By the time this reflection appears in the newsletter, we are well into the Easter Season, in fact almost towards the end of it. However, the message of Easter which proclaims the Good News of the Resurrection of Christ is by no means a message that has an expiration date.

Indeed, the entire Christian religion is founded on this very message that must be ceaselessly proclaimed all year round. Day after day, year after year, generation after generation, Christians are asked to witness to the truth of the Christ event of suffering, death and resurrection.

Vietnamese Chaplains from across Australia came together in Sydney recently to discuss their ministry and to consider how Vietnamese Catholic communities can contribute their experience of faith life in Australia to the 2020 Plenary Council.

Fr Joseph Vu SVD, who is Chaplain to the Vietnamese community in Brisbane Archdiocese, says the chaplains gather every year to share with one another their activities, to listen and learn from each other, and to plan for the future.

The Bible is not a static collection of ancient works but the living Word of God which continues to speak to us today, so for Fr Elmer Ibarra SVD, a recent Biblical study course in the Philippines provided new insights which he is eager to share upon his return to Australia.

Fr Elmer is the Biblical Coordinator for the SVD AUS Province, and he took part in the course with two other new members of the Province, Fr Mariusz Kubista SVD, a Polish priest who has been in Kenya for some years and Fr Tuyen Nguyen SVD, from Vietnam, who has been in Argentina for 10 years. Both Fr Mariusz and Fr Tuyen were taking part in the Biblical study course in the Philippines to prepare them for their upcoming assignment teaching the Bible in Myanmar, the AUS Province’s newest mission.

Fr Bosco Son SVD’s new assignment at the bustling Macquarie Fields Parish couldn’t be further away from his previous ministry in the small indigenous community of Santa Teresa in Central Australia, but he says his aim remains the same – simply to the love the people.

“Before taking up my position at Santa Teresa, the former Provincial, Fr Tim Norton SVD, asked me to try to do two things: one was to try to love the people and the other was not to create a problem,” he says.

The people of Alice Springs were treated to a thought-provoking discussion recently when Fr Nick de Groot SVD delivered a presentation which posed the question, ‘Different Religions: friend or enemy?’

Fr Nick is the Director of the Janssen Centre for Spirituality in Boronia, Victoria, a retreat and hospitality centre with a special focus on being a place of welcome for interfaith and intercultural relations.

I have just returned from a trip to South-East Asia, taking in the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar, the latter two countries of which are part of the SVD AUS Province.

Whenever I go to Thailand and visit our ministries there, I am struck by the reality of our commitment as Divine Word Missionaries to breaking down cultural and religious barriers.

It was a joyous time in Japan recently when two young men took their final vows as Divine Word Missionaries.

Joseph Hy SVD and Keiji Arata SVD both spent some time in the AUS Province during their formation, an experience they say had a big impact on their understanding of missionary life.

Life presents to us many Good Fridays, in the form of obstacles, helplessness and brokenness. But what brings us to Easter Sunday is our understanding that we don’t get upset with the little hardships in life because our life’s journey is like a road and difficulties are like humps. They help us to avoid dangerous accidents.

So, learning to enjoy the challenges of life and moving on is the key to eventually arriving at Easter.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Alice Springs has been finding new common ground through regular sharing of the Eucharist among members of the Arrernte indigenous community and the broader parish.

Historically, the Arrernte Catholic community, or Ngkarte Mikwekenhe community, has celebrated Mass at South Terrace Community Centre, across town from the main parish church. But since Holy Week last year, the two communities have been sharing the Eucharist together once a month.

As this edition of In the Word reaches you, we are about to embark on the Easter Triduum, those blessed days of entering into the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s a busy time for many of us, with all the liturgies to attend and be part of. But on the flip-side, it is also, for Christians, a time of profound un-busyness, of deep quiet, of fasting, prayer and reflection.