Society Matters | Volume 31 No. 2 | Winter 2021

Volume 31 No. 2 | Winter 2021 6 Five young missionaries respond to God’s call in Final Vows and Diaconate The SVD AUS Province had cause for great celebration in March when five young confreres from three different countries made their Final Profession of Vows and were ordained to the Diaconate. The profession of vows and ordination to the Diaconate took place over the weekend of March 13-14 at St Paschal’s Chapel, Box Hill. The young men making their commitment were Nicholas Duc, Marius Razafimandimby, Francois D’Assise Andrianihantana, Edward Okletey Teye, and Hai Nguyen. They are from Ghana, Madagascar and Vietnam. Delivering the homily at the Profession of Final Vows, Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD reflected on the experience of Samuel who heard God’s voice calling him in the night, but didn’t at first realise it was God. He said while not many of us may have heard God’s audible voice calling out to us several times through the night, many of us have experienced “something mystical or transformational”. “It is true, God does work through our human experience,” he said. He said the five candidates for final vows were testament to God’s action in their lives and their willingness to respond to God’s call. “They are here because they also want to testify that God has been working through their human experiences,” he said. The following day, the Bishop of Parramatta, the Most Rev. Vincent Long OFMConv celebrated the Mass of Ordination to the Diaconate at St Paschal’s Chapel. “God sure works in mysterious ways by bringing these five men from various places around the world to Melbourne to be ordained,” he said. “God called you and he continues to guide you into the great unknown. “If you are sensitive to this guidance and willing to go further, he will make you into His instruments.” Bishop Long told the young men they were being ordained to the diaconate at a watershed moment for the Catholic Church in Australia. In the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Church is reduced in numbers and impact and the priest’s aura and prestige has evaporated, he said. “But the Word of God on this Sunday in Lent gives us the courage to press the re-set button and begin the task of rebuilding the Kingdom afresh,” he said.