Pope's Message
Extracts from the Message of
Pope Benedict XVI
for Mission Sunday,
24 October 2010
Mission Month
The mission month of October, especially Mission Sunday, offers the entire People of God the occasion for renewing their commitment to proclaim the Gospel.
Celebrating the Eucharist
The Eucharist is the source and summit of the mission of the Church. There we encounter the Love of God that transforms our existence, enabling us to live in communion with Jesus and offer a credible witness and a reason for our hope. We reflect on the Father's loving plan for all people and seek to love them as He does. The love that we celebrate is not something we can keep to ourselves: it demands to be shared with all. What the world needs is God's love; it needs to encounter Christ and to believe in him.
Revealing Jesus
Proclaiming the Gospel belongs to the entire Church as the Church is missionary by her very nature. The men and women of our time, perhaps at times unconsciously, ask believers to not only to "speak" of Jesus but to "make Jesus visible," to make the Redeemer's Face shine in every corner of the earth as they bear witness that they have found in Jesus the meaning and truth about their life.
Together in Mission
Not just individual believers, but parishes and dioceses are called to an ever greater openness to missionary cooperation, so that the proclamation of the Gospel can reach all peoples, cultures, races and places. On Mission Sunday I invite all believers to be active participants in the task of the Church to proclaim the Gospel. Missionary zeal has always been the mark of the vitality of a Church and missionary cooperation among Churches is a unique testimony of the unity and solidarity that makes them credible heralds of Saving Love.
Prayer and Material Support
Please support the Younger Churches by your prayers. In spite of present economic difficulties, please also give them material support. The Mission Sunday collection organised by the Pontifical Mission Societies, to whom I express my gratitude, will go towards the support of priests, seminarians, religious and catechists in distant missionary lands.
Missionaries
I wish to acknowledge the great work of all missionaries, who proclaim the gospel in distant and difficult places, often at the cost of their own lives. Offer them your friendship, closeness, and support. May God fill them with spiritual fervour and profound joy.
Generous Response
It is the plan of God that the whole human race might form one people of God and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit. May each of us respond as generously as Mary did to the call to reach out and share and bring this plan to fulfilment.