Dear Friends,
With the SVD’s Sesquicentenary Year now underway, we are looking forward to a raft of events and celebrations around our Province in the leadup to the 150th anniversary of the Foundation of the Society of the Divine Word on September 8, 2025.
Among these is the annual SVD Mission Day in Melbourne, to be hosted by Dorish Maru College and held on October 12. The Congregational Leader of the Sisters of St Joseph, Sr Monica Cavanagh RSJ will be the principal speaker, with systematic theologian and experienced pastoral associate, Dr Cecilia Francisco-Tan the respondent. All are welcome.
In fact, October is a significant month in the Church calendar, with the second assembly of the Synod on Synodality being held in Rome and World Mission Sunday being celebrated on October 20.
I had the honour of participating in the Synod’s first assembly last year, as a facilitator, but a heavy schedule of overseas travel this year and commitments in the Province, mean I will not be attending the second assembly.
Nonetheless, I will be praying for its success. I pray that the Holy Spirit will open the hearts and minds of those attending so that they are truly open to the vision of Pope Francis for a more synodal Church. This means a Church where everybody is encouraged to play their role as baptised members of the Body of the Christ. Once again, the assembly’s own processes will be synodal in nature, based on active listening and small group discussion. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.
The Pope’s message for World Mission Sunday this year, ‘Go and Invite Everyone to the Banquet’, fits in beautifully with the work of the Synod. Indeed, the Pope makes this point in his introduction to the message:
The theme I have chosen for this year’s World Mission Day is taken from the Gospel parable of the wedding banquet (cf. Mt 22:1-14). After the guests refused his invitation, the king, the main character in the story, tells his servants: “Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find” (v. 9). Reflecting on this key passage in the context of the parable and of Jesus’ own life, we can discern several important aspects of evangelisation. These appear particularly timely for all of us, as missionary disciples of Christ, during this final stage of the synodal journey that, in the words of its motto, “Communion, Participation, Mission”, seeks to refocus the Church on her primary task, which is the preaching of the Gospel in today’s world.
As we SVDs enter into our Jubilee Year, may we reflect on the legacy of our founder St Arnold Janssen and in looking to the future, renew our commitment to sharing the Gospel in today’s world, with all its wounds and challenges.
Yours in the Word,
Fr Asaeli Rass SVD,
Provincial.