In sports, the dream of an athlete is to be the best, to be at the top, to be number one. Unfortunately, sometimes in the process, a good number might resort to various ways of doing it either legally or illegally.

The dialogue between Jesus and a young man in the Gospel story for 28th Sunday of Ordinary time, is so profound. A young man comes to Jesus, asking “What should I do to inherit the eternal life?” 

Recently, marriage has been quite a hot topic in various sectors of society. At one end, there are advocates for “marriage equality” which means you can marry any person regardless of their gender.

Guest speakers at the 2021 Provincial Assembly challenged members of the SVD community to be invitational, to get to know people’s story and to discern and act with vision – the vision of Jesus Christ.

Emeritus Bishop of Darwin, Bishop Eugene Hurley spoke on the Leadership of Pope Francis, and Dr Janine Luttick, a lecturer in biblical studies at Australian Catholic University (ACU), in the faculty of theology and philosophy, presented on Leadership, Mission, Women and the Church in Australia.

I have recently finished editing a Vietnamese volume entitled “Pastoral Directions Post Covid-19 Pandemic: Lessons from the Signs of the Times.” When I made an announcement about this publication on my social media page, some people raised the question of whether we were in a position to speak about the post-pandemic context. After all, despite many vaccination efforts around the world, with the Delta variant of the coronavirus, and other recently discovered ones that might wreak great havoc, many countries have been experiencing new waves of the pandemic with high rates of infection. 

Needless to say, the “post-pandemic” reality which the authors in the book discussed is yet to be seen, and in some cases, seems far off in the future. Many of the authors highlighted this uncertainty in their articles. However, as the world continues to deal with the pandemic and wrestles with the virus, I think it might be important for us to reflect on the word “post-pandemic”. In reality, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 is not a new virus, but part of a large family of viruses that causes various health problems, including the common cold. The consequences brought about by sars-cov-2, however, have been much more severe, and for millions of people around the world, have proven to be deadly.

Knowing who Jesus is and what following him means is something that each one of us as Christians needs to grow more deeply in every single day. It is a lifetime journey.

There is a distinct message of hope and a call to mutual help in the readings offered to us this Sunday.

After 20 months being separated from his missionary assignment due to COVID border closures, Fr Toub Anisong Chanthavong SVD is set to return to Thailand with a thankful heart in September.

Fr Toub took the short trip from Thailand to Laos in December 2019 for three months of home leave with his family, but the worldwide pandemic prevented him from returning to his ministry for almost two years.

The Divine Word Missionaries this month celebrated 125 years in Papua New Guinea with a range of celebrations, giving thanks to God for all the blessings bestowed on the mission, the people, and the missionaries themselves.

SVD Superior-General, Fr Paul Budi Kleden, was special guest at the celebrations, having made it all the way from Rome, despite the COVID-related difficulties in international travel.

As I write this message, millions of Australians are once again living in COVID lockdown across New South Wales, the ACT, and Victoria. Gatherings are banned, families are separated and many people have either lost employment or taken a blow to their income. Of course, many are also suffering from the health effects of COVID and a significant number of people have died. We pray for them.

In amongst these challenges and difficulties we have been forced to continually adapt to the new circumstances we face. The SVD has also been called upon to adapt to new ways of doing things and in September we will hold our first ever online Provincial Assembly.