I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for Advent – that beautiful time when the Church kicks off a whole new liturgical year with a period of reflection and preparation for the coming of the Christ child at Christmas.

It’s wonderfully counter-cultural to take these weeks of quiet, prayerful preparation when the rest of the world is going mad with parties and shopping and busyness.

This Sunday’s Gospel text always stirs up for me an imaginary charming “family” scene.  Bartimaeus (one of the few people cured by Jesus whose name we know) is having dinner with some of the other disciples of Jesus (we know that after his sight was restored he followed Jesus).

Dear young people, I would like to reflect with you on the mission that we have received from Christ. In speaking to you, I also address all Christians who live out in the Church the adventure of their life as children of God. What leads me to speak to everyone through this conversation with you is the certainty that the Christian faith remains ever young when it is open to the mission that Christ entrusts to us. “Mission revitalizes faith” (Redemptoris Missio, 2), in the words of Saint John Paul II, a Pope who showed such great love and concern for young people.

The Synod to be held in Rome this coming October, the month of the missions, offers us an opportunity to understand more fully, in the light of faith, what the Lord Jesus wants to say to you young people, and, through you, to all Christian communities.

Christians in Indonesia are called to be an interreligious and intercultural people if they are to be “Church-in-Mission”, according to visiting Indonesian theologian and missiologist Fr Raymundus I. Made Sudhiarsa SVD.

Fr Raymundus was visiting the AUS Province recently as guest speaker for the annual Mission Day activities hosted by the Divine Word Missionaries at Yarra Theological Union's Study Centre in Box Hill, Victoria. He also visited Sydney, where he spoke to confreres at Marsfield.

The month of October is always a big one for the SVD community as we take part in the worldwide celebration of World Mission Sunday and all the surrounding events.

This year, Pope Francis addressed his message for World Mission Day to young people, saying he would like to reflect with them “on the mission that we have received from Christ”.

More than 10,000 members of Australia’s Vietnamese Catholic community came together in Sydney recently for a three day festival to celebrate Mary, the Mother of God.

Fr Manh Le SVD, a Vietnamese Chaplain in Sydney, says that the NSW Vietnamese community has celebrated a festival each October, the month of the Rosary, for some years, but this was the first time that Vietnamese chaplaincy communities from right around Australia came together for the days of prayer, faith formation, music and friendship.

The Santa Teresa community in Central Australia celebrated its feast day – the feast of St Therese of Lisieux - recently in true Aussie fashion, by hosting a race meeting which attracted people from right around the local outback area.

The Santa Teresa Races are a fixture on the outback racing calendar and they are part of a weekend of celebrations for the feast day of the community’s patron saint.

Brother John Alting SVD has been a missionary in Papua New Guinea, Angola, Central Australia and Timor Leste and says while his experiences have been different in each place, there has been one common thread – the joy of being with the people.

Born and raised in Sydney, Br John says he was attracted to  the life of a religious from when he was a young man.

The SVD AUS Province is gearing up to celebrate World Mission Sunday this weekend, on October 21, and invites everyone to join in the celebrations.The SVD AUS Province is gearing up to celebrate World Mission Sunday this weekend, on October 21, and invites everyone to join in the celebrations.

Mission Secretary, Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD, has prepared a special liturgy outline for parishes or church groups to use to mark this special day on the Church’s international calendar and it is downloadable from the Province’s website.

“Joy is all around. I just have to be open to it,” says Fr Truong Thong Le SVD, as he takes up his first missionary assignment in Thailand.

Fr Truong, who was born in Vietnam and raised in the United States, has recently arrived back in Thailand as a fully-fledged SVD missionary priest, after spending time there as a student as part of the SVD’s Overseas Training Program (OTP).