This Sunday, we observe World Mission Sunday as a way to foster an increased
awareness of our baptismal call to be missionaries; missionaries in a sense that even if we are not ordained like the priests and other missionaries doing missionary work for the Lord and the good of the Church in different parts of the world, we can still be missionaries by virtue of our baptism through showing our support spiritually and financially.  

We can show our support spiritually by praying for priests and missionaries who
engage in missionary work and evangelization, just like what St. Therese of the Child Jesus did.  She never left the Carmelite convent and yet her missionary heart was burning with zeal for souls and was already in the mission fields and distant lands. In her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, she reflects on the new freedom of a new joy she will enjoy in heaven. She writes, “There will be no longer any cloister and grilles and my soul will be able to fly with you into distant lands”.  

This conviction of St. Therese led Pope Pius XI to declare her as the patroness of the missions in 1927. He probably got the inspiration to declare a Mission Sunday for the entire Church in 1926 as the feast of catholicity and universal solidarity so that Christians all over the world would recognize their common responsibility with regards to mission and evangelization of the world.  

And so, as we celebrate this World Mission Sunday, let us 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.  

Last Sunday, through our generous donation of $2,316.00, we were able to help the Adorer Missionary Sisters of the Poor who work with the poor and orphaned children in Tanzania, Africa. This is a concrete example of us participating in the mission, providing financial support necessary to bring the Lord’s mercy and concrete help to the most vulnerable communities in other parts of the world.  

May the love for the Church’s mission, which is a passion for Jesus and a passion for His people, grow ever stronger in us. In a world where there is so much division and  selfishness, World Mission Sunday reminds us once again of our baptismal call and brings us into one to support the life-giving presence of the Church among the poor and marginalized in more than 1,111 mission dioceses throughout the world.