January is an important month on the Divine Word Missionaries’ calendar, with not one, but two feast days of SVD saints to celebrate.
This year, both St Arnold Janssen (feast day, January 15) and St Joseph Freinademetz (January 29) were remembered with a joint celebration at the St Arnold Janssen Chapel in Marsfield on January 19. Celebrations have also been held in the various different parts of the Province, around Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.
St Arnold Janssen was the founder of the Divine Word Missionaries, as well as two orders of Religious Women, the Servant Sisters of the Holy Spirit and the Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration.
With the support of a number of bishops, Arnold inaugurated the mission house on September 8, 1875 in Steyl, Holland, and thus began the Divine Word Missionaries. On March 2, 1879 the first two missionaries set out for China. One of these was Joseph Freinademetz.
St Joseph Freinademetz was one of the first two members of the fledgling Divine Word Missionaries to be sent out on mission. St Joseph stayed for many years in China, during turbulent political and cultural times, and he faced many challenges, but he came to know and love the Chinese people and was loved by them in return.
Today, the members of the Society of the Divine Word, the Missionary Sisters and the Perpetual Adoration Sisters number about 10,000 and are present in 80 countries around the world. The Divine Word Missionaries are the largest international missionary congregation in the Catholic Church.
The SVD community in Sydney gathered on January 19 to celebrate the Society’s two proclaimed saints, with Mass, followed by morning tea.
Those present included SVD confreres, Lay Partners, and members of the Arnold Janssen Chapel community.
Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD was chief celebrant and the Mass was concelebrated by seven confreres.
President of the SVD Lay Partners, Mervyn Rodrigues says Fr Rass gave a stirring homily on “answering the call”, recalling how St Arnold and St Joseph answered their calls and we too are invited to answer God’s call for us.
“It was a very spirit-filled celebration,” Mervyn says. “A lot of people were introduced to our founders and their faith, zeal, passion and mission. It was a wonderful time of sharing.”
Mervyn says that in the lead-up to the joint celebration, novena prayers for the intercession of St Arnold were prayed and following the celebration, a novena of prayers to St Joseph. The novena prayers were prayed in the Arnold Janssen Chapel 15 minutes before Mass every day.
The celebrations will culminate on February 1, with a movie on St Joseph Freinademetz’ life and mission in China to be screened in the hall under the chapel from 3-5pm, followed by a high tea provided by the SVD lay partners.