“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  (John 20:30-31) 

To borrow a story from my friend, Fr Bel San Luis, there was a man who was visiting a seminary. He saw a poster with a phrase in big letters, “Christ is the answer”. Puzzled he wrote at the bottom of the poster, “What is the question?”

With the arrival of the Fifth Sunday of Lent, our Lenten journey is almost over. The concept of Lent as a journey, rather than a time of denial, has been frequently suggested and promoted by Pope Francis.

What does it mean to be a missionary? I’ve been contemplating that this past month, as our Australia Province has celebrated a series of first vows, temporary vow renewals and final vows.

While these celebrations of vows have been wonderful affirmations of God alive and at work in our young people, to be missionary is not just the task of the ordained or the religiously vowed.

The Syro-Malabar community in Alice Springs is set to receive a new chaplain, in Divine Word Missionary priest, Fr Joe Jacob SVD.

Fr Joe, who is from Kerala in India, was ordained in 2020 and his first missionary assignment is to the Australia Province of the SVD.

A few years ago a friend of mine,  a fellow priest,  shared this story with me: He and his brother were the joint heirs to their father’s estate. Several months before their father died, he called his son, the priest, saying he wanted to talk about something very important.

SVD student Shehan Fernando has become the first person from Sri Lanka to become a Divine Word Missionary, after taking his first vows in Melbourne on Sunday.

Shehan took his vows at Dorish Maru College (DMC), in the presence of his formators and fellow students, while friends and family at home in Sri Lanka watched online.

As I write this message, we have just received news that Russia has begun attacking its neighbour, Ukraine with military force.

We, in the SVD AUS Province, pray for the people of Ukraine and the whole world as a period of great instability stretches before us and we join in Pope Francis’ call for a day of prayer and fasting for Ukraine on Ash Wednesday, March 2.

Being a Christian, in this time, is not easy. To be a disciple of Jesus is very challenging, but not impossible. We call ourselves disciples because we have identified ourselves fully with Jesus’ mission; with His vision of life.

Over the past few Sundays, we have heard in the first readings a focused theme – that of ‘Hearing God’s Sacred Word’. On the Third Sunday, in the reading from the book of Nehemiah, we heard the prophet Ezra proclaiming God’s Word in the assembly of the people, after their return from exile.