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Inauguration Mass

Prayer Tips

On a Lighter Note

Upcoming Events

Contact Details

GREETI NGS!

1st Issu

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Greetings

Catholic Mission

Voting for the Newsletter Name

School of the Word

INSIDE.. .

Ignite Conference

Fonda's Wedding

Silent Retreat

Working Bee

Archbishop's Canonical Visit

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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!

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V e r b u m D e i M i s s i o n a r i e s ( F r o m l e f t t o r i g h t ) : G a b i , F r a n c e s & C l a u d i a

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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

Chesed (Hebrew for Love with

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

Unending Love

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

Tangible WordTangible WordTangible Word

SEED

SALT

True Word

Word of Hope

Word of Truth

Enlighten

Saving Message

Living Word

Word Broken Open

Illumination

Heading North

Word Down UnderWord Down UnderWord Down Under

Word Down South

Word Around

Word Surround

Surrounding Word

Encompassing Word

The Family of God

Foundations

Corpus Christi

The Disciple ScrollThe Disciple ScrollThe Disciple Scroll

Dialogue with God

The Word Dialogued

Disciples

Intimacy with God

The Word Encountered

Encountering the Word

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

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

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 l ife and our openness to share our faith with the people that God places in our path.

VOTING FOR THE NEWSLETTER NAME

Gabi with Catholic Mission Ambassadors and Tamara after an appeal

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

In this section we are going to stop and take a look back on what we have

learnt so far.

In the world around us we hear the word “spirituality” thrown around

often, as we heard in one of the talks, and it is quite common to hear people

say: “I am spiritual but not religious.” So today let us take a moment and

think: “What is Spirituality?”

There are various spiritualties within the Catholic Church which emphasise

different aspects about the life of Jesus. Furthermore, each spirituality

doesn’t just stop at emphasising an aspect but rather attends to ‘God’s will’

through that aspect, i.e. faithfulness to each spirituality is a way of living in

union with God and living out the Gospel. We looked at different aspects of

Jesus’ life and then saw how to live out these aspects in our life.

Week 1 We started with the Verbum Dei Spirituality which is a

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….

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

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).

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

attracted crowds of people wherever he went. This is because he wasn’t just

a teacher but he also lived out what he taught. He made the kingdom of

God a reality by living in a personal relationship with God and with those

around him. Through the passage of the Samaritan woman Jesus taught us

that to connect with someone, we need to first be humble and open to

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).

Thus through the theme of Christian Spirituality throughout the past

couple of months may we learn to live our life to the fullness (i.e. the life

that we were created for) by living in communion with God and our

neighbour. Let us turn our focus towards Jesus, not just looking at him and

admiring him but imitating him.

(*N.B. To continue reading the summary of the other weeks, please see our

webpage: www.verbumdeibrisbane.weebly.com).

(Lynn Nazareth)

SCHOOL OF THE WORD

CHRIST IAN SPIRITUALI TY (MAIN READINGS)

Week 1 : The person of Je sus: 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 te stimony

of Li f e and Words ( John 2:1-11 ; Mathew 5:1 -12; Romans

10:13 -15)

Week 7: Living in solidari ty with others (Luke 10:29-37)

Week 8 : Inviting others to live in solidarity (Exodus 3 :7 -

10; 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,

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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

they can share God’s love with others.

I enjoyed evangelizing with the missionaries and

learning that evangelizing is a vital part in God’s

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)

IGNITE CONFERENCE

FONDA S WEDDING

Fonda married George at a beautiful ceremony in Newcastle on the 21st of September. To celebrate Fonda’s marriage

send off, the School of the Word members planned a special activity for her. This involved putting together a puzzle, as

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)

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Alainna, Millet & Tamara preparing materials for Ignite Participating in an activity Our table at the conference

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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

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.

(Anthony Dyer)

SI

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RETREAT

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

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.

The theme scripture for the retreat

was from Jeremiah 29:13-14, where the

Lord tells us, ‘If you seek me with all

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.

(Teresa Gasparin)

"…I will le t you find. . ." ( Jeremiah 29: 14)

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)

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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!

WORKING BEE

"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

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

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

to plant and take good care of it so that it will bear a lot of

fruit for many years.

( F r o m l e f t o r r i g h t ) : F r . S t a n l e y , M a e v e , F r a n c e s , A r c h b i s h o p

C o l e r i d g e , G a b i & F r . P e t e r

Anthony and Calem varnishing the trunk for the chapel.

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I

NAUG

URATION

MASS

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

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 rel ics 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)

( F r o m l e f t t o r i g h t ) : L o u i s e , M a e v e , F r a n c e s , C l a u d i a & G a b i .

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I

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MASS

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Wednesdays,

6.30pm - 8pm at

41,The Drive, Bardon, 4065.

Fridays,

5.30pm - 7pm at

Penola Place,

St Stephen's Cathedral

School of the Word

or

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© 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

Upcoming Events...

6 Dec to 8 Dec 2013 - Silent

Retreat at Marian Valley

ON A LIGHTER NOTE