The Lay Partners group of the SVD Australia Province joined forces with lay partner groups from around the world recently to take part in a ‘Prayer Bridge’ to mark World Day of the Poor.

The worldwide prayer initiative was an idea conceived by the lay partners of the SVD in Germany and embraced by lay partners and SVD members in a range of countries.

An initiative of Pope Francis, the Second World Day of the Poor was held on Sunday, November 18, under the theme: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him”.

Mervyn Rodrigues, a member of Australia’s first group of SVD lay partners, at Marsfield, says the group was keen to be involved.

“Pope Francis is very passionate about issues relating to poverty and as a group, we decided to be part of it,” he says.

“Poverty feels close to home in many ways, even for us here in Sydney. We live in a first world city and you might think these issues don’t occur here, but poverty is still very much part of many people’s lives.

“This cause is also very close to the heart of the mission of the SVD, and as people who are committed to the SVD path, it is important to us too.”

Mervyn says the members of the lay partners group took part in the worldwide ‘Prayer Bridge’ by committing to pray individually for the poor on November 18.

“We couldn’t all gather together for it, so we committed to pray individually and then, with World Day of the Poor being on a Sunday, those of us attending Mass at St Arnold Janssen Chapel also prayed together for the poor during Mass,” he says. 

“Fr Frank Gerry SVD gave an excellent homily on the topic and the Prayers of the Faithful were also modified to pray for the poor.”

Mervyn says it was great for the fledgling group of SVD lay partners in Australia to be a part of a worldwide initiative  of SVD lay partners.

“It was a prayer chain kind of initiative, to pray together and have communion with other lay partners as well for the World Day of the Poor. It was good to be part of it.”

The first group of SVD lay partners was officially launched at Marsfield during a celebration for the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary and SVD Foundation Day in September with 10 lay pioneers.

Fr Dom Flores SVD is Chair of the working group set up within the Province to explore the possibility of formalising lay involvement.

Mervyn says the group is still in its infancy, but he is hopeful for its future.

“We are still developing ourselves as a group of individuals committed to propagating the SVD cause,” he says.

“We are still babies, if you will, learning to walk, to speak, and we have quite a long road ahead of us as a group.

“But the important thing is that everybody is committed. Each of us wants to be a part of spreading the light of the Word and we really want to see it grow from here.

“We’ve had a lot of support from the SVD confreres and the Mission team and the Provincial, Fr Henry, and even the former Superior-General Fr Heinz Kuluke came to speak to us when he was here, so we are looking forward to seeing what the future brings.”