“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).

Does it surprise you to know that more than 120,000 people in Australia are homeless? The number seems small compared to the general population, until we remember that these are 120,000 people like you and me, but without any place to call Home. They do not have a roof over their heads, they do not know where the next meal will come from, and most importantly they do not have the means of support to help them get back on their feet.  

As the number of homeless people keeps increasing, this struggle has a corrosive effect on family life: the difficulty of finding a job, the impact on school children’s study. Being homeless affects a person’s capacity to contribute to society, as well as to benefit from it. Without an address, there can be no reference point for social services.

After 10 years as a  missionary in Kenya, Fr Mariusz Kubista SVD has arrived in Myanmar, saying he is keen to get to know the people and help establish the AUS Province’s  new mission in the south-east Asian nation.

“My hope personally is to fulfil the will of God,” he says. “But for the mission started here, I would say my hope is to reach out to people in their local language, both in the written and spoken form.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was among the special guests who attended the vibrant and colourful Multicultural Fiesta at St Mark’s Parish, Inala, recently.

The day was a celebration of the many different cultural groups who make up the St Mark’s community and included a multicultural Mass, followed by entertainment from different groups and the sharing of food from the many cultural groups present.

Divine Word Missionary communities around the AUS Province celebrated SVD Foundation Day on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary this month, marking 143 years since St Arnold Janssen opened the first SVD Mission House in Steyl, Holland. 

He could no doubt never have envisaged on that day that by 2018 the SVD would have more than 6000 members worldwide, serving in 80 countries, including a Province stretching from Australia to New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.

Some days all of us surely wonder if what we’re doing in our day-to-day life is really making a difference for the Kingdom of God. We have frustrations and difficulties and we wonder if we’re on the right track.

But this month, as I reflected on the foundations of the Society of the Divine Word, I was reminded yet again, that we don’t have to see the end goal of what we’re doing. It is enough to pray, to do our best, and to do our bit.

Nowadays there are a lot of lamentations about fake news and post-truth politics where facts and truthfulness have seemingly taken a backseat to non-facts, alternative facts, and emotionally stirring rhetoric.

But fake news is no news. The serpent in the Garden of Eden whispered fake news to Eve to persuade her to eat the forbidden fruit.

Born in a small town in Madagascar, Marius Razafimandimby could not have imagined in his childhood that he would one day be living in Australia and completing his final studies towards becoming a Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) priest.Born in a small town in Madagascar, Marius Razafimandimby could not have imagined in his childhood that he would one day be living in Australia and completing his final studies towards becoming a Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) priest.

But, he says that coming across the world to complete his formation at the SVD formation house, Dorish Maru College in Melbourne has broadened his horizons.
“Missionary life is a widening of everyone’s horizon,” he says.

The senior confreres of the SVD AUS Province might have stepped away from missionary duties in Papua New Guinea and other places, or full-time ministry in Australia, but you’ll still find most of them up and out of bed by 6am and continuing to pursue mission in different ways.

The seniors, who among them all have hundreds of years of missionary experience, live in the Province’s Marsfield community, pursuing their personal interests, various small ministry activities, and shared prayer and meals.

The new Director of the Janssen Spirituality Centre in Boronia, Fr Thien Nguyen SVD, says he is looking forward to helping bring to life the vision of the Centre as being a peaceful gathering place for people to share and celebrate their faiths and cultures.

Fr Thien says he will be working with the team at JSC to build on the work already underway to develop the original vision for the Centre as a place of welcome for interfaith and intercultural relations.