A new series of online video conversations featuring people of different faiths and belief systems aims to broaden the scope of interfaith dialogue.

Fr Thien Nguyen SVD, who is part of the initiative, says each of the conversations focuses on the basic, unifying exploration of one key topic – love – as lived and expressed by those being interviewed.

For the first thousand years of Christianity, bishops, priests, and all the faithful would talk about the Christian Community as the “real” body and blood of Christ.

A new book, co-edited by Fr Anthony Le Duc SVD, is set to shine a light on some of the creative pastoral responses implemented around the world in response to COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Pastoral Creativity Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: Global Experiences’ chronicles the pastoral responses that pastoral agents, ordained and lay, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic from first-person narratives woven together to form a tapestry of rich and moving personal stories.

Today we celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  It is a mystery that is part of our Catholic DNA, but we seldom reflect on it.  When we make the sign of the Cross, we say: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

One of the exciting events in Track and Field is the 4 X 100 metre relay. There’s a team of four athletes and they’re standing 100 metres apart and the first athlete runs for 100 metres then they pass the baton to the next athlete and the fourth athlete gets the baton and runs straight until the finish line.

The Gospels show Jesus teaching the people of His time about His Father using parables, stories, and metaphors that they were very familiar with.

We just celebrated Easter last month.  Each Easter season presents a deep meaning of salvation.  As we celebrate each season of Easter, it moves us toward a deep meaning of the mystery of death and resurrection of Christ, writes Fr Phuong Vu SVD. 

The death of Christ on the cross is reflected in many salvation aspects of Christian life.  The cross becomes an icon for salvation, and it has no end, and it represents this for all nations on earth.  It becomes a personal attachment as well.  It empowers us into life. 

It’s been a period of fond farewells and new beginnings for Fr Sunil Nagothu SVD, as he hands over the leadership of St Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Marsden, Queensland and prepares to take up a new ministry at the Janssen Spirituality Centre in Victoria.

Fr Sunil has been Parish Priest at St Maximilian Kolbe for seven years and was farewelled by his parishioners in a heart-felt celebration earlier this month.

American biblical scholar, Fr vănThanh Nguyễn, SVD will lead the Divine Word Missionaries AUS Province members in their annual retreat this year, despite not being able to travel from the US because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fr vănThanh, who is Professor of New Testament Studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, will deliver the retreat online on the topic, ‘The Love of Christ Impels Us: A Retreat with Saint Paul and the 18^th General Chapter’, to confreres from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar during July.

Someone once said that we are affirmed by our successes but can be enlightened by our mistakes and those situations which challenge us, reflects Fr Michael Knight SVD.

What is God trying to teach us in in the darkness of our own personal cross? How can the light of Easter make a positive difference in my daily life?