1

su s I t s

e
Greetings Catholic Mission

INSIDE...
1 2 3
Ignite Conference Fonda's Wedding Silent Retreat Working Bee Archbishop's Canonical Visit

4 5 6

Inauguration Mass Prayer Tips On a Lighter Note Upcoming Events Contact Details

7 and 8

N O V E M B E R

Voting for the Newsletter Name School of the Word

10

GREETI NGS!
Welcome to the first issue of our Word Down Under Newsletter for our Brisbane community! We are happy to share with you all that we have lived and enjoyed here in the Brisbane. God has kept our community busy in the last few months, finding many creative ways for us to collaborate with his urgent mission here in Australia. We are very appreciative of all the members in our apostolate and the wider community that have shown us their loving support in many ways from helping with our working bees and preparation for our Inaugural Mass, and to working together in order to place as many people as possible in personal contact with God. We also thoroughly enjoyed sharing the Silent Retreat and School of the Word events. We hope you are inspired and filled with hope as you read all about it!

2 0 1 3

Verbum Dei Missionaries (From left to right): Gabi, Frances & Claudia

PAGE 1

CATHOLIC MISSION
This year the missionaries have continued to participate in giving their missionary testimonies throughout the Archdiocese of Brisbane in order to help Catholic Mission fundraise for the different projects that Catholic Mission is undertaking in Australia and around the world. We have had the opportunity to meet many different people from different parishes within the Archdiocese and to experience their sensitivity to the suffering and needs of our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than us due to famine, injustice and ignorance. We
Gabi with Catholic Mission Ambassadors and Tamara after an appeal

especially have the privilege of sharing our missionary experiences during our time here in Queensland and the importance of being missionary in

every situation with our testimony of life and our openness to share our faith with the people that God places in our path.

VOTING FOR

THE NEWSLETTER

NAME

Along with the Federal elections, the missionaries had their own set of voting.for the name of the Verbum Dei Brisbane Newsl etter. The missionaries said, We thank everyone for their creativity, collaboration and love towards brainstorming the Newsletter name! The Holy Spirit inspired some very creative and wonderful names. We are sure it was difficult for everyone to vote for their preferred name! Here are all the suggestions:

Testify Witness The Messenger The Word Voice of Truth God News Pax Shine Inspire The Spark The Flying Dove Voice of Hope Grace The Good Shepherd Epistle Expression Freedom

Authentic Expression True Light Light Be Be and Live Total Expression Entrusted mercy) Milah (Hebrew for Spoken Word) Spoken Word Lived Word Gather Ahavah (Hebrew for Intimate Love) Illuminate

Empower Seeking Peace Finding Truth Way to Eternity True Happiness Real Love Freedom through Loving Continuing Hope Sowing the Seeds The Sower The Word Speaks Planting The Word Connect Connected The Vine The word is alive

The lamb of God The light in the darkness The Word is Tangible Tangible

Word Down South Word Around Word Surround Surrounding Word Encompassing Word The Family of God Foundations Corpus Christi

Tangible Word
SEED SALT True Word Word of Hope Word of Truth Enlighten Saving Message Living Word Word Broken Open Illumination Heading North

Chesed (Hebrew for Love with Unending Love

The Disciple Scroll

Dialogue with God The Word Dialogued Disciples Intimacy with God The Word Encountered Encountering the Word

Word Down Under

The winning name was WORD DOWN UNDER whereas the runners up were TANGIBLE WORD and THE DISCIPLE SCROLL
PAGE 2

SCHOOL

OF

THE

WORD

We have finished a ten week journey deepening on Christian Spirituality.

Week 4 One aspect of Jesus life that stands out was that he constantly

In this section we are going to stop and take a look back on what we have attracted crowds of people wherever he went. This is because he wasnt just learnt so far. a teacher but he also lived out what he taught. He made the kingdom of In the world around us we hear the word spirituality thrown around God a reality by living in a personal relationship with God and with those often, as we heard in one of the talks, and it is quite common to hear people around him. Through the passage of the Samaritan woman Jesus taught us say: I am spiritual but not religious. So today let us take a moment and that to connect with someone, we need to first be humble and open to think: What is Spirituality? There are various spiritualties within the Catholic Church which emphasise different aspects about the life of Jesus. Furthermore, each spirituality whatever they might have to offer to us and then to begin to share with them our experience of the life giving water (i.e. God) and teach them how to live in a relationship with him (John 4:1-26, Luke 17:20-21).

doesnt just stop at emphasising an aspect but rather attends to Gods will Thus through the theme of Christian Spirituality throughout the past through that aspect, i.e. faithfulness to each spirituality is a way of living in couple of months may we learn to live our life to the fullness (i.e. the life union with God and living out the Gospel. We looked at different aspects of that we were created for) by living in communion with God and our Jesus life and then saw how to live out these aspects in our life. neighbour. Let us turn our focus towards Jesus, not just looking at him and admiring him but imitating him. We started with the Verbum Dei Spirituality which is a

Week 1

combination of the contemplative and active aspects of Jesus life. We saw that Jesus always spent time in prayer and lived in union with God the Father and let the Holy Spirit guide everything that he did. However, he also lived out his mission (the active part) by preaching the Word of God wherever the Spirit led him (Luke 4:42-44, Luke 4:1-2). We were then invited to live this out.

