The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describes, in an epic of faith, important moments of the restoration of the community of the People of God in the ancient land of the fathers after the Babylonian exile.

The two readings of today’s liturgy, Neh 2:1-8 and Mt 18:1-5,10, can be understood as fundamental expressions of a missionary spirituality for our time.

The prophecy of Zechariah 8:20-23 nourishes the hope of the people of God, who await its fulfillment in the universal pilgrimage of peoples to Jerusalem at the end of time (see Zec 8:22).

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.

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.

Father's Day can hold many emotions for both men and women - those who had a loving father that passed away, those who never knew their dad, those expectantly waiting to become a dad soon, and countless other situations ...

I feel blessed to admit there is very little need for comment in today’s readings. They speak for themselves!

While at Sydney University in the late sixties, I belonged to the Catholic Bushwalking Club. Groups of us would go for day walks and weekend camping in the Blue Mountains, this being a well-known mountain range west of Sydney. There were a number of Columban Missionary priests who were also present on these different walks and camping weekends.

When I finished my studies in Geology, I applied and was accepted to work for a mining company in Queensland. However at the same time that career seemed less and less appealing. One time when I was on a Bushwalking camping trip I experienced a calling to follow Jesus as a priest.

The St Arnold Janssen Chapel and the Marsfield community grounds were a kaleidoscope of colour and multicultural prayer, song, dance and food recently for the annual Multicultural Sunday celebrations.

Friends of the SVD from various ethnic chaplaincy groups, Bible groups, breakfast groups and communities who worship at the chapel in Marsfield came together in national dress under the theme of ‘Being Neighbour’.