1. Messiah (Light to the Future)
We need to return to the message that our God as Messiah, which means Saviour, one who brings freedom to his people. We need to be free of our enslavement to narrow thinking about the wars and serious issues that threaten humanity and our planet today. We need God to save us from ourselves. This is a modern message of evangelisation, but it is not just persons that need to be evangelised, it is our cultures and society. The Messiah as foretold in the Old Testament is a powerful message. “In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God…… St John
2. Media (Light in technology)
We are talking about using the Media, more especially new media for this work of evangelisation. From statistics (this needs to be researched and updated) we learn about the outreach of modern media and how influential social communication is among young people in our very challenging and post-modern world. New Media can be as the service of gathering together new communities of like-minded people. We cannot afford to allow the new media to be dominated by negative messages. There are many peoples and institutions already using social media for good purpose. We in the SVD can witness to Christ and witness to Christian values through social media.
3. Message (Light between us)
Our message is to promote unity through communication and thereby witness to the missionary spirit of the Divine Word Extended Community. Our message is to witness through meeting each other, sharing our stories as an extended family while communicating in different languages, the multi-lingual message of Christ in different circumstances, be it with migrants or works for peace, education, inspiring news, care for the elderly, new vocations, joyful occasions etc.
4. Mystical Body (Light in togetherness)
Modern society is not good at speaking about mystical experiences or mystical knowledge anymore. In this way our sacraments are neglected and so also our communication with the Saints of the Church. We need an eschatology in our daily lives and this in a very incarnate sense, i.e., working to a vision that is of a world predominated by concern for each other. We need to allow our minds to be fed on the deeper meanings of Scripture, the Way to the Creator of the Universe with all its intelligibility.
5. Martyrdom (Light in the lives of others)
The Witness of the Apostles and many martyrs through the ages is inspired by the Truth and in a world of false news and untruth our human language suffers. If we don’t speak of ultimate Truth, our message will be lost to various interpretation. The martyrs witness to something greater than themselves. And the world has never been without martyrs. Their stories need to be told and by the same virtue, the stories of persecuted Christians which is more and more an issue in our own times. For the upcoming SVD Celebrations of 150 years, the lives of the Polish Martyrs would need to be re-visited. The witness of St Joseph Frienademetz is in line with martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel of Good News.