I feel squeamish when I see those paintings of Jesus, with Mary and Joseph, which depict this trio as the ideal family! In reality, no one in the Middle East, either now or 2000 years ago, would consider a mother+father+child as a family unit.
The Baptism of the Lord is not only about Jesus’ baptism, it is also about our baptism and the need for baptism in general and about Jesus being truly human even though He is truly God.
At a Christmas Mass for children one year, I passed the statue of the baby Jesus among the children asking them to touch and feel it, then tell me their feeling about the newly born baby Jesus.
The birthday of our Mother Mary, 8th September, also marked the Foundation Day of the Society of the Divine Word.
In 2024 it also marked the opening of the SVD Sesquicentenary Jubilee (the year of celebrations leading up to their 150th anniversary in 2025), with the theme “Witnessing to the Light: from Everywhere for Everyone”, writes Fr Peter Bang SVD.
A Christmas quip goes: “Don’t get so preoccupied in what the world has to sell that you miss what God has to give."
Advent and Christmas have been celebrated in a variety of different ways across the SVD Australia Province, from multicultural carols to Christmas lights, concerts to shared meals and gifts – all with the common theme of highlighting Jesus as the reason for the season.
From the Indigenous communities in the Tiwi Islands, Central Australia, Daly River and Balgo to city suburbs in Australia and New Zealand and across to villages in Thailand and Myanmar, the Province has expressed a range of different cultural celebrations of Christmas.
The SVD Australia Province has appointed Fr Nick de Groot SVD to take up the role of Province Ministry and Performance Appraiser in a move aimed at providing ongoing formation and “stirring the embers” of missionary service among the members of the Province.
Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD said the appointment fulfills a recommendation of the 2017 Royal Commission “that each religious institute implement mandatory national standards and undergo regular performance appraisals.”.
Missionary life in Central Australia is a world away from the cobblestones and church domes of Rome, but Fr Oliver Noclam SVD is about to make that transition as he takes up a new appointment for the Society of the Divine Word.
Fr Ollie, who is currently Parish Priest at Santa Teresa - Ltyentye Apurte, an Aboriginal community about 80km from Alice Springs, has been appointed as Assistant English Secretary at the SVD’s Generalate.
Bishop Tim Norton SVD has promised the people of the Kimberley that he wants to listen, heal, work, pray, and enjoy life together, as he was installed this month as the third Bishop of Broome in a liturgy rich with faith and culture.
Beginning with a traditional Aboriginal smoking ceremony by Yarawu elders outside the church and a Welcome to Country by Erica Bernard, the local people, languages and cultures of the Kimberley played a central role in the installation Mass, which concluded with women elders leading a sung blessing over their new bishop. Local languages enriched the hymns and prayers.
This Christmas will not only open a Jubilee Year for the Universal Church, declared by Pope Francis, but also comes as the Society of the Divine Word celebrates its 150th Jubilee Year.
The theme of the SVD Jubilee is ‘Witnessing to the Light: From Everywhere for Everyone’ and that theme makes a great Christmas meditation, because it was on that first Christmas, more than 2000 years ago, that the Light of Christ came into our world. And we, as followers of Christ and missionaries, are witnesses to that Light.
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