World Mission Sunday: October 22nd, 2023
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One Sunday for the Whole World
EVERY YEAR, SOMETHING SPECIAL HAPPENS on the next-to-last Sunday of October. WORLD MISSION SUNDAY joins all Catholics of the world into one community of faith. At Mass that Sunday, we recommit ourselves to our common vocation, through Baptism, to be missionaries, through prayer, participation in the Eucharist, and by giving generously to the collection for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
Pope Francis’ message for World Mission Sunday this year reflects on the theme: “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts of the Apostles 4:20). He reminds us that, “as Christians, we cannot keep the Lord to ourselves,” as we “recall with gratitude all those men and women who by their testimony of life help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel.”
As we pray and respond on World Mission Sunday here at home, we share in those celebrations taking place in every parish and school throughout the world. Together, through our prayers and financial support, we bring the Lord’s mercy and concrete help to the most vulnerable communities in the Pope’s missions.
In a world where so much divides us, World Mission Sunday rejoices in our unity as missionaries by our Baptism, as it offers each of us an opportunity to support the life-giving presence of the Church among the poor and marginalized in more than 1,111 mission dioceses.
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Offering
SELECT HERE to make your offering for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith on World Mission Sunday.
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Message of his Holiness Pope Francisfor World Mission Sunday 2021
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WE CANNOT KEEP THE LORD TO OURSELVES
Once we experience the power of God’s love, and recognize His fatherly presence in our personal and community life, we cannot help but proclaim and share what we have seen and heard.... “Go therefore to the highways and byways, and invite everyone you find” (Matthew 22:9). No one is excluded, no one need feel distant or removed from this compassionate love.... As Christians, we cannot keep the Lord to ourselves: the Church’s evangelizing mission finds outward fulfillment in the transformation of our world and in the care of creation.... The theme of this year’s World Mission Sunday – “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts of the Apostles 4:20), is a summons to each of us to “own” and to bring to others what we bear in our hearts.
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE APOSTLES
The first Christians began the life of faith amid hostility and hardship...those experiences impelled them to turn problems, conflicts and difficulties into opportunities for mission... Nothing and no one was to be excluded from the message of liberation. Like the Apostles and the first Christians, we too can say with complete conviction: “We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts of the Apotsles 4:20). Everything we have received from the Lord is meant to be put to good use and freely shared with others....The first Christians, far from yielding to the temptation to become an elite group, were inspired by the Lord and His offer of new life to go out among the nations and to bear witness to what they had seen and heard: the good news that the Kingdom of God is at hand....
THE PANDEMIC NECESSITATES MISSION OF COMPASSION
The pandemic has brought to the fore and amplified the pain, the solitude, the poverty, and the injustices experienced by so many people. In these days of pandemic.... there is urgent need for the mission of compassion, which can make that necessary (social) distancing an opportunity for encounter, care and promotion. “What we have seen and heard” (Acts of the Apostles 4:20), the mercy we have experienced, can thus become a point of reference and a source of credibility enabling us to recover a shared passion for building “a community of belonging and solidarity worthy of our time, our energy and our resources” (Fratelli Tutti, 36).AN INVITATION TO EACH OF US
On World Mission Sunday, which we celebrate on the penultimate Sunday of October, we recall with gratitude all those men and women who by their testimony of life help us to renew our baptismal commitment to be generous and joyful apostles of the Gospel.
Let us remember especially all those who resolutely set out, leaving home and family behind, to bring the Gospel to all those places and people athirst for its saving message. To be on mission is to be willing to think as Christ does, to believe with Him that those around us are also my brothers and sisters. May His compassionate love touch our hearts and make us all true missionary disciples.
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Readings of the Mass
LISTEN HERE to the Audio Recordings of the Readings of Sunday, October 22nd, 2023, World Mission Sunday.
SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, October 22nd, 2023, World Mission Sunday.
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Reflections on the Readings
The liturgy for today looks at how we can live in faith and know joy by belonging to our Savior, the Son of God. The Old Testament reading speaks of the happiness of God’s people who had been exiled, separated from Him, who He draws back to Himself. “Shout with joy;... proclaim your praise and say: The Lord has delivered His people.... I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, the mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng. They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them” (Jeremiah 31:7-9). In Jesus we find the New Covenant and, through the gift of faith, we claim Him for our own. In Christ is the supreme blessing of eternal life. We are called to offer this gift to others through prayer, witness, and example.
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