The Australian Province of the Divine Word Missionaries celebrated recently as three young men publicly professed their Perpetual Vows, with Provincial, Fr Henry Adler SVD, saying the occasion was a particular blessing because religious professions are rare events in the world today.

Bernadinus (Bedi) Tertius Asmon, Prakash Brayan Menezes, and Trien Phat Nguyen professed their Perpetual Vows as Divine Word Missionaries on Saturday, March 15 at St Paschal’s Chapel, Box Hill. That ceremony was followed by their ordination to the diaconate on Sunday, March 16. Both ceremonies were attended by confreres, family and friends.

“We feel particularly blessed because celebrations of religious profession are rare events in the world we live in today,” said Fr Henry in his homily at the final vows celebration.

“Rarer and rarer is becoming the case where a young person, whose life is full of every opportunity for marriage, sexual intimacy, career and worldly wealth and success pledges to live a lifetime of poverty, chastity and obedience.

“This is not an easy time to make religious vows.”

Fr Henry said the vows were essentially an act of love for the God who first loved Bedi, Prakash and Trien, as expressed in one of the readings selected for the day, from Isaiah 43: ‘I have called you by your name, you are mine’.

“Dear Bedi, Prakash and Trien, by your commitment to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, you are making a statement today that there is another way to live a life that can assure a person of happiness now in this life and in the life to come,” he said.

“You are taking a prophetic stand; a radical option and alternative way of life, pointing to the Kingdom. In this sense, religious life has a prophetic dimension.

“Rare as we may be, the Church today needs us religious to be prophetic; the Church needs you, Bernadinus, Trien and Prakash to be prophetic – that is, people who not only speak the truth about God’s love, but people who live that truth with their love. Help others find the Lord through you and your prophetic service.”

In reflections prepared ahead of the ceremony, each of the three young men spoke of their personal relationship with God as being the foundation for their vocation as religious missionaries.

Reflecting on the readings chosen for the celebration (Isaiah 43:1-10 and John 15:9-17), Bedi said the reading from Isaiah, of God calling us by name, gave him deep assurance as he made his final vows.

“It speaks of God’s faithfulness and unfailing love to every person and to me personally,” he said.

"This passage assures and challenges me at the same time. It assures me of God’s love; of God’s thought of me. It assures me that I have no reason to be afraid, to fear; God loves me and God is with me. God’s love is stronger than my fear.

“The challenge ahead of me is never greater than the power behind and in me that is God’s love and mercy.”

Bedi said that being by nature a timid person, the verse also sets him a challenge.

“This passage challenges me to give witness to God’s love and mercy that I have experienced in life to other people that I encounter in my daily life. It challenges me to live my life to the full, to live as a person who is loved greatly, to get out of my comfort zone and to let God guide me through.”

Trien, said the passage from Isaiah, which also says, ‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you’, gives him strength for his vocation as a missionary.

“There are too many things to make us fear in this world,” he said. “My fear is of failure to do anything. I am also fearful about the unknown future. Yet, in the journey of my life, I have felt that God is always with us, and I believe that God has led me to His way, even through my fear, with His love.”

Reflecting on the passage from John: ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love’, Trien said that love was “the hardest lesson I have learnt in my life”.

“Then I realised that Love is not a lesson, but a progress I try to make every day. God invited me to abide in His love. And in turn, I am asked to do the same.”

Prakash said that when he looks back on his life so far, he feels God’s hand has been leading him and showing him that he is loved and cared for.

“Today, as I have come to the end of my initial formation, I feel I am ready to tread along the path that God has laid for me,” he said. “I have realised that it is in doing God’s will that I find fulfilment in my life. I have my choices and I am choosing my life in a manner that corresponds to the will of God.

“The will of God for me is to love one another as Jesus taught me and through this love of neighbour I learn to love God to the utmost of my ability.

“I feel I am called, by the love of God, to be a true witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and through this witness become a true and loving child of God.”