One of the faithful religious nuns who was present on my farewell day from a mission experience I took part in during 2010 dropped a card into my hands which is for me an all-time inspiration: “Life is a journey consisting of different steps of staircases.

Whenever you get to one set of stairs, there will always be a platform leading to another. Don’t get discouraged on the way. Take every step as a challenge and move forward”. These words of encouragement and zeal kept me going even when the going got tough.

The roof of St Maximilian Kolbe parish in Kingston-Marden, Queensland is freshly adorned with rows of solar panels – a concrete sign of the parish community’s commitment to playing its part in preserving God’s creation in the spirit of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si.

Parish Priest Fr Sunil Paul Nagothu SVD says parishioners have worked hard to raise funds to support the transition to renewable energy, with the purchase and installation of the solar panels now providing a sustainable power solution for the parish.

A renewed commitment to sharing resources for SVD Mission and Communications around the world was one of the chief outcomes of a special meeting held in Rome recently.

The Mission Secretary for the SVD AUS Province, Fr Truc Quoc Phan, was among a group of Directors of Mission Offices and Communications Offices from various nations who attended the special gathering.

Members of the SVD AUS Province and Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters joined together in July for their annual retreat, based on the theme of ‘A holiday with the Lord’.

The retreat was led by Fr Gregory Pinto SVD, who travelled from Rome, where he is currently serving his second term as a member of the General Council of the Divine Word Missionaries.

The Australian Indigenous celebration of NAIDOC Week this year was especially meaningful to me because of its theme, which was: “Our Languages Matter”. Perhaps it struck an extra chord with me because of our SVD parish of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Alice Springs being involved with the launch of the Arrernte Language Short Bible during NAIDOC Week, which, after 30 years in translation, was a wonderful achievement.

But further than that, it spoke to a truth that we, as Divine Word Missionaries give great priority to, and that is, that all languages certainly do matter to those people who speak them and they should matter to all who wish to engage with people of another culture.

A significant milestone for the people of Central Australia will be celebrated this Sunday with the launch of the Bible translated into the local Arrernte language – a project which has taken more than 30 years to come to fruition.

The ‘Angkentye Mwerre’ Eastern and Central Arrernte Shorter Bible will be launched by the local Aboriginal people of Santa Teresa and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish, Alice Springs, in a special Mass on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday in NAIDOC Week.

The SVD AUS Province is preparing to send a team of missionaries to Myanmar by the beginning of next year to establish a brand new Divine Word Missionary presence in the South-East Asian nation.

Provincial, Fr Henry Adler SVD, who has recently returned from visiting Myanmar, says that Cardinal Charles Bo invited the SVD into his diocese of Yangon to pursue Bible ministry there.

On the matter of providing safe harbour and unconditional welcome for refugees, migrants and the stranger, all four Evangelists agree: “Whoever receives such little ones in my name, receives me.” (Mk 9:37; Mt 18:5; Lk 9:48; Jn 13:20). The Synoptic Gospels also remind us of the woes that may befall any whose actions initiate war, destroy families and create refugees: “It would be better for them to have a great millstone tied around their necks and be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Mk 9:42; Mt 18:6; Lk 17:2).

The use of ‘little ones’ as a category of persons helps us to understand that the refugee is someone who is often marginalised, often vulnerable, often powerless. The combination of all these factors means that they are always deserving of our compassion and concern.

One of the great blessings of the SVD across the world and in the AUS Province is the presence of its young members, and recently, those confreres who have been in the AUS Province for five years or less, got together for some ongoing formation.

“It was a time to come together and share our story of our ministry in our respective fields,” says one of the participants, Fr Kommareddy Rajasekhar Reddy SVD (Raja). “We were given an opportunity to share our joys and challenges in ministry.”

The first results from the latest Census have been released this week and they confirm that here in Australia, we are living in an increasingly diverse religious and cultural society.

The Census showed two key things that were already somewhat obvious to anybody who’s been paying attention to such things – the number of people identifying as being of ‘no religion’ has risen and the nation is becoming increasingly multicultural. What meaning can we take from this?