NEWSLETTER INSERTS FOR THE TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME - MISSION SUNDAY

‘There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed. This process of genuine evangelization begins in the heart of every Christian in order to reach all of humanity’.

From Pope Leo’s Message for World Mission Sunday

‘In fact, no baptized person is exempt from or indifferent to mission: everyone, each according to their own vocation and condition of life, participates in the great work that Christ has entrusted to his Church. As Pope Francis repeatedly reminded us, proclaiming the Gospel is an action that is always harmonious, communal and synodal’.

From Pope Leo’s Message for World Mission Sunday

‘As Saint Francis of Assisi said, “Love is not loved,” and we look to him in a special way on the eight hundredth anniversary of his passing to heaven. Let us find inspiration in his desire to live in the love of the Lord and to transmit it to those both near and far, because, as he said, “this love Who hath loved us much is much to be loved”. Let us also draw inspiration from the zeal of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who declared that she would continue her mission even after death: “I shall desire in heaven the same thing as I do now on earth: to love Jesus and to make him loved”.

From Pope Leo’s Message for World Mission Sunday

‘If unity is the condition of mission, love is its essence. The Good News that we are sent to proclaim to the world is not an abstract ideal; it is the Gospel of God’s faithful love, which became flesh in the face and life of Jesus Christ’.

From Pope Leo’s Message for World Mission Sunday

‘Amidst the avalanche of lies, we must be able to find places where truth is not only explained but experienced. In a word, we must live the Gospel: not merely thinking about it as a utopia, but living it in a concrete way. The Faith is like a fire, but it has to be burning in order to be transmitted to others. Watch over this sacred fire! Let it be your warmth in the heart of this winter of the West. When a fire glows in the night, people slowly gather around it. This is our hope’.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, Catholic World Report, 21 June 2019.

‘Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: “We have always done it this way”. I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities.’

Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel, 33.