The 100th anniversary of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees is a joyful a day to reflect on the richness that migrants and refugees bring to Australia, New Zealand and the region, but also to ask ourselves, ‘how can we be more welcoming?’

The St Arnold Janssen Chapel in Marsfield, Sydney, is planning a full day of ‘Multicultural Sunday’ celebrations to mark Migrant and Refugee Sunday on August 31.

The Janssen Spirituality Centre in Boronia, Victoria, is enjoying a rebirth as a place for contemplative living and prayer, thanks to the collaborative efforts of members of the Divine Word Missionaries and the Holy Spirit Sisters.

A key focus of the Centre is the desire to create a place to nurture inter-religious dialogue and cross cultural activities.

To be effective in Mission, we need to take time, as Jesus did, to withdraw from the demands of our busy lives and connect again with the Living Water that sustains us, and that’s exactly what the members of the Australian Catholic Disability Council did in the desert around Alice Springs recently.

Fr Asaeli Raass SVD led a retreat for the Council based on the theme of spiritual dryness and living water – an experience made all the more meaningful by its focus on the cool, calm waterholes which are found in the desert country of Central Australia.

"'To live life to the full' - that has been my motto and is my driving force in continuously responding to God’s calling to me as a religious missionary priest of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD)."

As we celebrate Vocations Awareness Month, the Province's new Vocations Director, Fr Elmer Ibarra SVD shares with us his personal journey, from childhood illness to a nursing career and now life as a missionary priest.

Some people ask me, “Why are you a religious?”

“Well, God called me to religious life,” I answer.

“That’s it?” They ask further.

“Yup, that’s it,” I tell them.

Bible Sunday was celebrated in spectacular fashion at the St Arnold Janssen Chapel at Marsfield, in Sydney, with a multicultural dramatic presentation of some of the key scenes from John’s Gospel.

Entitled ‘You are the Messiah’, the script for the drama was prepared by a parishioner, Tim Lee and Fr Michael Quang Nguyen SVD, taking their inspiration from episodes in passages from John 1-4.

Vietnamese and parish communities in Sydney and Brisbane have reached out with compassion, by raising funds to help those who lost young family members in a tragic bus accident while en route to an SVD youth camp in Thailand.

Last month, In the Word reported that 13 young Vietnamese people had been killed on their way to a camp to be held at the SVD parish of Nong Bua Lamphu (NBL) in northern Thailand.

It’s a long way from Chicago to the dry red dust of Central Australia, but for SVD student Paul Aquino, the experience has opened up a whole new world to him and helped prepare him for his life as a Divine Word Missionary.

Paul is originally from the Philippines and is undergoing his SVD formation in Chicago. He came to the AUS Province  as part of the Overseas Training Program, a placement he has just completed.

The SVD commitment to walking with the poor and the marginalised is lived out in Australian suburbia, as well as overseas missions, and Fr Sunil Nagothu SVD and Fr Adrian Jenani SVD are enjoying both the joys and challenges of parish life in the Logan area of southern Brisbane.

Fr Sunil was appointed Parish Priest of St Maximilian Kolbe Parish, Kingston/Marsden, one year ago. 

The release of Pope Francis’ Message for World Mission Day marks the countdown to this world-wide celebration, set down for October 19.

In his message, the Holy Father reminds us that: “All the members of the Church are called to participate in this mission, for the Church is missionary by her very nature: she was ‘born to go forth’.”