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'As a Redemptorist, there are so many places to go, so many opportunities to spread the Word of God. It is a life that is full, rich, and - I love it.'
Hugh Thomas C.Ss.R.
To the Philippines and Round the World
I am Fr Hugh Thomas, Redemptorist priest who grew up in Warracknabeal, Victoria. After my ordination in 1965 aged 24 I was posted to the Phillipines where I was to spend most of the next 23 years, giving missions in rural villages known as barrios. The Philippines is a predominantely Catholic country, 99% Catholic in the areas I worked, but there are few priests and most rural barrios see a priest very infrequently.
The first 14 years I was there I worked in areas without electricity. This means life is very simple, conditions are rugged, but there are great opportunities to preach the gospel. All you have to do is put up a sound system (battery-powered or with a generator), play some attractive music, and everyone will turn up to hear. They were exciting, busy days, filled with visiting the people in their mostly tiny homes, preaching, hearing confessions, blessing marriages (mostly they just had to live together without church ceremony), instructing the children, and, of course, leaving time for our own prayer-life, which sustains the other work. By the way, the biggest number of couples I married in one night was 90!
In 1985, I was invited to refresh my theology and spiritual life with 18 months 'sabbatical' of which I spent 12 months in New York and 6 months in Nemi, near Rome. The latter included a 30 day retreat, which was a great preparation for the 3 weeks I was able to spend in the Holy Land on the way back to the Philippines.
Since mid-1989 I have been giving missions and retreats from Cairns to Geraldton, through much of New South Wales, Queensland, south Australia and, now, Western Australia. As a Redemptorist, there are so many places to go, so many opportunities to spread the Word of God. It is a life that is full, rich, and - I love it.
I am the Vocation Director for Western Australia and can be contacted by on email at frhughthomas@yahoo.co.uk.
Fr Hugh Thomas C.Ss.R.
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