If the coronavirus and the enforced social isolation that has come with it has taught us anything, it is that we are social creatures who crave connection.

When we were asked to stay at home it wasn’t shopping or consumption that we missed the most, rather it was visiting our family, hugging our parents, attending our niece’s first birthday party, hanging out with our workmates or enjoying a dinner with friends at a restaurant.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus spent the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension into Heaven moving in and out of the lives of His disciples. 

Many of the images Jesus chose in his teaching or manifests in his relationships are images of tender, loving care and intimacy.

How does one be missionary in a pandemic, when we are being urged to stay home and not go out? It is a question that SVDs in the AUS Province have been asking and they’ve come up with some creative responses.

Firstly of course, the Divine Word Missionary priests have, like most other parish priests, been livestreaming their private Mass on social media, and they have also been ensuring community ties remain strong through various initiatives.

Fr Larry Nemer SVD says he can’t remember ever not wanting to be a priest, and as he celebrates his 60^th jubilee of priesthood, he says he gives thanks for a lifetime of priestly ministry doing what he loves – teaching.

Fr Larry, who now lives in retirement at the SVD Marsfield community, celebrated his jubilee this month with confreres.

An initial meeting to gauge interest in forming an SVD Lay Mission Partners Group in Melbourne attracted enthusiastic support recently.

If it goes ahead, it would be the second Lay Mission Partners group in the AUS Province, with one already having been formed at Marsfield in Sydney.

The SVD senior confreres have written or shared a compilation of 'Prayers during this time of Pandemic'.

It is part of the Divine Word Missionaries commitment to reaching out to others, especially during this time when many have been feeling isolated and anxious. 

Fr Prakash Menezes SVD says his return to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Alice Springs feels like “coming home”, as it was the first parish he was assigned to as a Divine Word Missionary more than five years ago.

Back then, Fr Prakash was in Alice Springs as assistant priest, but last month, he returned to be installed as Parish Priest.

The SVD AUS Province has welcomed two new postulants, who have answered Jesus’ call to “come and see”.

Aaron Ong from Brunei and Shehan Fernando from Sri Lanka have taken the step to join the Divine Word Missionaries and test their vocation to religious missionary life.

The SVD is establishing a new mission in the Rockhampton Diocese, based in the regional town of Emerald in Queensland’s central highlands.

The Divine Word Missionaries were invited to take up the appointment by the Bishop of Rockhampton Michael McCarthy.