CHARLOTTE — World Mission Sunday will be celebrated this year Oct. 18. A special collection will be taken up in all parishes Oct. 17-18 to further the work of the Holy Father and the Propagation of the Faith around the world.
Promoted by the Pontifical Mission Societies, World Mission Sunday is the annual worldwide Eucharistic celebration for the Missions and missionaries of the world. The special second collection taken up during Masses Oct. 17-18 is a global effort for the entire Church to provide for the building up of more than 1,000 local churches in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and parts of Latin America and Europe.
Through the work of these churches and their witness to Christ, the poor receive practical help and experience God’s love and mercy, His hope and peace.
Father Patrick Cahill, pastor of St. Eugene Church in Asheville and liaison for missions here in the Diocese of Charlotte, shares his thoughts on missionary efforts of the Church in advance of the annual collection.
“October begins with a special feast day that highlights the importance of a mission spirituality: St. Therese of the Child Jesus. She and St. Francis Xavier are the co-patrons of the mission Church,” Father Cahill said.
“St. Therese reminds us that we have to be rooted in a life of contemplation. St. Francis Xavier reminds us we have to be rooted in action. They go together as we take the Good News to the ends of the earth as Jesus clearly commands us.”
“Each World Mission Sunday, the universal Church has the opportunity to partner with our brothers and sisters in the furthest reaches of the world. We extend a hand to the margins when we give to the World Mission Sunday second collection the weekend of Oct.17-18,” Father Cahill explained. “The Diocese of Charlotte has always risen to the occasion for this essential dimension of the Church. Despite the difficulties of a pandemic hitting us in 2020, I have no doubt we will rise to the occasion with generosity again this year.”
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter. Missio.org contributed.
Learn more
At www.propfaith.net: Find out more about the work of the Pontifical Mission Societies around the world
World Mission Sunday: ‘Here I Am, Send Me’
What is World Mission Sunday?
In 1926 Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday for the whole Church with the first worldwide Mission Sunday collection taking place in October 1927. The Mission Sunday collection is always taken on the next to last Sunday during the month of October. That day is celebrated in a local churches as a feast of catholicity and universal solidarity so Christians the world over will recognize their common responsibility for the evangelization of the world.
What are we called to do?
On World Mission Sunday, we respond, “Here I Am, Send Me,” to our baptismal call to mission, and we offer, at the Eucharistic celebration, our prayers and our generous financial support, through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, to continue the mission of Jesus. Today we are “sent” out to witness to mission in the world through our prayers and sacrifices for our brothers and sisters around the world.
What difference can we make?
Your prayers and financial help, offered on World Mission Sunday, support mission priests, religious sisters and brothers, and lay catechists who are Christ’s witnesses to a world in great need of His healing, love and peace.
How can we contribute?
You can support the work of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith by giving to the annual collections taken up in your parish. If you miss your parish’s collection or you wish to give separately from the weekend collection, you may send your donation to:
Office of National Collections
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
P. O. Box 96278
Washington, D.C. 20090-6278
Make your check payable to USCCB–World Mission Sunday.
— Catholic News Herald. USCCB and Missio.org contributed.
Pope Francis: ‘Here am I, send me’
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In this year marked by the suffering and challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the missionary journey of the whole Church continues in light of the words found in the account of the calling of the prophet Isaiah: “Here am I, send me” (6:8). This is the ever new response to the Lord’s question: “Whom shall I send?”
This invitation from God’s merciful heart challenges both the Church and humanity as a whole in the current world crisis. “Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying ‘We are perishing’ (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this” (Meditation in St. Peter’s Square, 27 March 2020). We are indeed frightened, disoriented and afraid. Pain and death make us experience our human frailty, but at the same time remind us of our deep desire for life and liberation from evil. In this context, the call to mission, the invitation to step out of ourselves for love of God and neighbor presents itself as an opportunity for sharing, service and intercessory prayer. The mission that God entrusts to each one of us leads us from fear and introspection to a renewed realization that we find ourselves precisely when we give ourselves to others. ...
“The mission, the ‘Church on the move,’ is not a program, an enterprise to be carried out by sheer force of will. It is Christ who makes the Church go out of herself. In the mission of evangelization, you move because the Holy Spirit pushes you, and carries you” (“Senza di Lui non possiamo fare nulla: Essere missionari oggi nel mondo.” Una conversazione con Gianni Valente, Libreria Editrice Vaticana: San Paolo, 2019). God always loves us first and with this love comes to us and calls us. Our personal vocation comes from the fact that we are sons and daughters of God in the Church, His family, brothers and sisters in that love that Jesus has shown us. All, however, have a human dignity founded on the divine invitation to be children of God and to become, in the sacrament of baptism and in the freedom of faith, what they have always been in the heart of God. ...
Mission is a free and conscious response to God’s call. Yet we discern this call only when we have a personal relationship of love with Jesus present in His Church. Let us ask ourselves: are we prepared to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to listen to the call to mission, whether in our life as married couples or as consecrated persons or those called to the ordained ministry, and in all the everyday events of life? Are we willing to be sent forth at any time or place to witness to our faith in God the merciful Father, to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, to share the divine life of the Holy Spirit by building up the Church? Are we, like Mary, the Mother of Jesus, ready to be completely at the service of God’s will? This interior openness is essential if we are to say to God: “Here am I, Lord, send me.” And this, not in the abstract, but in this chapter of the life of the Church and of history.
Understanding what God is saying to us at this time of pandemic also represents a challenge for the Church’s mission. ... Being forced to observe social distancing and to stay at home invites us to rediscover that we need social relationships as well as our communal relationship with God. Far from increasing mistrust and indifference, this situation should make us even more attentive to our way of relating to others. And prayer, in which God touches and moves our hearts, should make us ever more open to the need of our brothers and sisters for dignity and freedom, as well as our responsibility to care for all creation. The impossibility of gathering as a Church to celebrate the Eucharist has led us to share the experience of the many Christian communities that cannot celebrate Mass every Sunday. In all of this, God’s question: “Whom shall I send?” is addressed once more to us and awaits a generous and convincing response: “Here am I, send me!”