As I bring you this greeting for the upcoming Christmas season, I have just arrived back home from the blessing of our new SVD house in Myanmar.

In my comments of thanksgiving on that occasion, I was moved to reflect on the incarnational aspect of the birth of this new missionary endeavour.

Christmas is the time when Jesus enters our lives in a special way. However this can be overshadowed by all the other activities at this time, like partying, shopping sprees and the giving of gifts. Also, I have now discovered that Christmas does not have to be a “once off” event for the year, but rather has an essential all year round character.

About 20 years ago I was asked to leave my beloved mission in Ghana in West Africa and return to Australia for Formation ministry. My mission in Ghana had been Parish work, in a very traditional area, where the people were subsistence farmers. After a time of local language learning I became very committed to my missionary work. For the most part this comprised going around, by motorbike, to the different villages for the purpose of basic catechesis as also for initiating development projects concerning the digging of wells and boreholes and for managing a Primary Health care project.

The new Governor of Nong Bua Lamphu in Thailand paid a visit to the SVD’s Mother of Perpetual Help Centre and Villa Marie Hospice recently – to celebrate a special birthday in his family.

Br Damien Lunders SVD says it is a common Thai custom on the birthday of a person, and in this case the wife of the Governor, to take food and gifts to a Centre such as the hospice or a children’s home.

The first SVD house in Myanmar has been officially blessed by Cardinal Charles Bo, in another significant milestone for the AUS Province’s newest missionary endeavour.

Named the Divine Word Centre, the house was blessed by the Cardinal following many months of hard work by confreres and local tradespeople to restore it to a habitable home.

It’s an unassuming building in suburban Melbourne, but Dorish Maru College, has been a powerhouse of missionary formation since it was established 30 years ago.

Dorish Maru College (DMC), the formation house of the Divine Word Missionaries AUS Province, opened its doors in 1988 and since that time has formed and trained hundreds of missionaries who are now serving all around the world.

Fr Nick de Groot SVD has hit the ground running on his new assignment to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish in Alice Springs, meeting the people and “soaking up the atmosphere” of the Central Australian community.

The new assignment came as somewhat of a surprise to Fr Nick, who had recently moved to the SVD’s Marsfield community to take up retirement.

Have you ever asked yourself: What is the likelihood of me being born into this world? What is the chance of having someone with my appearance and personality on earth? Is there a mathematical calculation that would provide a specific answer to this question?

Believe it or not, some people have tried to give an answer to this question. One of these is Dr Ali Binazir who made the calculation based on the chance of two people meeting and falling in love and choosing one another as their life partner from all the possible lovers.

At 83  years of age, and recently given the all-clear by Sydney specialists after treatment for Leukaemia, Archbishop William Kurtz SVD has headed back to Papua New Guinea to continue his ministry of providing formation for catechists and “helping out” wherever he can.

Archbishop Kurtz, who retired as the Archbishop of Madang in 2010, says he could have returned home to Poland when he retired at 76, but after more than 50 years in PNG, he’d come to love the place and the people, and he wasn’t sure he could cope with the European winters.

The Lay Partners group of the SVD Australia Province joined forces with lay partner groups from around the world recently to take part in a ‘Prayer Bridge’ to mark World Day of the Poor.

The worldwide prayer initiative was an idea conceived by the lay partners of the SVD in Germany and embraced by lay partners and SVD members in a range of countries.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for Advent – that beautiful time when the Church kicks off a whole new liturgical year with a period of reflection and preparation for the coming of the Christ child at Christmas.

It’s wonderfully counter-cultural to take these weeks of quiet, prayerful preparation when the rest of the world is going mad with parties and shopping and busyness.