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.

In asking the Church to celebrate an Extraordinary Mission Month this October, Pope Francis is calling each one of us to live out our baptismal calling to carry forward the mission of Jesus Christ, says Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD.

Fr Truc is the Mission Secretary for the Divine Word Missionaries’ AUS Province, a job which entails both living and promoting Christ’s mission locally and internationally.

Throughout the month of October this year the Universal Church is celebrating Extraordinary Missionary Month (EMM) which includes World Mission Sunday, on 20^th October.

The multicultural community of St Mark’s Parish, Inala, turned out in force recently for the official installation of their new parish priest, Fr Boni Buahendri SVD.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge celebrated the Installation Mass and more than 600 people were there to take part in the occasion.

Every year, the Society of the Divine Word celebrates its founding day on 8 September, which coincides with the Nativity of Mary. This year marks the 144th anniversary since St. Arnold Janssen formally established this missionary society, which presently has over 6,000 members serving in more than 80 countries around the world. I am writing this reflection from Thailand, where the Society has made its presence since exactly 20 years ago.

Unlike the founding day of our Society, we do not know the actual date on which the Blessed Virgin Mary was born. If I am not mistaken, despite the countless apparitions of Mary around the world over the centuries, she has never revealed this little piece of information to us. However, the Church has chosen a particular day in the liturgical calendar in order to celebrate Mary’s birthday, just as the Church has done the same with the birthdays of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

The Divine Word Missionaries will kick off the Extraordinary Month of Mission next month with the annual SVD Mission Day, to take place in Melbourne on Saturday October 5, exploring the theme, ‘A Missionary Impulse Capable of Transforming Everything’.

Guest speakers at the Mission Day Seminar to be held at Yarra Theological Union in Box Hill will be husband and wife leaders in education and mission, Therese and Jim D’Orsa. The day will also include a celebration of the Eucharist at St Paschal’s Chapel and a shared multicultural meal at the SVD’s Dorish Maru College.

Prison ministry is a core part of the mission of the Divine Word Missionaries in the Central Australian district, and while this ministry can take many forms, it is essentially about simply being present to people in prison, human to human, bringing the love of Christ.

Province Mission Secretary Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD, was recently in Alice Springs when he was asked to officiate at a liturgy inside the local prison for a man who had recently died in his community 280km away, but whose family members in jail had not been able to attend his funeral.

SVD confreres joined with Holy Spirit Sisters, lay partners and staff earlier this month to celebrate Foundation Day at the Marsfield community in Sydney.

The day, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, marked the 144th anniversary of the founding of the Divine Word Missionaries by St Arnold Janssen in Steyl, Holland, in 1875, and was celebrated at SVD communities throughout the AUS Province and around the world.

As you receive this edition of In the Word in your inbox, we are preparing, with the rest of the Church, to respond to Pope Francis’ invitation to celebrate an Extraordinary Mission Month throughout October.

This coincides with the annual celebration of World Mission Sunday on October 20, but Pope Francis has called us to an even more active awareness and promotion of mission this year to commemorate the centenary of Pope Benedict XV’s Apostolic Letter Maximum Ilud, published in November 1919.

The SVD Lay Partners group in Marsfield is continuing its journey of growth and formation in SVD life and spirituality, with a recent presentation on the life of founder, St Arnold Janssen.

The presentation was delivered by Fr Frank Gerry SVD, who has rich experience in SVD formation, and Fr Dom Flores SVD, who is accompanying the Lay Partners group.