When I look back on the months I have spent in Rome, I often find myself caught between wonder and disbelief, writes Fr Clement Baffoe SVD. Rome, with all its centuries of whispers and layers of history, now forms part of my own personal story — a story I never imagined would unfold in such depth and colour.

I share this as a friendly journey through the corners of my life in the Eternal City. It is a story of grace, vulnerability, laughter, study, growth, and a fair share of unexpected moments.

The SVD mission in Thailand and Myanmar has been split into two Districts, a move which confreres say will help overcome challenges of distance and enhance unity, collaboration and effectiveness in ministry.

The two new Districts, which are part of the Australia Province, will be known as the Bangkok-Myanmar District and the Udon Thani District, and it is hoped the new arrangement will also provide further support for vocations and early formation for those discerning missionary life in the region.

Fr Shiju Paul SVD has arrived to take up ministry in the Australia Province after almost 30 years as a missionary in India, various parts of Africa and the United States.

Fr Shiju said he is open to working wherever he is assigned in the Province, but has a special interest in living and working with Australia’s First Nations peoples and providing presence, deep listening and accompaniment.

Fr Boni Buahendri SVD has embarked on the first of many visits to SVD ministries around the Province, with a recent trip to North Queensland.

The new Provincial’s visit to Townsville and Palm Island coincided with celebrations for the 10^th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Fr Joseph Reddy SVD.

We have once again entered into the season of Lent, bringing with it a fresh invitation to return to God and allow our hearts to once again be transformed.

Traditionally, the Church asks three things of us in Lent: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. All of those things are deeply intertwined with Mission.

Today is the First Sunday of Lent, and  today’s Gospel is taken from the opening of  Matthew, chapter 4.  We hear the well known, dramatic story of Jesus’ temptations in the desert which takes place before he begins his public ministry.

When I was in my first year in the seminary, our Religious Education teacher challenged us to see who knew the Ten Commandments and who could recite them. I raised my hand and thanks be to God, I got them all, to the amazement of my classmates, because there were only two of us who raised up their hands. As you read this perhaps you could ponder, how many of the Ten Commandments do you really know? 

Sometimes I ponder what sin I regularly commit? We commit sins “in my thought, in my word and in what I have done” as we often confess and ask for God’s forgiveness before Mass. But I think my sin is found often in later part of that prayer, “and what I have failed to do”.

Here in Australia the idiom “turn something on its head” is used quite a lot, especially in sports. When a team is leading by a big score and then the opponent rallies and is now in the lead, you can hear commentators saying, “The game has been turned on its head”.

SVD seminarians at Melbourne’s Dorish Maru College swapped their academic books for some ‘on the ground’ experience over the summer break, with some spending time in parishes, while others undertook work or clinical pastoral experience, lived with a local family, or headed home on leave.

The students, who come from a range of different countries, said the hands-on experiences of pastoral and working life in Australia had a big impact on their formation to become missionary priests.