The Australian Province of the Society of the Divine Word has celebrated the feast days of the two SVD saints, St Arnold Janssen and St Joseph Freinademetz, with special Masses and social gatherings of confreres, SSpS Sisters, parishioners, lay partners and partners in mission.

St Arnold founded the Society of the Divine Word in September 1875. He later went on to found two orders of Religious Women, the Servant Sisters of the Holy Spirit and the Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration.

Two SVD members from the Australia Province have recently returned from Europe where they took part in a Renewal Course which helped them re-charge their missionary batteries and return back to their ministry refreshed and re-invigorated.

Fr Viet Nguyen SVD, who is the Mission Secretary for the SVD AUS Province, travelled to Steyl in the Netherlands and Nemi, outside of Rome for the course, along with Fr John Quang SVD, who had been serving in a New Zealand parish.

Happy New Year! In this, our first edition of In the Word for 2024, I pray that the year ahead will be filled with God’s blessings for you.

Each new year begins with such promise. Perhaps you made a raft of resolutions, but as we reach the end of January they are starting to slip away. Fear not. At times like this, I am reminded of Mother Teresa’s words: God doesn’t require us to be successful, only faithful.

The theme of our SVD's 19th General Chapter and its reflections clearly indicate how missionaries need to deepen their understanding of mission, identity, charism, and spirituality. One aspect is crystal clear: we are called to become a light in the wounded world for oneself and for others.

The Divine Word Missionaries are completing a year with our presence at Tiwi Islands. During this year, it has been a time of reflection, understanding, walking along, appreciating the culture, being with the people in sorrow, and, above all, making the Tiwi people know that we are with them.

Christmas is being celebrated in a range of different ways throughout the SVD Australia Province, but at the centre of it all is the birth of the Christ-child in Bethlehem.

Several parishes across the Province held Christmas carol gatherings, while in others parishioners donated Christmas hampers for those in need, and in poorer parts of the Province, basic food staples were given to parishioners to help them celebrate.

The Divine Word Missionaries have taken up the pastoral care of communities in Daly River in the Northern Territory and Balgo in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley region, in a move which further demonstrates the SVD’s commitment to ministry with indigenous peoples.

Two SVD priests were installed by Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci this month at Daly River in the Northern Territory, while another arrived at Balgo. He will be joined by a second priest in the New Year.

With the help of generous donors and partners in mission, the Divine Word Missionaries have finally taken delivery of a small campervan which will allow the missionaries in Central Australia to stay with outlying Aboriginal communities for longer periods.

Previously, the missionaries have driven hundreds of kilometres to be with the people in those communities, but often, after celebrating Mass or other sacraments, they have to turn around and make the long drive back to Alice Springs again.

Fr Michael Nguyen SVD who has been teaching at the Good Shepherd Seminary in the Archdiocese of Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea this year, has been appointed Dean of Studies for the next academic year, and says he’s enjoying the “vibrant tapestry” of PNG, a place he now calls home.

Fr Michael, originally from Vietnam, is a member of the SVD Australia Province, working in Mount Hagen Archdiocese at the request of Bishop Douglas Young SVD.

Advent is drawing to a close and as you receive this edition of In the Word in your inbox, the joy of Christmas is just days away.

This Christmas, as we struggle with the reality of significant conflict in our world, the impact of the loss of the Voice Referendum for our indigenous brothers and sisters, the cost-of-living crisis which affects us all, and general exhaustion after a long year, we look more than ever to the coming of the Prince of Peace at Christmas.

As he prepares to farewell his first parish appointment since ordination for further studies in Rome, Fr Clement Baffoe SVD looks back on how his ministry with a parish community in Townsville has changed him.

"As I leave the parish, I leave better than I came in three years ago. I’ve been challenged, encouraged, supported and allowed to grow in every way humanly, spiritually, and pastorally possible," he writes.