Mission Statement

The primary goal of the SVD Alumni Association is to keep our spirit of community and fellowship alive. As extended family of St. Arnold Janssen, we:

• Participate in the SVD Mission
  • By promoting vocations
  • By sponsoring mission experiences
  • By praying for missionaries around the world
    
    
• Promote Togetherness
  • By sponsoring regional gatherings
  • By publishing newsletters
  • By hosting a website
    
    
• Offer Opportunities for Spiritual Renewal
  • By conducting recollections and retreats
  • By encouraging prayer for one another
  • By writing spiritual reflections in the newsletter
  • By sharing spiritual reflection on the website
    

History

The Society of the Divine Word is a religious congregation of Catholic priests and brothers which was founded in Style, Holland in 1875 by Saint Arnold Janssen. It is a missionary society whose members work "first and foremost where the Gospel has not yet been preached at all or only insufficiently, and where the local Church is not yet viable on its own" (SVD Constitutions).

The Society is active in nearly 70 countries around the world. The Society of the Divine Word has over 6,000 professed members. These impressive numbers witness to the declaration stated in the prologue to the Society's Constitutions: "God's loving grace has gathered us from various peoples and continents into a religious missionary community dedicated to the Divine Word and named after him the Society of the Divine Word."

The first SVD to arrive in the United States was Bro. Wendelin Meyer in the fall of 1895. Since then, the SVD has operated several formation programs across the country. Many seminarians and brother candidates joined the Divine Word Missionaries and professed perpetual vows. Other students, after discerning their vocations, chose not to join the SVD. Some of these men became priests or brothers with other religious orders, some became diocesan priests, and others joined the laity of the Church.

During the process of formation in which these students participated, a common union and bond was formed. The spirit of family, unity, and fraternity, was brought to life. As each young man followed his own, individual call, he took with him the richness of having been a member of a larger community. This community developed a life-long bond of fellowship.

It is in this spirit that the SVD Alumni Association was formed in the summer of 1997. Its primary goal is to keep the spirit of community and fellowship alive among its members. Thus, our motto: Keeping in touch with you…So you can keep in touch with others. Anyone who ever attended an SVD formation program is a member of the alumni association. In addition, all lay faculty and staff are members.