Some days all of us surely wonder if what we’re doing in our day-to-day life is really making a difference for the Kingdom of God. We have frustrations and difficulties and we wonder if we’re on the right track. But this month, as I reflected on the foundations of the Society of the Divine Word, I was reminded yet again, that we don’t have to see the end goal of what we’re doing. It is enough to pray, to do our best, and to do our bit.

When Fr Arnold Janssen felt called to begin a missionary society in the late 1800s, during Bismarck’s Kulturcampf crackdown on Catholic life in Germany, he didn’t get much encouragement. Many people said he wasn’t the right man for the job, or that the times weren’t right for such a project. 

Arnold’s answer was: “The Lord challenges our faith to do something new, precisely when so many things are collapsing in the Church.”

I’ve been pondering on that statement in light of the situation the Church finds itself in now, especially with regards to the abuse scandal which has rocked us to the core, both here in Australia and around the world. Certainly, in the face of such criminal failures, it can feel as though many things “are collapsing in the Church”.

But, as St Arnold shows us, it can be at times like this that the Lord challenges our faith to do something new.As missionaries we are always being asked to keep ourselves open to the Lord challenging our faith to do something new.

We must always be willing to change, to try new things, to go to new places, to get to know new people and to learn their needs, so that we can accompany them in their need.

On September 8, 1875, when Arnold Janssen officially blessed the modest mission house in Steyl, Holland, he could not have seen how his daring to do something new would blossom, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, into what it has become today.

He was warned against even starting his missionary dream. Today, the Society of the Divine Word is the largest missionary congregation in the world, with more than 6000 missionaries in 80 different countries. It continues to thrive because it has retained that essential openness of St Arnold’s to open himself up to something new, to see where the need is, and to go there.

So, like St Arnold, we might not see where our own ministry, work and dreams will end up. Perhaps certain works might wither on the vine and die, offering us again the invitation in faith to do something new. But perhaps, they might grow into something we never imagined, entrusted to the people who come after us, for the glory of God.

Either way, all we’re asked to do is begin anew every day, and to keep working and praying, with an openness to the Spirit and a heart of love.

Yours in the Word,

Fr Henry Adler SVD,

Provincial.