A ministry of presence, accompaniment, dialogue, cultural exchange and mutual respect underpins parish life at St Francis Xavier Parish in the remote Daly River region of the Northern Territory.

Daly River, or Nauiyu, is situated 230km south of Darwin and 250km north-west of Katherine. The parish takes in a number of Aboriginal communities at Adelaide River, Emu Point, Nemarluk, Merrepen, and Woodyculpadiya, with visits to some of those communities being a four-hour round-trip on rough roads.

The SVD Australia Province is embarking on a period of communal discernment in the lead-up to the Provincial and Council elections for the next triennium.

The discernment process aims to infuse the Provincial Elections with Pope Francis’s vision for a synodal Church in which the Spirit-led participation of all is valued and necessary.

A recent meeting of the Aotearoa New Zealand Mixed Commission of Bishops and Religious Leaders focused on synodality, its tradition within Pacific cultures, and its possibilities as a means of listening to the voices of the marginalised and caring for our common home.

Australian Provincial Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, co-facilitated the meeting which was held from February 18-19 in Auckland, sharing some of the insights he gained from being a small group facilitator at the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality in Rome.

The SVD Australia Province celebrated joyfully recently when Shouzheng Peter Wang SVD professed his perpetual vows as a Divine Word Missionary and was ordained to the diaconate.

As Peter made his final profession, in the presence of his family who had travelled from China, along with confreres and friends, he was joined by SVD seminarians from Melbourne’s Dorish Maru College who renewed their temporary vows.

We are over halfway in our Lenten journey now, this precious season of reflection and preparation before we once again enter into the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord during Holy Week and Easter.

In this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis entitled his Lenten Message, “Let Us Journey Together in Hope” and no doubt this prayer sustained him during his recent serious health crisis, as millions around the world joined their Lenten prayer journey to his sufferings.

The Te Awakairangi Parish in the Lower Hutt region of New Zealand’s Wellington Archdiocese is a large, culturally rich and diverse parish where the people are warm and welcoming and committed to a missionary outlook which is deeply grounded in the primacy of evangelisation.

Established in 2015, the parish is comprised of four churches and has been in the pastoral care of the Divine Word Missionaries since January 2024.

SVD students at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne, together with other new arrivals in the Province have expanded their understanding of life in Australia during a month-long Summer Acculturation Program.

The Program was held at beach-side St Leonards, near Geelong in Victoria, and aimed to give the participants, who come from a range of cultural backgrounds, a firm grounding in living and working in the multicultural society of Australia.

The second Jubilee Online Lecture hosted by the SVD Australia Province this month highlighted the need for authentic Christian witness and a commitment to go out to the peripheries of both Church and society in living out Christ’s mission.

The keynote presenter at the webinar was Fr Stanislaus Lazar SVD, with Fr Albano Da Costa SVD responding on the theme of ‘Witnessing to the Light: From Everywhere for Everyone – a Mission Perspective’.

The SVD Australia Province celebrated Word of God Sunday recently in a variety of different ways, honouring St Arnold Janssen’s devotion to the Word, as expressed in the naming of his missionary order The Society of the Divine Word.

Biblical Apostolate coordinator for the Province, Fr Elmer Ibarra SVD, said the Sunday of the Word of God was celebrated in Australia on February 9, the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

As this edition of ‘In the Word’ goes out, we are preparing to enter the Season of Lent next week. Once again, it feels like were just enjoying the Christmas season, and here we are already preparing for Easter.

The Church’s liturgical seasons are a real gift to us, helping us to enter into and make present the key events in the life of Christ, which happened more than 2000 years ago, but still bring fresh meaning to our lives today.