Dear Friends,

As we prepare for the special feast of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, I believe it’s more important than ever for us to be alert to the movement of the Spirit in our own lives and in the Church today.

For some time now I’ve been sensing the Spirit at work in the growing move towards synodality in our Church – that movement based on deep listening, discernment and sharing of gifts.

In Australia, this is most evident in the unfolding of our Plenary Council. As a member of the Plenary Council, I was most impressed by the spirit of listening which characterised the proceedings of the first assembly. As the second and final assembly approaches, I pray this will continue, so that the Holy Spirit may have room to move among us.

Synodality is, at its core a commitment to walking together. As missionaries, this is our fundamental way of being. In our SVD Province, I see confreres walking together with our Indigenous peoples, walking together with people in our multicultural parishes, and with the poor in Thailand and Myanmar. On my recent visit to the Thailand District of our Province I was especially touched and inspired to see our confreres – from the United States, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos and India – all speaking the Thai language so well, for in ministry, as in all of life, it is through shared language that we truly get to know one another, to share culture and walk together.

Pope Francis is leading the Church on a universal path of synodality and I am growing more convinced that it is the Holy Spirit bringing us together in new and unexpected ways so that we can go out, renewed and filled with that same Spirit, to share God’s love with all people, but especially those on the margins.

Our job is to be prayerfully and generously open to the workings of the Spirit in our lives and in our Church.

“Come Holy Spirit and renew the face the of earth!”

Fr Asaeli Rass SVD,

Provincial.