(*N.B. To continue reading the summary of the other weeks, please see our webpage: www.verbumdeibrisbane.weebly.com).

(Lynn Nazareth)
CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALI TY (MAIN READINGS)

Week 2 We were invited to connect with the same Spirit who moved
Jesus to cure all the diseases around Him and to collaborate with Jesus in the healing of the wounds of the world. Jesus was able to cure any disease because He loved the people regardless of their illness: Great crowds came to him, having with them

Week 1: The person of Jesus: His active and contemplative aspect (Prayer and Preaching) (Luke 4:42 -44, Luke 4:1-2) Week 2: Jesus mission as the healer (John 9:1-10) Week 3: Jesus an itinerant missionary (Luke 4:42 -44) Week 4: Jesus the teacher (John 4:1-26, Luke 17:20-21) Week 5: Jesus taught by questioning and challenging people (Luke 15:1 -7) Week 6: Jesus Proclaimed the Kingdom with his testimony of Life and Words (John 2:1-11; Mathew 5:1 -12; Romans 10:13-15) Week 7: Living in solidarity with others (Luke 10:29-37) Week 8: Inviting others to live in solidarity (Exodus 3:710; Deuteronomy 31:1 -8; Joshua 1:1 -8) Week 9: Human dignity (Luke 19:45 -46; John 2:13-17.) Week 10: Fullness of human dignity (Gen 37:26-28,

the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them (Matthew 15:30).
What kind of love is God inviting us to give so that we can cure the realities of our brothers and sisters?

Week 3 In the third week we looked at the life of Christ as an itinerant

missionary. He was constantly on the move and it was the Holy Spirit that guided his movement (Luke 4:42 I must proclaim the good news of the

kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent). As
his disciples we too need to be more itinerant (not busy) and be constantly moving (internally) to become more Christ-like (Luke 4:42-44).

PAGE 3

IGNITE
The Call - Here I am Send Me was the theme for the Ignite
Conference, 2013. My first Ignite Conference was everything I hoped it would be!! The atmosphere was life giving and Christ centered. During Ignite I was privileged to help the Verbum Dei Missionaries at their stall where we evangelized by inviting people to have a missionary experience! People could choose from categories that made them think deeper on their relationship with God and on how

CONFERENCE
they can share Gods love with others. I enjoyed evangelizing with the missionaries and learning that evangelizing is a vital part in Gods mission A mission that he calls us all to be actively part of . The Ignite conference opened my eyes to the love that young teenagers have for God and I saw the importance of nurturing and supporting young teenagers and all people on their faith journey.

(Tamara Gillies)

Alainna, Millet & Tamara preparing materials for Ignite

Participating in an activity

Our table at the conference

FONDA S WEDDING

Fonda married George at a beautiful ceremony in Newcastle on the 21st of September. To celebrate Fondas marriage send off, the School of the Word members planned a special activity for her. This involved putting together a puzzle, as
Marriage Send off Activity

a group, in the shape of a heart which contained the bible verse 1 C o r 1 3 : 4 - 8 . T h e s i g n i f i c a n c e of the activity was that the foundation of marriage is unconditional love of which God is always the source. Also to remind them that marriage is not just the union of two people but also families and the community at large. The School of the Word members offer our heartiest congratulations to Fonda and George on this joyous occasion and support them with our prayers so that they may be faithful and have a happy and life-giving marriage.

(Lynn Nazareth)

PAGE 4

"When you search with all your heart for me " (Jeremiah 29: 13)

S I L E N T

The Silent Retreat was held between 30th August to 1st September, 2013 and was the first retreat to be organised at the Bardon house. Amidst the preparation for the retreat the missionaries prayed tirelessly for the house plumbing to get fixed in time! The Retreat turned out to be an enriching spiritual and gastronomic experience. Shared below are personal spiritual experiences of two young adults.

(Glenissa Pereira)
I am so very grateful to the Verbum Dei sisters for the recent silent retreat weekend held at their home in Bardon. It was the first silent retreat I have participated in and I dearly hope not the last.

