SVD - Celebrating 100 Years

33 The four Characteristics dimensions which de ne the charism of the Divine Word Missionaries: • Bible Apostolate • Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation • Communications • Mission animation Fr Dom Flores (seated 3 rd from left) visited St. Patrick's Parish in Wainuiomata, Wellington, New Zealand to give a Basic Bible Seminar course to parishioners in 2012. Bible Apostolate throughout the years: O ne of the outstanding apostolates of the Divine Word Missionaries here in Australia Province is the Biblical Apostolate. It was during the tenure of Fr Dom Flores that the Biblical Apostolate gained some sort of structure. He started conducting the Basic Bible Seminars in different parishes and communities and then encouraged these groups to continue with Bible Sharing. However, after a couple of years, many people wished to pursue their Bible studies further and were seeking something substantial in terms of increasing their knowledge about the Bible. This resulted in Fr Dom introducing a program from the United States called the “The Great Adventure: the Bible Timeline”. This program is about studying the Bible by looking at it as a story from Creation to the Beginnings of the Early Church. Armed with this new program, Fr Dom created different Bible Study groups which have flourished and have learned to appreciate the Bible more. For some members of these Bible Study groups, this study has even been life- changing. In 2017, Fr Elmer Ibarra, who is the current Biblical Apostolate Coordinator of the Australia Province, continued monitoring and assisting the different Bible study groups. Sadly, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some groups had to pause their meetings, while a couple still continued by using the online ZOOM platform. Throughout this time, Fr Elmer continued to encourage different SVD communities to engage with each other through Bible sharing and exploring other ways to learn the Word of God. Also, Fr Elmer continues to send “The Word” missalettes to be used at parishes, pastoral areas and personal use. He gives talks to the SVD seminarians in Box Hill about the Bible and the Biblical Apostolate and also gives retreats using various themes based on the Bible, as well as talks to lay people about the Bible. He has organised talks given by confreres from overseas who are experts on the Bible like Fr vanThanh Nguyen SVD from SVD Chicago Province. Please continue to pray and support the Biblical Apostolate of the Australia Province so that we can continue to propagate the Word of God to everyone we meet. Characteristic Dimensions: