Mission Month has been a wonderful celebration this year, as our parishes and communities throughout the Province joined with the Universal Church in refocusing on what (or who) Mission is and how we can strive to live it more fully.

Of course, Mission is God, the fount of all love, and as missionaries, both lay and religious, we are all spreaders and sharers of God’s love.

The SVD AUS Province is gearing up to celebrate World Mission Sunday on October 18, with activities planned across the Province to mark this special day in the Church’s calendar.

A significant event happening from October 2-3, in the lead-up to World Mission Sunday, is the International Mission Symposium in Melbourne. 

As a recently ordained missionary priest from India, Fr Kommareddy Rajasekhar Reddy (Fr Raja) says he is on a big learning curve – arriving in Australia and taking up his first appointment in a parish – but says the welcome of the people is helping him adjust to his new life.

Fr Raja has been appointed as Assistant Priest at St Agatha’s Parish, Pennant Hills in Broken Bay Diocese, and says the parishioners and parish staff, Parish Priest Fr Paul Durkin, and the Diocese, have been wonderful to him since he arrived.

Supporting lay people in mission is a key focus for the Divine Word Missionaries, and through a longstanding relationship with lay volunteer mission organisation, Palms Australia, the SVD is sharing its mission experience both in the field and when missionaries return home.

SVD AUS Provincial, Fr Henry Adler, says the Divine Word Missionaries and Palms Australia have had a warm collaboration for many years and are working together to create a strong future for lay volunteering in Mission.

Some years ago I found in a Dutch catholic newspaper an article on a spiritual renewal centre in Helvoirt in the Netherlands province of Brabant.
Reading it, I slowly realized they were talking about our former SVD Noviciate house, where I entered the SVD as a novice.

The author wrote: “Stepping into the building, one can feel an atmosphere of prayer.” In other words, you can feel it is a holy place”.

This month, we have joined Divine Word Missionaries across the world in celebrating the 140th anniversary of the Society’s foundation.

Anniversaries such as this remind us that as missionaries in consecrated life, we have both a rich heritage and a shared future. Engaged in Christ’s mission together, we are part of something much greater than ourselves.

Fr Liam Horsfall SVD, who died in Brisbane this month, aged 87, has been remembered as a missionary who was as much at home taking the Divine Word to the poorest, most marginalised people in India and PNG as he was sitting and talking to the young men or the elderly nuns under his Chaplaincy care in Brisbane.

Born and raised in Brisbane, Fr Liam took his first vows as a Divine Word Missionary in 1949 and his first assignment was to India, where he would spend many years and have extraordinary experiences, including being chaplain for Mother Teresa’s new congregation in India.

Sleeping conditions fell to a chilling seven degrees when Christine and Andrew Lapalapa lay their heads down on their Catholic parish’s car park.

The Catholic married couple joined 40 young people to sleep outside St Maximilian Kolbe church, Marsden, with just a sheet of cardboard and a sleeping bag.

SVD Provincials from around the Asia-Pacific (ASPAC) region gathered in Sydney recently for a meeting in which they mapped out joint priorities and areas of focus for future new missions in the area.

AUS Provincial, Fr Henry Adler says the meeting considered future growth in missions in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia and other parts of South East Asia.

In San Pio Village, Cebu, young children play happily in a playground that they themselves helped to design.

It is a world away from the rubbish tip where they used to live and play, and it is just one of many sights in the Village that causes Sydney man, Ron Natoli to give thanks to God for a dream that has come to fruition.