Having returned from my vacation, I would like to state that I am very much pleased, indeed, to serve you all. When I heard you greeting me saying, “Welcome back” with a smiling face, while leaving the Church after Mass, last weekend, I felt energized to commit myself to serve you further. I thank you for your love and kind welcome.
I would like also to thank Fr. Todd Mlsna, Fr. Don Przybylski and Fr. Placid Stroik, who have been so kind to make up my absence and fulfill the ministry, while I was away. May God reward them.
Let me share with you one striking experience I had during this vacation. I had a standing invitation from one of my priests-friends, working in Perth, Australia. I made it a point to visit him and his ministry during my vacation. While staying with him for a week, we drove, one day, for an hour and a half to visit a Benedictine Monastery, which has been the oldest Monastery in Australia. This was established 300 years back in order to educate and inculturate the Aborigines, who were the native people of the land. It is a vast area of 2000 acres of land. There was a guided tour and the guide explained how the Benedictine Monastery had been serving the Aborigines spiritually, culturally and materially. The Aborigines had been provided with wonderful facilities to live in small communities and to learn agriculture and various other professions. It was thanks to their ministry for three centuries that many of the Aborigines have life like others in the society.
I personally learnt from this visit that whether in America or in Australia, but for Christianity, the native people of the land would not have seen the development in their life, which they are able to experience today. In fact, this is a task that Christ has given us, namely, to recreate and safeguard the environment for a better living of the humankind. Let us, as Christians, above all as Catholics, continue the ministry of recreating the World, as a home of peace.
God bless you,
Fr. Arul Joseph V
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