February was a month of great celebration in the SVD AUS Province, as two confreres celebrated significant anniversaries of their vows, with Fr Frank Gerry SVD notching up 65 years as a Divine Word Missionary and Fr Michael Hardie SVD marking his 25th jubilee.

Fr Frank, who now lives in retirement, celebrated his jubilee with family in Brisbane, while Fr Michael shared the milestone with confreres at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne, where he is Rector.

Some years ago I found in a Dutch catholic newspaper an article on a spiritual renewal centre in Helvoirt in the Netherlands province of Brabant.
Reading it, I slowly realized they were talking about our former SVD Noviciate house, where I entered the SVD as a novice.

The author wrote: “Stepping into the building, one can feel an atmosphere of prayer.” In other words, you can feel it is a holy place”.