The Divine Word Missionaries have confirmed their deep commitment to mission in Central Australia by purchasing a property in Alice Springs which will not only be a dwelling for confreres and visitors, but a house of spirituality and Indigenous theology for the whole community.

The house, named the Logos Spirituality Centre, was blessed by the SVD Superior General, Fr Heinz Kuluke, during his visit to the red centre last week.

As we approach the end of Mission Month for 2017, having celebrated World Mission Sunday on October 22, it’s a good time to reflect on what impact, if any, this worldwide focus on Mission has had on us.

The SVD AUS Province celebrated Mission Sunday with gusto in parishes and communities, with a joyful multicultural focus, which is so much at the heart of who we are as Divine Word Missionaries.

Many of us travel through life in search of God's love, sometimes unaware of the things around us that we need to help us find and experience that love. I am making that journey and learning many things about myself along the way. Come follow me on my journey!

Gone are the days, when I used to see people working on the farm, sharpening their axes and sickles. I barely understood the need to spend so much time on sharpening the instruments before putting them to work. Now I know that to get a good result, a lot of preparation is needed. And so it is with God's love; we need to be aware of what is necessary to gain the fullness of God's love.

Five members of the SVD AUS Province joined with missionaries from the provinces in the Asia-Pacific in Mumbai, India, recently to focus on the Society’s four Characteristic Dimensions.

The Characteristic Dimensions are Mission, Communications, Bible, and Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC), and they form the four key priorities of the Society of the Divine Word, all around the world.

The first group of SVD Lay partners for the Australia Province has been launched in Marsfield during a celebration for the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary and SVD Foundation Day.

The 10 Lay pioneers joined in the celebrations and the Friday night dinner hosted by the SVD Marsfield community and the establishment of the group is being hailed as a milestone in the ongoing process of exploring the formalising of lay involvement with the Province.

The SVD AUS Province is gearing up to celebrate World Mission Sunday on October 22, with activities planned across the Province to mark this special day in the Church’s calendar, and resources available to share.

AUS Province Mission Secretary, Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD says it has been a tradition of the Church since 1926 to set aside the penultimate Sunday in October each year to reflect on ‘Mission’.

The Dorish Maru College community and friends recently hosted a joyful jubilee celebration for four confreres who have notched up a combined total of 190 years of service as Divine Word Missionaries.

Fr Larry Nemer was celebrating 65 years in vows, while Br Martin de Porres Nono, Fr Sunil Nagothu and Fr Boni Buhaendri were marking 25 years.

Life is pretty good in Australia, or at least that’s the impression most of us would have, and compared with many countries in the world, it would be true. And yet, the latest figures show us that nearly 3 million Australians live in poverty, including 730,000 children.

This figure came to my attention as I read the Australian Bishops’ Social Justice Statement for 2017-18, entitled ‘Everyone’s Business: Developing an inclusive and sustainable economy’, which challenges us to always keep people at the centre of the economy.

This month we celebrated National Vocations Awareness Week here in Australia – an occasion which always prompts me to both give thanks and to pray just a little bit harder.

I give thanks for the fact that our formation house, Dorish Maru College, in Melbourne is quite literally full with young men training to be missionaries. It’s such a wonderful sign of hope for our Society and for the world.

The scholar of religion Frederick Streng defines religion as the “means toward ultimate transformation.” Ultimate transformation, says Streng, “is a fundamental change from being caught up in the troubles of common existence (sin, ignorance) to living in such a way that one can cope at the deepest level with those troubles.” Self-transformation is not the exclusive agenda of religion since anything that we engage in with intention and purpose can lead to transformation physically, mentally and spiritually. However, it is religion that makes the goal of self-transformation its highest, if not the only, priority.

While one can agree that all religions set out to help the human person achieve ultimate transformation, the tools and methods that each religious system employs varies.