptance, and solidarity. Every individua... [More]

Dear Friends of the Augustinian Missions: As we come to the end of another year we tend to become reflective of the past. In the Augustinian Mission Office we can look back on 2012 with great happiness. During this past year our friars in Japan, Peru and South Africa have continued their ministry of serving the Church in those distant lands. In Japan and Peru we have continued to see young men continue their journey in Formation to become full members of the Order. One group of Augustinian ... [More]

Christmas Letter 2012 [More]

Wednesday, December 12, 2012, on a UNITED Airlines flights from Lima,Peru through Houston and then on to Newark, NJ, the Augustinian Volunteers who have served for almost a year in Peru returned to the United States. Several hours earlier a South African Airways flight, having crossed the African continent and the Atlantic Ocean, landed in JFK airport in New York, carrying the Augustinian Volunteers who had served in our missions in South Africa. For these young men and women their year of ser... [More]

Dear Friends, I take this opportunity to write you a letter as we enter into the season of Advent, the four weeks of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a joyous time to reflect on the great gift from God, the gift of the Savior of the world. It is a busy time for people. Hopefully, in the midst of the business of these four weeks we will all stop, pause and call to mind what this season is all about; "Prepare the way of the Lord" in our hearts and lives. Ma... [More]

Dear Friends of the Augustinian Missions: As a nation we gather to celebrate Thanksgiving this week. In the midst of the natural disaster of Hurricane Sandy, the conflict in the Middle East and so many other places, it might seem that the negative outweighs the good in our world. We need to keep these intentions in our thoughts and prayers. We also must look at the good in our world. The outpouring of support and aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy has been a powerful message to the goodn... [More]

By Jamie Zwijack (An Augustinian Volunteer in Peru) When I’m not living in Chulucanas, Peru as an Augustinian Volunteer, I live on Chicago’s north side in a Catholic Worker Community. Our community is a mix of workers, volunteers and guests (single adults struggling with homelessness). We all live together in a big, old house in Uptown and try to maintain our community in the tradition of the Catholic Worker Movement (http://www.catholicworker.org/). We’re able to provi... [More]

The Augustinian Order is a worldwide Order that is demonstrated when we share the gift of our friars in various parts of the world. Our Province of Cebu in the Philippines has been a support to our missions by allowing friars from that nation to minister in our parishes in Japan and South Africa. South Africa has been blessed by the presence of many friars from the Philippines since our beginning on that continent. One of the longest serving friars has been Father Benji Gamos, OSA (“Ba... [More]

One day when I was in the fifth grade, we were all asked to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. There were doctors, lawyers, and athletes. I drew a picture of a priest celebrating mass. All of these pictures represented our dreams. While I first came upon that dream of mine many years ago, it was, and still is, my dream. As we were reflecting one night at Jacob’s Well, one of the Malvern Prep juniors said that he met a student at St. Leo’s who wanted to be a doc... [More]

Jimmy White is a graduate of Malvern Preparatory School, an Augustinian school. During his senior year he traveled to South Africa as part of the school's service project. He is presently a student at Notre Dame University, but has taken time to return to Africa with present Malvern Prep students. When I was a child, I never liked moving. I remember when my family and I moved into our second house. I was just a few years old. The first night in the new house, I packed up my blanket and bottle... [More]