Earlier this month, the Catholic Church in Australia celebrated National Vocations Awareness Week. It’s a week in which we are encouraged to consider our vocation, whether it be to priesthood, religious life, marriage or single life. More broadly, we can also consider our professional role as a vocation. I can think of many teachers, for instance, whose work is clearly more than a job to them. It is a vocation, or a calling.

Vocation is a mysterious thing, given as a gift from God. I can’t tell you exactly how I arrived at the knowledge of my own vocation, first to religious life and then priesthood. It can best be described as a growing inner awareness that this is the life that God wanted for me, and that awareness just wouldn’t go away. I felt a strong call to missionary life, so I knew my vocation would take me far away from where I grew up in Germany and Poland, but even I couldn’t have guessed that I would end up being a missionary priest in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia.

One of the things I’m proudest of in the AUS Province of the SVD is that we have a strong tradition of providing formation, education and training for young missionaries from around the region and the world. It is a real privilege for us to be able to foster the vocations of young men who have chosen this life, and whom God has chosen for this life. It is not always easy for young people to give up the allure of the material world in this day and age, but it is always a profound witness to the love of God when they do so.

We are looking forward to celebrating this witness of God’s love next month with the ordination of three of our seminarians in Melbourne.

But Vocations Awareness Week is not just about priests and religious. Each of us has a vocation in life and for Christians, whether we are married, single, priests or religious, at the heart of our vocation is the call to mission. Through our particular vocation, we are called to share the love of Christ with others. I am often reminded of this when I see parents sharing their faith with their children. Parenthood is, I think, the frontline of missionary work.

In this edition of In the Word, we introduce you to our new Vocations Director, Fr Elmer Ibarra SVD. Fr Elmer, originally from the Philippines, shares his own vocation story with us, as well as his hopes for his new role in fostering vocations to the Divine Word Missionaries and beyond. We pray for God’s blessing on Fr Elmer, that his work will be fruitful, according to God’s will.

Yours in the Word,
Fr Henry Adler SVD
Provincial