A new community centre for the Vietnamese Catholic Community of Brisbane will signal a new beginning, filled with hope, and promote an environment of faith, care for each other, and cultural enrichment.

The Vietnamese Catholic Community Centre development at Inala was put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now back underway, with construction beginning on the church and the centre’s office.

In his Lenten Message this year, Pope Francis urged us to “… experience Lent with love”.

He was referring specifically to caring for those affected by the Coronavirus, but it’s a great invitation for us all to really enter into the season in a positive and meaningful way.

Temptations are a regular part of our lives. When I was still living in Macquarie Fields, five days a week, I’d go out in the morning and take an hour walk.

The person suffering with leprosy, in today’s Gospel, takes the initiative to come to Jesus, and in a way, puts the ball in Jesus’ court and says, “If you want to, you can cure me.”

I believe you would agree when I say, “The past year was a difficult one for most of us”.

Today’s gospel summarises the early activity of Jesus in Galilee. He went about the villages preaching the Kingdom of God and healing people – a sign that the Kingdom of God was already present among the people. 

While many Australians hit the beach over the Summer holiday period, some SVD students at Dorish Maru College headed out to work – taking on jobs in fruit-picking and factory employment.

The Summer work experience is part of their program of missionary formation and enculturation, helping them to better understand and empathise with the working people they will serve.

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.