Mission is about more than bringing God’s love to people in far-off lands – it’s also about sharing God’s love with people closer to home, in our parishes and communities, and it’s a responsibility for all Christians.
Fr Asaeli Rass SVD is the Provincial of the Divine Word Missionaries AUS Province, which covers Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar, and he says there’s never been a more exciting time to be engaged in mission.
When Fr Rajaskhar Reddy SVD, found himself stranded at home in India during the COVID border closures, he saw first-hand how hard-hit the Indian people were by the impacts of the virus.
Fr Raja was in India for three months’ home-leave at the beginning of this year and was due to return to his parish in Thailand in March, but just a week before his departure, Thailand announced it was closing its borders.
The St Maximilian Kolbe Parish Youth Group in Marsden, Brisbane is famous for its annual winter sleep-out fundraiser, but when COVID-19 restrictions meant it couldn’t go ahead this year, the young people, and the whole parish, decided to put their walking shoes on for mission instead.
The youth group came up with the idea of holding a We Are the World Winter Appeal, which aimed to raise funds for people in India who are struggling to provide the necessities because of the impact of the pandemic.
Fr Prakash Menezes SVD says his return to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Alice Springs feels like “coming home”, as it was the first parish he was assigned to as a Divine Word Missionary more than five years ago.
Back then, Fr Prakash was in Alice Springs as assistant priest, but last month, he returned to be installed as Parish Priest.
Indigenous spirituality was one of the key themes explored when the newer members of the SVD AUS Province gathered together recently for ongoing ministry formation in the Australian context.
The three-day gathering at Boronia in suburban Melbourne, was for confreres who are either newly arrived in the Province or are under five years in final vows.
The SVD Thai District recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Divine Word Missionaries’ presence in Thailand.
The anniversary was marked during a gathering of the confreres for their quarterly recollection, where, in a spirit of prayer they gave thanks to God for blessing the Thailand mission over the years.
The young people of St Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Marsden, Queensland, recently brought Pope Francis’ plea for ecological conversion to life when they hit the streets with garbage bags in hand, for Clean Up Australia Day.
“It was Laudato Si’ in action,” says Parish Priest, Fr Sunil Nagothu SVD, of the Pope’s encyclical on ‘Caring for our Common Home’.
After 10 years as a missionary in Kenya, Fr Mariusz Kubista SVD has arrived in Myanmar, saying he is keen to get to know the people and help establish the AUS Province’s new mission in the south-east Asian nation.
“My hope personally is to fulfil the will of God,” he says. “But for the mission started here, I would say my hope is to reach out to people in their local language, both in the written and spoken form.”
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was among the special guests who attended the vibrant and colourful Multicultural Fiesta at St Mark’s Parish, Inala, recently.
The day was a celebration of the many different cultural groups who make up the St Mark’s community and included a multicultural Mass, followed by entertainment from different groups and the sharing of food from the many cultural groups present.
The roof of St Maximilian Kolbe parish in Kingston-Marden, Queensland is freshly adorned with rows of solar panels – a concrete sign of the parish community’s commitment to playing its part in preserving God’s creation in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si.
Parish Priest Fr Sunil Paul Nagothu SVD says parishioners have worked hard to raise funds to support the transition to renewable energy, with the purchase and installation of the solar panels now providing a sustainable power solution for the parish.