Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, states, “There are Christians whose lives seems like Lent without Easter”. Are we that?

As we are coming closer to celebrate the birthday of Jesus we may have many past fond memories of Christmas in our lives. As we know it is a time of remembering friends and celebrating the season with gifts and good food. I wish to share with you one of the many occasions in my missionary life where I experienced extra joy at Christmas.

It was when I celebrated Christmas with prisoners for the first time. It was in 2006. After visiting the prisoners for more than 10 years I thought I should do something special for Christmas for the locked up friends of mine.

The third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of Joy. As we are moving closer to the feast of God becoming one among us, we are invited to live in joy.

The Easter celebrations this year are very interesting and certainly very different. It’s really our first Easter Triduum without the richness and the beauty of our liturgical Services, which we normally experience as a community of faith in our parishes.

How many of us whenever Christmas comes around, can’t wait to open up our gifts? Whenever somebody hands us a gift, we try to shake it, press on it to feel what could this be. If somebody gives us a long box we feel that it is a wine bottle. Sometimes, if it comes in a box, it must be chocolates.

Happy Easter to all our friends and readers of ‘In the Word’.

There’s nothing quite like Easter to renew and reinvigorate our faith. The empty tomb, the appearances of the Risen Lord, and finally, the penny dropping with Jesus’ followers, that the Scriptures have been fulfilled in Him.

Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, states, “There are Christians whose lives seems like Lent without Easter”. Are we that?

In each of the four gospels there are wonderful resurrection stories in which we see the early followers of Christ struggling to grasp the fact and the meaning of the resurrection of Christ.

To borrow another story from my friend Fr Bel San Luis, SVD; there was this professor in homiletics teaching a group of future preachers on the basics of a good homily. In one of the lessons he said that when you preach about heaven, you should let your face light up with a heavenly beam and let your eyes shine with glory. When you preach about hell, your everyday face will do.

As we approach the end of Mission Month for 2017, having celebrated World Mission Sunday on October 22, it’s a good time to reflect on what impact, if any, this worldwide focus on Mission has had on us.

The SVD AUS Province celebrated Mission Sunday with gusto in parishes and communities, with a joyful multicultural focus, which is so much at the heart of who we are as Divine Word Missionaries.