This month has been a time of celebration and thanksgiving for the Australia Province of the Divine Word Missionaries. We have marked the conclusion of our 100th anniversary year of SVD presence in Marsfield, Sydney, and also the 20th anniversary of our presence in Central Australia.
As we look back to our foundations in Australia, we give thanks for those dedicated and tenacious missionaries who left their homeland and came across the seas to share the love of Jesus Christ in this part of the world. And we give thanks for all the fruits that have grown over the ensuing decades.
From humble and somewhat tenuous beginnings with the arrival of a handful of European missionaries, our Province now includes Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.
In my opening remarks at the closing Mass of our Centenary Year, I said we were celebrating 100 years of sweat and hard work; 100 years of pioneering spirit, loneliness, failures, and pain. But as well, 100 years of communal joy in the Spirit, spiritual growth in the Society and spiritual nourishment that is enjoyed by all. And not forgetting 100 years of expansion of missionary ideals and activities in the Province. More loving, more trusting in God.
As we look back in thanksgiving, we join with the Psalmist in exclaiming, ‘The Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy’.
It is also through Divine Providence that we have maintained through 20 years our ministry in Central Australia, working with one of the most disadvantaged peoples on earth. We offered our Centenary Mass for the plight of the Aboriginal peoples of the land.
Our celebration providentially took place on World Mission Sunday and in his message for that occasion, Pope Francis gave voice to the driving missionary impulse behind all that we do – that having ourselves known the love of God, we cannot help but share it, especially with the poor and the marginalised.
The Holy Father says: "Once we experience the power of God’s love, and recognise his fatherly presence in our personal and community life, we cannot help but proclaim and share what we have seen and heard. Jesus’ relationship with his disciples and his humanity, as revealed to us in the mystery of his Incarnation, Gospel and Paschal Mystery, shows us the extent to which God loves our humanity and makes his own our joys and sufferings, our hopes and our concerns (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22). Everything about Christ reminds us that he knows well our world and its need for redemption, and calls us to become actively engaged in this mission: “Go therefore to the highways and byways, and invite everyone you find” (Mt 22:9). No one is excluded, no one need feel distant or removed from this compassionate love".
May our good God continue to bless us and call us forward in the love and service of our Lord Jesus Christ and may he strengthen us to walk on in faith, honouring the sacrifice of those who have come before us and, led by the Spirit, ever open to new horizons.
Yours in the Word,
Fr Asaeli Rass SVD,
PHOTO: Fr Frank Gerry SVD, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD and Fr Nick de Groot SVD at the cutting of the cake to mark the end of the SVD's Centenary Year in Australia.