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News & Events

Fr Asaeli Rass SVD profile pic 250The theme for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday this year is ‘A New Life in Christ’.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council says the theme for this special day in the Church calendar, to be celebrated on Sunday, July 2, relates to “the transformative possibilities that come when we walk God’s Way of love”. What an invitation!

MER Lecture Series 2023 Flyer 250The Mission, Education and Research team of the Divine Word Missionaries Australia Province invite you to join in a series of online lectures on the theme of 'Mission and Dialogue Today'.

There will be six online presentations spanning the latter half of 2023, with the first taking place on Monday, June 26.

Pentecost Shutterstock 250Pentecost is a Feast of Hope. The conviction that God’s Resurrected Love is alive in this world, reflects Fr Nick de Groot SVD.

There is also the experience of the hunger by the people on the margins, not so much for doctrine and teachings, but for presence and dignity and walking together in this love of the Spirit.

DWU 4th year students after receiving their missioning cross 250The Divine Word Missionaries and Holy Spirit Sisters in Papua New Guinea are hoping to gain fundraising support to help expand a university scholarship scheme, which has allowed about 80 students in the last four years to gain a university education.

Fr Philip Gibbs SVD from Divine Word University in Madang, PNG, was in Australia this month and shared the story of the Arnoldus Family Scholarships.

Catechist program painting at MOHVM Prakash 250A program to provide formation for indigenous catechists from the Arrernte and Walpiri people of Central Australia to hand on the faith in their culture is under way in Alice Springs, with the local parish embracing the opportunity.

Speaking at the Mission: One heart, many voices (MOHMV) conference in Sydney this month, Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish in Alice Springs, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD and two parishioners, Dolores Furber and Paula Turner explained through words and art, how the program is unfolding.

Fr Asaeli Rass SVD profile pic 250Whenever I hear the account of Pentecost day as told in the Acts of the Apostles, where the apostles, all filled with the Holy Spirit, are speaking in foreign languages, I think of our multicultural and intercultural SVD communities, where a great variety of languages are always present, but also a unity in the Spirit.

For most of the history of the SVD Australia Province, the Divine Word Missionaries have been blessed with a heterogeneous blend of confreres from different racial, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

Laos seminarians 250Sixteen seminarians and their formators from the major seminary of Laos have visited the ministries of the Divine Word Missionaries in Udon Thani Diocese, Thailand, learning about their care for people living with HIV-AIDS, as well as parish ministry.

Fr Toub Anisong SVD, who himself hails from Laos, says the visit by his countrymen to the SVD ministries was part of a broader visit exploring the main ministries of the Udon Thani Diocese.

MOHVM mission conference 2023 group photo 250Divine Word Missionaries played an active role in the ‘Mission: one heart, many voices’ conference, held in Sydney this month, offering presentations and reflections as part of three days of exploring the themes of truth-telling, reconciliation and synodality.

Bishop Tim Norton SVD, who was a keynote speaker at the conference which was presented by Catholic Mission and Catholic Religious Australia, invited those present to not only seek truth-telling at a national level, or in the Church, but also to look for truth-tellers in their own lives.

Fr Budi Kleden lights easter candle 250We start the liturgy of the Easter Vigil with what is typically called Lucernarium, the service of light. The Pachal candle is lighted and brought, in the procession, to the centre of the church or of the chapel- signifying that Jesus Christ is the true light for the world. The Exsultet sings of the Paschal candle, praying that it "may persevere undimmed to overcome the darkness of this night".

The symbol of light is a significant element in all the liturgical celebrations of the Church. A symbol that is filled with many associations and meanings. I want to share with you three of them on this momentous and hopeful occasion of Easter, reflects SVD Superior-General Fr Budi Kleden.

Under 5s gathering 2023 250SVD missionaries who have been professed for less than five years or have been in the Australia Province for less than five years gathered recently for the ‘Under Fives’ ongoing formation course.

Participants shared their ministry experiences and received formal input from a range of speakers in a program described by one of those taking part as “formative, informative and life-giving”.

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