The Divine Word Missionaries team in Myanmar is taking the next step in preparing their engagement with the people, by immersing themselves in the local culture and in the Word of God.

Fr Tuyen Nguyen SVD, one of the team assigned to Myanmar, which is part of the AUS Province, is now living in a village among the people and really immersing himself in the language, culture and customs.

The Divine Word Missionaries are relaunching their Dei Verbum Biblical Course for those engaged in Biblical ministry, and three missionaries from the AUS Province will be among those taking part in the program to be held in Nemi, Italy, later this year.

Province Biblical Coordinator, Fr Elmer Ibarra SVD, will be accompanied by Fr Mariusz Kubista SVD and Fr Tuyen Nguyen SVD who have recently taken up their assignments in the new Myanmar mission, where their work is focused on Bible ministry.

The first SVD house in Myanmar has been officially blessed by Cardinal Charles Bo, in another significant milestone for the AUS Province’s newest missionary endeavour.

Named the Divine Word Centre, the house was blessed by the Cardinal following many months of hard work by confreres and local tradespeople to restore it to a habitable home.

After 10 years as a  missionary in Kenya, Fr Mariusz Kubista SVD has arrived in Myanmar, saying he is keen to get to know the people and help establish the AUS Province’s  new mission in the south-east Asian nation.

“My hope personally is to fulfil the will of God,” he says. “But for the mission started here, I would say my hope is to reach out to people in their local language, both in the written and spoken form.”

Cardinal Charles Bo SDB, the Archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar, paid a special visit to the Divine Word Missionaries Marsfield community in Sydney recently to meet the confreres and thank the Province for establishing a new mission in his Archdiocese.

Cardinal Bo’s visit came during his tour of Australia, as a guest of Catholic Mission.

The Bible is not a static collection of ancient works but the living Word of God which continues to speak to us today, so for Fr Elmer Ibarra SVD, a recent Biblical study course in the Philippines provided new insights which he is eager to share upon his return to Australia.

Fr Elmer is the Biblical Coordinator for the SVD AUS Province, and he took part in the course with two other new members of the Province, Fr Mariusz Kubista SVD, a Polish priest who has been in Kenya for some years and Fr Tuyen Nguyen SVD, from Vietnam, who has been in Argentina for 10 years. Both Fr Mariusz and Fr Tuyen were taking part in the Biblical study course in the Philippines to prepare them for their upcoming assignment teaching the Bible in Myanmar, the AUS Province’s newest mission.

As the New Year rolls on, we plan resolutions to make some changes in life over the coming year. Often times, we fail to persist with the promises we made and find that the resolutions just made have been broken. It’s hard to consistently persist with our resolutions, but it’s not impossible. Amidst all the hustle and bustle of life what we often forget to include in our life is ‘the God particle’ which can enthuse us when we fail and raise us when we fall.

When God intervenes in our life, something surprising happens and we are dumbfounded. Many of the Biblical stalwarts were the same - they sought the hand of God in their life and God surprised them. 

A significant milestone for the people of Central Australia will be celebrated this Sunday with the launch of the Bible translated into the local Arrernte language – a project which has taken more than 30 years to come to fruition.

The ‘Angkentye Mwerre’ Eastern and Central Arrernte Shorter Bible will be launched by the local Aboriginal people of Santa Teresa and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish, Alice Springs, in a special Mass on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday in NAIDOC Week.

The SVD AUS Province is preparing to send a team of missionaries to Myanmar by the beginning of next year to establish a brand new Divine Word Missionary presence in the South-East Asian nation.

Provincial, Fr Henry Adler SVD, who has recently returned from visiting Myanmar, says that Cardinal Charles Bo invited the SVD into his diocese of Yangon to pursue Bible ministry there.

Migration is changing the face of Christianity and Church communities must embrace this change or risk fading away, says visiting Biblical Scholar, Fr vanThanh Nguyen SVD.

Fr vanThanh, who is Professor of New Testament Studies and holds the Bishop Francis Ford Chair of Catholic Missiology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, was in Australia this month giving a series of lectures for BBI – The Australian Institute of Theological Education.