EXTRAORDINARY MISSIONARY MONTH

October has been designated by Pope Francis as EXTRAORDINARY MISSIONARY MONTH, so we will concentrate this month on what it means to evangelize in the 21^st century and missionaries  who have gone before our present day missionaries.

Missionaries have brought the Catholic faith not only to the poor and the oppressed but to anyone open to learning about the life of Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis has said that the Church’s mission is a “passion for Jesus and a passion for His people”. This year we celebrate the hundred anniversary of POPE BENEDICT XV’s apostolic letter MAXIMUM ILLUD. (From the opening words of the original Latin text, meaning "that momentous". Pope Benedict begins by recalling "that momentous and holy charge" found in Mark 16:15: "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to all creation.")

Pope’s since 1919  have had much to say to God’s people regarding their role in evangelization:

"The Gospel has transformed the world, and it is still transforming it, like a river that waters a great field. Let us turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary that in the whole Church priestly, religious and lay vocations ripen in service to   the new evangelization." POPE BENEDICT XVI

ST. JOHN XXIII called the Vatican Council because he wanted the ancient faith to be exactly preserved and yet proclaimed in a way in which it could be heard and embraced in our age and circumstances.

“What is needed at the present time is a new enthusiasm, a new joy and serenity of mind in the unreserved acceptance by all of the entire Christian faith . . .  What is needed, and what everyone imbued with a truly Christian, Catholic and apostolic spirit craves today, is that this doctrine shall be more widely known, more deeply understood, and more penetrating in its effects on men’s moral lives. What is needed is that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience, be studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms.”

In his 1999 Apostolic Exhortation the "Church in America" ST. JOHN PAUL II wrote, "With the passage of time, pastors and faithful alike have grown increasingly conscious of the role of the Virgin Mary in the evangelization of America. In the prayer composed for the Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops, Holy Mary of Guadalupe is invoked as 'Patroness of all America and Star of the first and new evangelization'."

“The saints are not supermen, nor were they born perfect,” POPE FRANCIS said. “They are like us, like each one of us. They are people who, before reaching the glory of heaven, lived normal lives with joys and sorrows,struggles and hopes. What changed their lives? When they recognized God’s love, they followed it with all their heart without reserve or hypocrisy. They spent their lives serving others, they endured suffering     and adversity without hatred and responded to evil with good, spreading joy and peace. This is the life of a saint”.

EVANGELII NUNTIANDI  Apostolic Exhortation of ST. POPE PAUL VI, to the Church: Bishops, clergy, religious, and to all the faithful.

“Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious Resurrection.

The Church is the depositary of the Good News to be proclaimed. The promises of the New Alliance in Jesus Christ, the teaching of the Lord and the apostles, the Word of life, the sources of grace and of God's loving kindness, the path of salvation - all these things have been entrusted to her. It is the content of the Gospel, and therefore of evangelization, that she preserves as a precious living heritage, not in order to keep it hidden but to communicate it.”