By Fr Roger Kyaw SVD

One heart, many faces we have been called to serve Christ and one another.  What a blessing to have the honour of celebrating the 150th Jubilee Year of our SVD existence!  We definitely have a lot to celebrate looking back at the past 150 years of grace, struggles and growth.  As I just embarked on my first mission a few months ago, I don’t feel like I have a lot of ministerial experiences yet to share. Rather I want to reflect on my encounter with the light in the SVD in the past 10 years.

I thank God, the source of light, who in his providence guided me and brought me into the Arnoldus Family. I began to feel the call when I was in middle school. However, the Society was never on my radar since we didn’t have an SVD community in Myanmar at the time.  My first time hearing about the name “SVD” was in early 2014.  I was then a diocesan seminarian from my home diocese of Loikaw in Myanmar.  At the time I was just about to begin my Philosophical study at the national seminary in Myanmar.  One day in February of 2014, I got news from my bishop that I was one of the two nominees to be sent to the US for study.  Before sending us off, he called my companion and me to his office and told us that we were going to study at a college run by the SVD.  He asked us if we wanted to join the SVD. Since we had not known anything about SVD, we told him that we would rather go see it for ourselves first before giving him the answer.

We arrived at Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa in August 2014. My encounters with the SVDs at the college were very positive. To me they were the most down-to-earth, welcoming and friendly people I had ever met. They treated me as if I were their equal and long time brother.  The international students at the DWC were also super friendly and supportive of me. Though this was my first time ever to be so far away from home, I quickly felt at home in a foreign land and fell in love with the community at the college. Those encounters for me were moments of encountering the light. I felt loved, accepted and welcomed by the community and that made me a happy person who wanted to radiate that light to those I encounter. After two years at college, my Burmese friend and I decided to join the SVD and the rest is history. 

Looking back at what had led me to make the move, I can say with confidence and joy that community living, intercultural living in particular, comes to my mind front and centre.  I began to see the blessings of and transformative power of being in an intercultural family. The SVD charisma in appreciation of cultural differences enlightened me to see the beauty and values of every culture and communicate with people from different cultures with respect and openness to learn from them. Studying and living with confreres from different nations and cultures during my formation years have broadened my horizon and enriched my personal, spiritual and intellectual life.  I am very honoured and grateful for being part of the international and intercultural family of the SVD. 

I am also thankful for our founder and predecessors who had a vision for the mission, to spread the Good News as an act of charity, and a vision of bringing us together as a family of brothers from different nations and cultures.  I am inheriting the fruit of their sacrifices, labour and legacy.  I not only received wonderful formation and education programs, but also the priceless wisdom and lessons from their life stories. For instance, I feel that it is no coincidence that the political situation in Arnold’s time somehow resembled the political situation we have been facing in my mission in Myanmar. Looking at this ongoing political unrest sometimes makes me feel discouraged. However, the legacy of Arnold’s trust in the Triune God and his perseverance gives me hope and a sense of direction in this challenging time. The countless stories of our predecessors whose life stories I learned during my formation years continue to inspire me in my mission. Their stories of faith and resilience inspire me to move forward in hope and trust and to witness to the light as they did so faithfully.

In celebrating our 150th Jubilee, we, as a society of one heart with many faces, are celebrating God’s bountiful grace to our Society as well as the profound faith and generous responses of our predecessors. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to my predecessors, living and dead, who generously responded to God’s call with deep trust and let the light of Christ shine through their lives. Their lives, faith and sacrifices continue to remind me and inspire me to do the same. To respond to God’s call generously and to allow the Light of Christ shine through my life in the midst of trials and challenges I encounter in the mission to serve Christ and one another.

PHOTO: Fr Roger Kyaw SVD in Myanmar.