The following materials are available for download as PDF files:
SVD Partners in Mission, our e-newsletter, is delivered to members four times a year. Past issues are available by clicking on the links below. By becoming a member of SVD Partners in Mission you will be among the first to receive the e-newsletters. To join, send an email to missionusc@gmail.com.
The SVD Vademecum, is a source book of prayers for the members of the Society of the Divine Word and for their associates. Updated in 2009, the Vademecum contains a variety of prayers, such as updated prayers of the our founder, St. Arnold Janssen; prayer services by themes (e.g., Blessed Trinity, Divine Word, Sacred Heart); prayers for special occasions and contemporary mission concerns; even poems and chants of non-Christian origin.
• Vademecum
The Arnold Janssen Spirituality Center (AJSC) was started in Steyl, Holland, in 1990 as a venture of the three congregations of St. Arnold’s family. The center’s objectives include not only the animation of members of the three congregations to know and live our spiritual heritage, but to help laypeople live out the missionary spirituality of St. Arnold.
In addition to occasional prayer resources, the AJSC also develops reflections on the founder and the founding generation of the three congregations, as well as other reflections on the spirituality of our call to mission. We have posted the following resources from the AJSC:
• Centennial Reflections - A compilation of eight reflections, prepared for the centennial of the deaths of Saints Arnold Janssen (Jan. 15, 2009) and Joseph Freinademetz (Jan. 29, 2008).
• Freinademetz Reflections – A series of centennial reflections on St. Joseph by Father Pietro Irsara SVD, director of the Ancestral Home and Shrine of St. J. Freinademetz at Oies, Badia, Italy.
• Canonization Reflection - A reflection on the 2003 canonization of Saints Arnold, Joseph, and Daniel Comboni: Their Message for our Time.
• Spirituality of the Founding Generation – a theological reflection on the spirituality of the founding SVDs, Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters (SSpS) and Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters (SSpSAP).
Father Stan Plutz SVD has written and compiled several resources for partners and friends of the SVD in the U.S. Southern Province. He has graciously offered to share them with us.
• Our Saints – The stories of Saints Arnold and Joseph; Blessed Maria Helena SSpS; Blessed Josepha SSpS; Mother Mary Michael SSpSAP; and the SVD Polish martyrs.
• Founders – The story of St. Arnold’s collaboration with the co-foundresses of the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters and the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Artwork throughout helps make the story more attractive to youthful readers.
• St. Arnold and the Laity – A look at St. Arnold’s vision of how the laity could be involved in the missionary work of the church.
The SSpS Sisters have compiled a set of reflections on the Mysteries of Mission, to be used to pray the rosary with a mission-oriented theme.
• SSpS Mission Rosary
Father Dennis Logue SVD has composed a meditative way of using St. Arnold’s Quarterly Hour Prayer as a chaplet with the rosary.
• Quarter Hour as Chaplet