Attending this consultative Synod as one of the 38 small group facilitators is a great honour and privilege – an experience of a lifetime, a Kairos experience! “Come to us, O Holy Spirit” is the consistent cry holding the synodal journey from many languages, cultures and Christian traditions under the leadership of Pope Francis, writes Fr Asaeli Rass SVD.

I am thrilled to be part of Pope Francis' dream towards a synodal Catholic Church that walks, prays, discerns together in the Holy Spirit. This is subjective, and yet I could openly express in appreciation how the Spirit is gently and surely leading the Catholic Church to a better space in the history of salvation.

This week I departed for Rome to take part in the Synod of Bishops on Synodality.

I have been appointed by Pope Francis to be a small group facilitator during the Synod discussions, and while I am certainly aware of the enormity of the task ahead, I am also honoured and excited to be a part of it.

The experience of being at Lisbon’s World Youth Day as chaplain for the North Queensland Catholic education offices pilgrim group was a gift that will be cherished for a long time for Fr Joseph Reddy SVD.

Fr Joseph, who is a parish priest in Townsville, said that being with faith-filled young people from around the world and listening to the words of Pope Francis to not be afraid and to be a welcoming Church for everyone helped nourish his own faith and send him home with refreshed spiritual vigour.

The Janssen Spirituality Centre in Boronia, Victoria, was host recently to a series of five workshops on interculturality, attended by both interested lay people and religious, including SVD students from Dorish Maru College.

The workshops were presented by Sr Cathy Solano RSM, who has a background in education and spent several years working in Africa. She also has a Master’s in Intercultural Studies from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

The account in Luke’s gospel of Mary going to visit her cousin Elizabeth tells us that Our Lady “arose and went with haste” to share the joy she carried in her heart and in her womb, reflected Pope Francis in last Sunday’s Angelus address.

“She arose and went. In the last stretch of the journey of Advent, let us be guided by these two verbs. To arise and to go in haste: these are the two movements that Mary made and that she invites us also to make as Christmas approaches.”

This month’s celebration of the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, instituted by Pope Francis, struck a note with me and I’m sure for many others as well.

In my Pacific island culture, the elders in our families and in our villages are deeply honoured and I have beautiful memories of my grandparents and their special role in my life.

The SVD AUS Province is embracing the principles set out in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ by taking a series of small, practical steps to help protect the environment.

Recently, the Provincial Council and the Treasurer’s Office approved the installation of a 25.2KW solar panel array at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne.

Recently, the story of a pair of friends in Vietnam went viral on Vietnamese social media because it was as extraordinary as it was profoundly touching. For the past 10 years, Hieu has been carrying his friend Minh on his back to school every day without fail.

It began in the second grade when Hieu volunteered to take Minh on his back to school because Minh was born with a disability in both his legs and one of his arms. Seeing himself and others able to go to school, Hieu could not bear to see Minh unable to get an education because of his disability.

If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us it is how deeply the globe is interconnected.

This interdependence is something I’ve been pondering on as Christians across the world prepare to join together over the next month to celebrate the Season of Creation.

Pope Francis’ visit to Thailand was a great opportunity for the Church in Thailand to invigorate its faith and to fire up the missionary dimension as the people celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Siam Mission, an SVD priest assigned to the country says.

Fr Truong Thong Le SVD was one of 11 Divine Word Missionaries from the AUS Province currently working in Thailand or Myanmar who took part in the events surrounding the Papal visit. They were also joined by an SVD priest from the Vietnam Province.