Luis Robles from Ecuador has been engaged in mission work since he was 15 years old, and now, as a Divine Word Missionary student, he is spending time in the SVD AUS Province, opening himself up to a different culture and experience.

Luis, aged 26, is in Australia as part of the SVD’s Overseas Training Program (OTP) and says he is enjoying everything he does and “trying to make memories”.

Divine Word Missionaries in leadership positions throughout the AUS Province came together recently for a workshop to explore the role of leadership in a mission context and to share their experiences.

The workshop was held at the SVD provincial offices in Marsfield, Sydney, and included confreres from right across the province – Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.

As you receive this edition of In the Word, we have just entered into the season of Lent, a time which calls us especially to look at how we can become closer to God and to our neighbour.

This is an important time of reflection and action for all Christians – a time of taking spiritual stock – and for us, as Divine Word Missionaries, it is a time to dig deep and consider afresh how we are meeting the needs of those we are called to accompany and serve.

Divine Word Missionary students and newly arrived missionaries in the AUS Province have spent part of their summer taking part in an Acculturation Program to help them adjust to life and ministry in Australia.

Entitled ‘Living and Working in the Multicultural Society of Australia’, the program was held at St Leonards in Victoria and included young students from a diverse cultural background, including Vietnam, Ghana, Ecuador, Mexico, China and Thailand.

January is an important month on the Divine Word Missionaries’ calendar, with not one, but two feast days of SVD saints to celebrate.

This year, both St Arnold Janssen (feast day, January 15) and St Joseph Freinademetz (January 29) were remembered with a joint celebration at the St Arnold Janssen Chapel in Marsfield on January 19. Celebrations have also been held in the various different parts of the Province, around Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.

New Year greetings to all. It’s not too late to say that is it? Not if it’s still January, surely. Even though the Christmas-New Year break is well behind us and most of us are back in the swing of work and life.

And what a horrendous Summer break it was for so many Australians this year, as the bushfires raged and lives, homes, businesses and animals were lost. Our prayers are with all those who died and with their loved ones.

The feast of the Baptism of the Lord invites us to look at our own baptism in the Lord. Jesus, through his baptism in the river Jordan, begins his mission.

The first ever Asia Pacific Workshop of SVD Lay Partners has been hailed a huge success with 38 people attending from eight countries and 11 Provinces.

The gathering was held in the Philippines and was a significant step forward in the growth of the lay partners movement within the Divine Word Missionaries.

“God’s mission is our mission.  His life, our life.” That’s the message that the SVD shared with more than 5500 young people attending the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (ACYF) in Perth this month.

The Divine Word Missionaries had a stall at the Festival’s ‘Encounter Expo’, where they shared the SVD charism with youth who dropped in to visit. A number of SVD parishes and chaplaincies also took groups of their young people to experience the big faith gathering which had the theme: ‘Listen to what the Spirit is saying’.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John1:14)

God became human and lived among us. What a mind-blowing reality. As I come to the end of my six-year term as Provincial, I have been reflecting in this Advent season on how the missionary must be the incarnation for the people to whom we are sent. We must embody the reality of God-with-us.