Essays

Nurturing Mental Health with Spiritual Direction

A jubilee offers not only a moment for celebration, but also a critical opportunity for spiritual renewal, introspection, and recommitment to one’s fo...

‘About Whom, May I Ask You?’ (Acts 8:34): Isaiah’s Servant Songs in Luke-Acts

The question asked by the Ethiopian Eunuch to Philip in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:34) is continually probed by scholars, “About whom, may I ask...

Evangelization in Papua New Guinea: Essential Cultural Elements, Missionary Opportunities, Challenges, and Hopes

Before His ascension, Jesus entrusted His disciples with a universal mandate: to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. This missionary imperative is con...

Faithful and Creative Disciples in a Wounded World: A Communicative Paradigm for Mission

In the shifting contours of the 21st-century world—marked by digital transformation, ecological crisis, social fragmentation, and renewed spiritual lo...

Maximum Illud: Challenges Then, Challenges for the Church Today

We live today in an era of “World Catholicism,” or, as Karl Rahner called it in a celebrated article, an era of the “world church.”[1] A first glimpse...

SVD Founding Generation, Anthropos Tradition, and Interculturality

The 2008 SSpS and 2012 SVD General Chapters focused on the theme of interculturality for the Arnoldus Family,[2] but this vision and goal is not new f...

Leadership in the SVD as an International Missionary Congregation and the Participation of the Indonesian Members

Leadership is seen as one of the five important aspects of life and ministry of an SVD missionary, in addition to spirituality, community, finance, an...

Witnessing to the Light in the Australia Province: From Everywhere for Everyone

To begin with, I would like to offer a brief historical background of our congregation. While this may seem unnecessary to us the SVDs and SSpS famili...

Mission as Missio Inter Gentes: From Everywhere For Everyone

“From Everywhere for Everyone” is the theme of the celebration of the 150th founding anniversary in 2025 of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). This...

Catholic Social Communication as Witnessing to the Light in a Wounded World

Pope Leo XIV, in the homily at his installation Mass on May 18, 2025, observed, “In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caus...

“Witnessing to the Light: From Everywhere for Everyone” from a Social Communication Perspective

When using the term “Witnessing to the Light,” we understand that this Light is Christ in the world. Witnessing to the Light or endeavoring to communi...

Reading the Jubilee Theme of SVD, “Witnessing to the Light: From Everywhere for Everyone” in the Light of Evangelii Gaudium

Rooted in the charism of St. Arnold Janssen, the Society of the Divine Word known as SVD has always emphasized bringing the Word of God with joy to th...