This month, the SVD Australia province had three young men take their final vows.  A week after that, nine young SVD temporary professed renewed their vows.  And the SVD final professed are continuing with their vows in their ministries.  These vows highlight our spiritual love and commitment for God during the coronavirus crisis around the world. The SVD constitution says, “By taking the public vows of consecrated chastity, evangelical poverty and apostolic obedience, we respond to his call and follow him along the way of evangelical counsel”. (Cons 201)

The power of love is making us free to worship God and exercise our mission.

The SVD AUS Province has welcomed two new postulants, who have answered Jesus’ call to “come and see”.

Aaron Ong from Brunei and Shehan Fernando from Sri Lanka have taken the step to join the Divine Word Missionaries and test their vocation to religious missionary life.

SVD missionary students spread out from Dorish Maru College in Melbourne over the summer months to take up pastoral placements in different Divine Word Missionary communities around Australia.

Some enjoyed the experience of suburban parish life, while others immersed themselves in Indigenous culture in Central Australia, or joined in ministry at the Janssen Spirituality Centre in Victoria.

Divine Word Missionary students and newly arrived missionaries in the AUS Province have spent part of their summer taking part in an Acculturation Program to help them adjust to life and ministry in Australia.

Entitled ‘Living and Working in the Multicultural Society of Australia’, the program was held at St Leonards in Victoria and included young students from a diverse cultural background, including Vietnam, Ghana, Ecuador, Mexico, China and Thailand.

January is an important month on the Divine Word Missionaries’ calendar, with not one, but two feast days of SVD saints to celebrate.

This year, both St Arnold Janssen (feast day, January 15) and St Joseph Freinademetz (January 29) were remembered with a joint celebration at the St Arnold Janssen Chapel in Marsfield on January 19. Celebrations have also been held in the various different parts of the Province, around Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.

The first ever Asia Pacific Workshop of SVD Lay Partners has been hailed a huge success with 38 people attending from eight countries and 11 Provinces.

The gathering was held in the Philippines and was a significant step forward in the growth of the lay partners movement within the Divine Word Missionaries.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John1:14)

God became human and lived among us. What a mind-blowing reality. As I come to the end of my six-year term as Provincial, I have been reflecting in this Advent season on how the missionary must be the incarnation for the people to whom we are sent. We must embody the reality of God-with-us.

It was a full, joyous house at St Paschal’s Chapel, Box Hill earlier this month as two young Divine Word Missionaries, who have undertaken their formation in Australia, were ordained to the priesthood.

Toub Anisong Chanthavong, who is the first person from Laos to join the SVD, and Simon Dominguez Prospero from Mexico, were ordained by Archbishop Peter A. Comensoli and will now take up their first missionary assignments in the AUS Province and Central European Province respectively.

A new book on missionary life, by Fr Ennio Mantovani SVD, was launched during the SVD Mission Day activities in Melbourne this month.

Fr Ennio’s book, 'Sixty Years of Priestly and Missionary Life: The History of a Journey', is a reflection on his priestly and missionary life and on the changes that took place in the understanding of both the priesthood and the missions.

Three missionaries from the SVD AUS Province are taking part in a revamped Dei Verbum Biblical Pastoral Course in Italy, along with participants from all around the world.

The two-month course, which runs through to early November, is designed as an ongoing Biblical formation program for those engaged in the Biblical Apostolate.