One of the great things about missionary life – and life in general – is the people you get to know along the way, and the richness they bring to your life.

Sr Rita Hassett rsm was one of those people who enriched the lives of many SVD missionaries, with her zest for life and her love for people and mission. Sr Rita died in her sleep recently, while in Alice Springs, working with us at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish.

Life brings to all of us problems as well as success, despair and joy. In my recent pilgrimage to Greece and Turkey, in the footsteps of St Paul, I learnt many things about the Great Apostle to the Gentiles especially this - that St Paul had learnt to adapt himself to every kind of circumstances, even being in jail.

We all face the inevitability of loss, sickness, aging, and death in our human experience. We are, after all, humans, not gods.

Family holds such an important part in our lives. Ideally, although I acknowledge, not always, it is the place where we are brought into the world, nurtured, formed, taught to love and be loved.

It is the place where we feel safe, as well as sometimes frustrated and annoyed! Family is on my mind because I am about to head home to Germany and Poland for a period of leave, to catch up with family and friends.

In Australia we are part way through a Federal Election campaign. So far, the population at large seems to be fairly underwhelmed with what’s on offer from the various parties. I understand this apathy, but I worry sometimes about this disengagement from the political process, because I wonder where it will lead us, and especially what it will mean for the most vulnerable people in our society.

The Australian Bishops have decided to dip their toe into the campaign, not in a party-political way, but by calling for the voices of the “thrown away people” to be heard.

The SVD AUS Province is buzzing this month with the arrival of Fr Bob Kisala SVD, the Vice-General of the Divine Word Missionaries, who is here on official Visitation from the Generalate in Rome.

The purpose of the Visitation is to reaffirm the Province in its Mission in the Church today and to affirm and empower our missionaries in what they are doing on the local level throughout the Province, in Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.

Happy Easter! It’s wonderful that this edition of In the Word is published in Easter Week, just days after the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord. What a joyful time this is.

We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song! This is what we profess, but what does it mean for us in our life and our mission?

The year has begun in typical fast-paced fashion for us all, and we are just about to leave summer behind in most of the AUS Province and head into Autumn.

I quite like the fact that here in the south, Lent normally takes place in Autumn – a time when we see the leaves start to fall from the trees and we ponder the fact that they will return to the earth, from where they came.

The year has begun in typical fast-paced fashion for us all, and we are just about to leave summer behind in most of the AUS Province and head into Autumn.

I quite like the fact that here in the south, Lent normally takes place in Autumn – a time when we see the leaves start to fall from the trees and we ponder the fact that they will return to the earth, from where they came.

Christmas is special for so many reasons. It is a time for family and friends, for gift-giving, for church-going, for eating, and, perhaps by the late afternoon, even for napping. As a European, I love the relaxed and laid back atmosphere of the Aussie Christmas, which is more likely to feature a game of beach cricket than the snow men of my youth.

But even as we appreciate all that Christmas is to us, let us try to never forget that Christmas is truly special because it recalls the fact that a little over 2000 years ago, God chose to come and dwell with us, in the person of Jesus Christ.

The beginning of Advent always comes as a bit of a shock in this increasingly busy world we live in. Just as everything seems to get busier in the countdown to Christmas, the Church asks us to slow down, to reflect, to prepare.

This year, as the world reels from recent terror attacks, we have more cause than usual to engage in some serious Advent reflection and to earnestly await the arrival of the Prince of Peace.