Mission Sunday 2016

October 23rd is Mission Sunday. We remember and pray for all our priests working in our overseas missions. We pray and give thanks for our priests that are now retired having spent many years working to bring Jesus and his Gospel to thousands of people. And we remember especially those people, men and women, priests, sisters, religious and lay people who have given their lives in the course of their missionary work. We give thanks for our mission supporters and benefactors for your endless prayers and support. Wishing all our priests and missionaries everywhere a very blessed and peaceful Mission Sunday.

Pope Francis’ Message for Mission Sunday 2016: “All peoples and cultures have the right to receive the message of salvation which is God’s gift to every person. This is all the more necessary when we consider how many injustices, wars, and humanitarian crises still need resolution. Missionaries know from experience that the Gospel of forgiveness and mercy can bring joy and reconciliation, justice and peace…Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium, 20).

May Holy Mary, sublime icon of redeemed humanity, model of missionaries for the Church, teach all men, women and families, to foster and safeguard the living and mysterious presence of the Risen Lord in every place, he who renews personal relationships, cultures and peoples, and who fills all with joyful mercy.”