As the Vatican Christmas tree and Nativity Scene adorned a St Peter’s Square filled with faithful this week, Pope Leo XIV highlighted the importance of Advent as a time of preparation to welcome the birth of Christ.

He offered the encouragement in his various greetings to pilgrims from different language groups during the Wednesday General Audience on December 17.

Advent and Christmas have been celebrated in a variety of different ways across the SVD Australia Province, from multicultural carols to Christmas lights, concerts to shared meals and gifts – all with the common theme of highlighting the nativity of Jesus Christ.

From the Indigenous communities in the Tiwi Islands, Central Australia, and Balgo to city suburbs in Australia and New Zealand and across to villages in Thailand and Myanmar, the Province has expressed a range of different cultural celebrations of Christmas.

The SVD Queensland District gathered recently for its annual five-day retreat — described as a precious time of spiritual renewal, reflection, and fraternity.

The retreat took place at the Santa Teresa Retreat Centre in Brisbane last month under the theme, ‘SVD Mission Collaboration’.

The Divine Word Missionaries played an active role in the recent Australian Catholic Youth Festival in Melbourne by sharing the SVD missionary charism with young Catholics, promoting vocations, and gaining inspiration from them, as well.

Province Vocations Director Fr Yon Wiryono SVD attended with seminarians from Dorish Maru College and for the first time, the SVD collaborated with the Indonesian Catholic Community in Melbourne, highlighting the value in lay people and Religious working together to promote vocations.

The SVD Australia Province has a new Provincial Council to help provide collaborative leadership over the next three years.

The new Provincial Councillors were recently appointed by the SVD Generalate in Rome, following their nomination at the local level.

As Advent draws us onward towards the coming of Jesus at Christmas, I take this opportunity to wish everyone the hope and much-needed peace of the season.

And, as this will be my last message as Provincial, I also wish to thank everyone who journeyed with me and supported the Divine Word Missionaries over the last six years. I have been reminded again and again that we never walk alone when we walk in faith.

At the beginning of Advent, as Christians prepare to welcome the Prince of Peace at Christmas, Pope Leo XIV has called for prayer that Christians living in areas of war or conflict, especially in the Middle East, might be seeds of peace, reconciliation and hope.

As we enter our Advent reflection, may we join with the Pope in offering a prayer to the God of Peace that Christians surrounded by pain may feel the “gentle kindness of your presence and the prayers of their brothers and sisters in faith”.

Two young men from Vietnam have made their first profession of vows in the Society of the Divine Word following their postulancy in Thailand and a year-long novitiate in the Philippines.

Hung Dinh Nguyen and Joseph Pham Van Thong joined the SVD Australia Province in Thailand and will now prepare to undertake their seminary studies and formation with the SVD Australia Province at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne.

The Superior-General of the Society of the Divine Word, Fr Anselmo Ribeiro SVD, made a visit to Thailand and Myanmar in the SVD Australia Province this month, expressing his delight in the commitment of the missionaries and the variety of ministries being undertaken in both countries.

Over the course of five days, Fr Anselmo was given a first-hand experience of ministries ranging from parishes to AIDs ministry, teaching, formation, migrant ministry and more, all within an interfaith cultural context.

As we begin the season of Advent we enter into a time of prayer, reflection, waiting and preparing for the arrival of Jesus at Christmas.

At the same time, people in the United States have celebrated Thanksgiving this week. In our part of the world, Thanksgiving is not such a prevalent holiday, but it can prompt us to realise that we have much for which to give thanks, especially in the month of November when we remember in prayer those who have gone before us.