Who is Jesus Christ? This has been an age-old question that many people particularly theologians have tried to answer.

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.

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.

When Fr Toub Anisong Chanthavong SVD took the short trip from Thailand to Laos in December for three months of home leave with his family, it never occurred to him that a worldwide pandemic would prevent him from returning to his ministry for many months.

Toub had been set to take up a new parish assignment as assistant priest in Ban Phongsoung, Thailand upon his return from home leave, but instead, has been keeping himself busy in various forms of ministry and service in Laos.

Born and raised on the Mekong Delta river in South Vietnam, Fr Long Nguyen SVD could have ended up a businessman, but instead he chose to become a missionary priest and he is looking forward to taking up his first assignment, in Australia.

It’s not Fr Long’s first time in Australia though. He spent a year here in 2012 as part of his training with the Divine Word Missionaries, as well as a year in Thailand, and he couldn’t wait to come back.

Fr Larry Nemer SVD says he can’t remember ever not wanting to be a priest, and as he celebrates his 60^th jubilee of priesthood, he says he gives thanks for a lifetime of priestly ministry doing what he loves – teaching.

Fr Larry, who now lives in retirement at the SVD Marsfield community, celebrated his jubilee this month with confreres.

Fr Prakash Menezes SVD says his return to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Alice Springs feels like “coming home”, as it was the first parish he was assigned to as a Divine Word Missionary more than five years ago.

Back then, Fr Prakash was in Alice Springs as assistant priest, but last month, he returned to be installed as Parish Priest.

While at Sydney University in the late sixties, I belonged to the Catholic Bushwalking Club. Groups of us would go for day walks and weekend camping in the Blue Mountains, this being a well-known mountain range west of Sydney. There were a number of Columban Missionary priests who were also present on these different walks and camping weekends.

When I finished my studies in Geology, I applied and was accepted to work for a mining company in Queensland. However at the same time that career seemed less and less appealing. One time when I was on a Bushwalking camping trip I experienced a calling to follow Jesus as a priest.

It’s a long way from Fr Prakash Menezes SVD’s home in India to his parish of Santa Teresa in the Central Australian desert country, but it is exactly the kind of Christ-led and people-centred life he hoped for when he signed up to be a missionary priest.

Fr Prakash joined the Divine Word Missionaries in India and undertook his theological studies and formation in Melbourne, where he made his final vows and was ordained to the priesthood in 2014.

A new SVD missionary has arrived in Australia from Ghana and is looking forward to doing God’s will among the people of the AUS Province.

Fr Gideon Awudi was ordained to the priesthood in August last year and this is his first assignment as a Divine Word Missionary.