Fr Thuy Xuan Pham SVD celebrated nearly a quarter of a century in vows recently by taking a few months out and heading to Italy for a Renewal Course in which he says he sought to deepen his relationship with God, with the SVD, and with other people.

Fr Thuy was born and raised in Vietnam, but came to Australia to complete his formation as a Divine Word Missionary and took his vows in 1995 and was ordained here before being assigned to the AUS Province.

As the New Year rolls on, we plan resolutions to make some changes in life over the coming year. Often times, we fail to persist with the promises we made and find that the resolutions just made have been broken. It’s hard to consistently persist with our resolutions, but it’s not impossible. Amidst all the hustle and bustle of life what we often forget to include in our life is ‘the God particle’ which can enthuse us when we fail and raise us when we fall.

When God intervenes in our life, something surprising happens and we are dumbfounded. Many of the Biblical stalwarts were the same - they sought the hand of God in their life and God surprised them. 

The scholars of the Jewish Law at the time of Jesus continued to argue among themselves as to which is the greatest of the 613 commandments of God that they identified in the Jewish writings.

In today’s Gospel we have Jesus being challenged again by some of the Jewish leaders (Pharisees and Herodians are mentioned specifically) who would like to catch him in error or put him in a difficult situation so that people would not listen to and trust him.

Many of us travel through life in search of God's love, sometimes unaware of the things around us that we need to help us find and experience that love. I am making that journey and learning many things about myself along the way. Come follow me on my journey!

Gone are the days, when I used to see people working on the farm, sharpening their axes and sickles. I barely understood the need to spend so much time on sharpening the instruments before putting them to work. Now I know that to get a good result, a lot of preparation is needed. And so it is with God's love; we need to be aware of what is necessary to gain the fullness of God's love.

I did not keep my trust in angels, and their gifts of love and help, as often as I should've - until I came across one in my real life.

It was October 18, 2016, as I was on my return journey to Mumbai after a brisk home visit before I flew to Australia, that, through the providence of God, I found this angel in the form of a family friend, to whom I was introduced a couple of months previously by another priest-friend who I also met by chance.

There is a syndrome which many of us may not have heard of. It is called the shifting baseline syndrome. This syndrome is mostly used to refer to reference points used to measure aspects of ecosystems, for example quality and quantify of fish in a lake.

It was found that as successive generations of scientists studied a particular ecosystem, they often took the baseline as what they were able to measure at the beginning of their contact with that ecosystem. Changes over time were measured against that reference point.

There are two lovely statements about trusting God in today’s readings. In the first reading from Isaiah God says: Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you.

“Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings. But I in justice shall behold your face; on waking I shall be content in your presence.”

This Sunday’s Gospel reading reminds us of two important lessons to be learned if we are to be sincere followers of Christ.