Divine Word Missionary communities throughout the AUS Province and the world have had much to celebrate in January, with the commemoration of two SVD saints – St Arnold Janssen and St Joseph Freinademetz.

St Arnold’s feast day was on January 15, the date of his death in 1909 in Steyl, Holland. He 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.

Happy New Year! I trust that as you receive this edition of In the Word, you are feeling rested and refreshed after a break over the Summer period.

As 2021 begins to unfold, it’s hard not to wonder what is in store for us after all the turmoil of 2020. And yet, our faith tells us it is better to take each day as it comes than to worry about the future.

One of the best experiences I had with my parents was when in 2011 I toured them for four weeks around Australia and New Zealand.

The first Sunday after the Solemnity of the Epiphany, we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This feast day marks the end of the Christmas liturgical season.

Fr Joseph Reddy SVD has bid a fond farewell to parishioners at Mary, Mother of the Church parish in Macquarie Fields as he prepares to take up a new assignment in the Townsville Diocese.

Fr Joseph has been Assistant Priest at Macquarie Fields since April 2017 and says his time there taught him a lot.

The movie, “To be or not to be” is a comedy film by Mel Brooks which is about a group of stage actors who are trying to escape from the Nazis in the newly occupied Poland in 1939. In one scene, Frederick Bronski, played by Mel Brooks, is asked to act like a Nazi Colonel in order to fool a Polish spy for the Nazis.

It was a joyful occasion for the Divine Word Missionaries last Saturday when three young men were ordained to the priesthood.

Adrianus Yohanes (John) Mai SVD, Clement Baffoe SVD, and Yosef Meda SVD were ordained in Melbourne by Auxiliary Bishop Terrence Curtin in front of a small congregation, thanks to COVID-19 restrictions, but an international audience, thanks to the event being live-streamed back home to their families.

As we move toward the Australia Province Chapter in 2021, we reflect more deeply on our mission and spirituality. 

The Australia Province is set in many regions and its ministries have many characteristics, but there is one spirit of mission and at its heart is the Trinity.

Here we are in Advent, the beginning of the new liturgical year, and oh boy, are we ready for a fresh start.

After a year which began with bushfires in Australia, then floods and of course the unexpected arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are weary and are looking to turn the page. Advent is the perfect season to slow down and re-set.

Every time I read today’s Gospel I am reminded of an experience I had when I was a young priest.  I was helping out in a neighbouring parish and really did not know much about them.  So I based my homily on the conversation that some of us priests had at breakfast about how easy it is for us to “sanitize” this Gospel text and how easily we lose the sense of shock and surprise that Jesus’ listeners must have felt.