When Fr Rajaskhar Reddy SVD, found himself stranded at home in India during the COVID border closures, he saw first-hand how hard-hit the Indian people were by the impacts of the virus.

Fr Raja was in India for three months’ home-leave at the beginning of this year and was due to return to his parish in Thailand in March, but just a week before his departure, Thailand announced it was closing its borders.

When Fr Toub Anisong Chanthavong SVD took the short trip from Thailand to Laos in December for three months of home leave with his family, it never occurred to him that a worldwide pandemic would prevent him from returning to his ministry for many months.

Toub had been set to take up a new parish assignment as assistant priest in Ban Phongsoung, Thailand upon his return from home leave, but instead, has been keeping himself busy in various forms of ministry and service in Laos.

Born and raised on the Mekong Delta river in South Vietnam, Fr Long Nguyen SVD could have ended up a businessman, but instead he chose to become a missionary priest and he is looking forward to taking up his first assignment, in Australia.

It’s not Fr Long’s first time in Australia though. He spent a year here in 2012 as part of his training with the Divine Word Missionaries, as well as a year in Thailand, and he couldn’t wait to come back.

Fr Prakash Menezes SVD says his return to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Alice Springs feels like “coming home”, as it was the first parish he was assigned to as a Divine Word Missionary more than five years ago.

Back then, Fr Prakash was in Alice Springs as assistant priest, but last month, he returned to be installed as Parish Priest.

A recent pilgrimage ‘In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop’ was a profound experience for Fr Nick de Groot SVD, helping him to reflect not only on God’s constant presence throughout his missionary life, but also on the leap of faith taken by his migrant parents when they moved to Australia.

Fr Nick joined 20 other pilgrims from October 22 to November 2 on a journey that took them from Melbourne, where Mary, Australia’s first saint, was born, to Hamilton, Portland, Penola, Robe and Adelaide before flying on to Sydney for the final three days of visiting, reflection and prayer.

Pope Francis’ visit to Thailand was a great opportunity for the Church in Thailand to invigorate its faith and to fire up the missionary dimension as the people celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Siam Mission, an SVD priest assigned to the country says.

Fr Truong Thong Le SVD was one of 11 Divine Word Missionaries from the AUS Province currently working in Thailand or Myanmar who took part in the events surrounding the Papal visit. They were also joined by an SVD priest from the Vietnam Province.

In asking the Church to celebrate an Extraordinary Mission Month this October, Pope Francis is calling each one of us to live out our baptismal calling to carry forward the mission of Jesus Christ, says Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD.

Fr Truc is the Mission Secretary for the Divine Word Missionaries’ AUS Province, a job which entails both living and promoting Christ’s mission locally and internationally.

Today’s Gospel sheds light on the theme of our relationship with God and introduces a double conviction: first, that neutrality is impossible, and second, that there are no definitive states in the life of a disciple, except fidelity to God.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describes, in an epic of faith, important moments of the restoration of the community of the People of God in the ancient land of the fathers after the Babylonian exile.

As you receive this edition of In the Word in your inbox, we are preparing, with the rest of the Church, to respond to Pope Francis’ invitation to celebrate an Extraordinary Mission Month throughout October.

This coincides with the annual celebration of World Mission Sunday on October 20, but Pope Francis has called us to an even more active awareness and promotion of mission this year to commemorate the centenary of Pope Benedict XV’s Apostolic Letter Maximum Ilud, published in November 1919.