The Divine Word Missionaries joined more than 2000 high schoolers, young adults, youth leaders, teachers, priests and religious who took part in a life-changing encounter with God and the Church at the Ignite Youth Conference in Brisbane recently.

SVD AUS Province Vocations Director, Fr Yon Wiryono, who attended the event, said the conference, which reflected on the theme ‘Rise Up’ was “incredible and encouraging”.

A group of 50 young adults from Sydney’s Vietnamese community came together recently for a retreat where they explored the theme: “Me, Myself and God”.

It’s the 74^th year that the retreat has been held and the guest speaker was Fr Manh Le SVD, a Vietnamese Australian priest currently ministering with the Indigenous community of Palm Island, off the coast of Townsville.

Faith communities in Alice Springs are working together with local elders to respond in practical and spiritual ways to the growing youth street crime crisis in the Central Australian city.

Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD, says the first step in responding to the situation is to understand the deep-seated social issues at play.

The SVD recently led a Youth Retreat in the northern part of Fiji aimed at helping tackle the growing problem of cannabis use among young people, while also calling them to action on the issue of climate change.

The retreat was facilitated by SVD AUS Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass, who was in Fiji on home-leave.

Young people in SVD parishes and migrant chaplaincies in Australia will be invited to join an exciting new initiative, ‘SVD Youth’, which launched in Queensland on Sunday.

The SVD Youth is an offshoot of the SVD AUS Province’s Vocations Ministry and aims to gather young people together for mission formation and to nourish and support them in their spiritual journey.

The SVD has signed up to The Sydney Statement, an interfaith charter for building bridges between people from different religions and is looking forward to supporting its aims in a variety of ways.

The Sydney Statement was developed by Youth PoWR (Parliament of the World’s Religions), a coalition of young adults from different religions, following two years of consultation and drafting.

“God’s mission is our mission.  His life, our life.” That’s the message that the SVD shared with more than 5500 young people attending the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (ACYF) in Perth this month.

The Divine Word Missionaries had a stall at the Festival’s ‘Encounter Expo’, where they shared the SVD charism with youth who dropped in to visit. A number of SVD parishes and chaplaincies also took groups of their young people to experience the big faith gathering which had the theme: ‘Listen to what the Spirit is saying’.

The young people of St Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Marsden, Queensland, recently brought Pope Francis’ plea for ecological conversion to life when they hit the streets with garbage bags in hand, for Clean Up Australia Day.

“It was Laudato Si’ in action,” says Parish Priest, Fr Sunil Nagothu SVD, of the Pope’s encyclical on ‘Caring for our Common Home’.

Fr Joseph Reddy SVD was so moved by his pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Panama that he was inspired to capture his experience in poetry and we are proud to feature Fr Joseph's poem in this edition 'In the Word'.

Fr Joseph's pilgrim group from the Diocese of Wollongong, spent time in Peru before arriving in Panama for the World Youth Day event with Pope Francis and young people from across the world, all exploring the theme of Mary's big 'Yes' to God when she said, “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38)

Fr Joseph Reddy SVD is heading to Panama next month with 24 young people from the Wollongong Diocese to take part in his first World Youth Day experience.

Fr Joseph, who is assistant priest at Mary Mother of the Church Parish in Macquarie Fields, will be a chaplain to the group, which is mostly made up of teachers, aged in their 20s, from Diocese of Wollongong schools.