My experience began the day before the silent retreat: I was speaking with a mentor of mine about a feeling of emptiness that had been really bothering me in my life. I was feeling terrible, so I wanted that gone, I believed it reasonable for that feeling to be taken away by God that very evening. However, my

The theme scripture for the retreat was from Jeremiah 29:13-14, where the Lord tells us, If you seek me with all

R E T R E A T

mentor felt that, over the retreat, I needed to have a 'wrestle' with God about this. So I came to the silent retreat with a mission: I wanted the things in my life dealt with, and I was going to fight with God over it. At first my prayer that came forth from the reflections at the retreat seemed fruitful, but irrelevant to my problem. I let it be for a while before I got impatient and tried to get God to deal with the struggles I had. I tried to get God to speak into a memory I had that might have been part of the feeling of emptiness. I found myself unable to focus on the memory, the details were fuzzy and I was uncertain whether what I was remembering was true. I got frustrated. I wanted this to be dealt with. Through conversation with one of the Sisters guiding the retreat, and through my prayer after that point, I was able to see that I had a real problem with pride. I was trying to control God and get him to deal with my struggles in the way I wanted them dealt with. Instead, I needed to be surrendering to God and giving him control. I chose to surrender, and the next day, God was able to lead me to something else that was in my life. I felt asked to give it to him, and as soon as I did, I experienced a great feeling of freedom, and some of the emptiness eased. The journey did not end there, but the Silent Retreat was an important step along the way.

your heart I will let you find me. As we

prayed with this and various others scriptures, one message spoke to me the strongest. This message was the reminder that we are children of the living God! I am a child of God! I was also reminded that we find Jesus when we seek with all our hearts; and not just our heads.

During the retreat I was made aware that Jesus reveals our authentic identity and has the power to restore it just as he healed many people by acknowledging their dignity and changed their lives forever. These were deeply healing messages for me. Such great gifts that we have been given!

Life gets so busy and loud sometimes it can seem like there is little space for actively seeking out and listening to the Lord. As I experienced throughout the retreat, listening requires discipline especially as there are so many voices surrounding us each day. Praying with the word and dialoguing with the Lord is now how I desire to grow truly closer to Jesus. Just as St Augustine said, we are restless until we rest in the Lord. I encourage you this day to seek out the Lord in the silence of your heart wait on Him. He is waiting for you also.

(Anthony Dyer)

(Teresa Gasparin)

"I will let you find..." (Jeremiah 29: 14)

PAGE 5

WORKING BEE
The missionaries would like to say a BIG thank you to all those who generously gave up their time and energy to help prepare the house and garden for the Inauguration Mass. We had a wonderful time working alongside each and every one of you, sharing your stories and jokes and all your enthusiasm for building the Kingdom of God together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Our garden and house are transforming day by day because of your generosity!

"I always enjoy helping the sisters out at their working bees. There is a great sense of community and family which is hard to find when new to a city and away from loved ones and seeing cute baby snakes when working in the garden" (Fonda Armagos)

Simon working in the garden

Anthony and Calem varnishing the trunk for the chapel.

On the 12th of September the Archbishop did a canonical visit to our house in Bardon with Fr Peter Brannelly and Fr Stanley (parish priests of Jubilee Parish). He was given a tour of our house and garden and inspected all the work that has already taken place and that is yet to be done. We were encouraged by his support and especially Simon is hoping

excited by his gift of an olive tree for our garden.

to plant and take good care of it so that it will bear a lot of fruit for many years.

(From left or right) : Fr. Stanley, Maeve, Frances, Archbishop Coleridge, Gabi & Fr. Peter

PAGE 6

In April, the Verbum Dei Missionaries moved into their new home, Bardon House, in Bardon. It is also their foundational centre in the Archdiocese of Brisbane where they hope to draw many people to come to encounter the Lord and experience his love and need for their life to

I N A U G U R A T I O N

help carry out his mission of evangelization throughout the whole world.

With the help of Fr. Peter Brannelly, the Jubilee parishioners, the disciples and friends of the community and some family members, their Chapel in their home was finally ready for the first Mass on October the 17th, 2013. The Chapel and altar were first blessed by the Most Reverend Mark Coleridge, Archbishop of Brisbane (pictured above), who presided at the Mass. As part of the rite of blessing, some relics of saints, whether martyrs or not, may be placed in the altar. The relics that were deposited in the altar of the Chapel were those of Saints Padre Pio, Therese of the Child Jesus, and three Carmelite martyrs. The three Carmelite martyrs names are Pilar, Teresa and Angeles.

It was a joyous occasion for the missionaries, friends and family of the community and we were all glad to witness and be a part of the first Mass celebrated at the community house. The Mass was followed by finger food and refreshments and beautiful piano music played by one of the parishioners. The entire evening was indeed a blessed occasion!

The Sisters added, "We are very grateful to all those who attended the Mass, especially our fellow Verbum Dei missionary sister Louise who came all the way from our Sydney community to celebrate with us."

(Millet Jimenez)

M A S S

(From left to right): Louise, Maeve, Frances, Claudia & Gabi.

PAGE 7

I N A U G U R A T I O N

M A S S

PAGE 8

School of the Word Wednesdays, 6.30pm - 8pm at 41,The Drive, Bardon, 4065. or Fridays, 5.30pm - 7pm at Penola Place, St Stephen's Cathedral

PAGE 9

ON

A LIGHTER

NOTE

Upcoming Events...
6 Dec to 8 Dec 2013 - Silent Retreat at Marian Valley

2 0 1 3 , Ve r b u m D e i M i s s i o n a r y F r a t e r n i t y, B r i s b a n e
PAGE 10