After nearly a decade holding the purse-strings of the SVD across the world, Fr Stephan Gerdes SVD has arrived in the AUS Province, ready for God to reveal his new mission assignment.

Fr Stephan, who was born and raised in Germany, has been Treasurer-General of the Society of the Divine Word, based in Rome since 2010 and before that was a missionary to Papua New Guinea.

The SVD Lay Partners group in Marsfield is continuing its journey of growth and formation in SVD life and spirituality, with a recent presentation on the life of founder, St Arnold Janssen.

The presentation was delivered by Fr Frank Gerry SVD, who has rich experience in SVD formation, and Fr Dom Flores SVD, who is accompanying the Lay Partners group.

In today’s Gospel the story is told of how one of Jesus’ followers asks him if many or only a few will be saved. Jesus does not give a direct answer.

It’s a long way from Fr Prakash Menezes SVD’s home in India to his parish of Santa Teresa in the Central Australian desert country, but it is exactly the kind of Christ-led and people-centred life he hoped for when he signed up to be a missionary priest.

Fr Prakash joined the Divine Word Missionaries in India and undertook his theological studies and formation in Melbourne, where he made his final vows and was ordained to the priesthood in 2014.

The familiar parable of the Good Samaritan is once again given to us today to reflect upon the need to reach out to the ‘other’.

With my time as Provincial drawing to a close at the end of this year, and still plenty of things to cross off the ‘to-do’ list, there hasn’t been much time for reflection on these past six years.

But as I write this column, it is a chance to take a few moments and consider what God has done in our Province and to give thanks for blessings received.

At the scene of the Ascension, St Luke, the author of The Acts of the Apostles, makes mention of two men dressed in white who say to the Twelve:

National Reconciliation Week in Australia is observed in the last week in May, beginning this year on ‘Sorry Day’ (Sunday 26) and continuing through to the 3rd of June. The dates for NRW remain the same each year, yet they are not random: they commemorate two significant milestones on the reconciliation journey: the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

NRW in 2019 also coincides with the second anniversary of the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ – a statement issued by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders at their gathering in Central Australia in May, 2017.

Leadership for mission is based on inclusivity, dialogue and encounter and it must be deeply anchored in a trusting relationship with God and a desire to share the joy of the Gospel, a visiting US religious sister told the recent Mission: One heart many voices conference in Sydney.

Dr Carol Zinn ssj, a Sister of St Joseph from Philadelphia and Executive Director of the US Leadership Conference of Women Religious, was a keynote speaker at the conference co-hosted by Catholic Mission and Catholic Religious Australia.

It’s marvellous the power that words can have to focus our attention and efforts, especially when they are distilled down into a motto.

This has certainly been the case for me since learning of the new motto for the Society of the Divine Word: ‘Faithful to the Word, One with the People’.