e need missionaries! This is what we need to highlight on World Mission Sunday. The mission field is in need of missionaries who are people free in their hearts so that they are consecrated totally to God and to the service of the most poor and lonely.”
[Gian Battista Zanchi, superior general of the PIME
missionaries]
“May World Mission Sunday be first of all a moment of thanksgiving for the ministry of this throng of Christians who has welcomed the call of the Lord to go and proclaim the Good News. The Holy Father, in his message for this day, wrote, “In these last decades there was a great effort put forward for the propagation of the Gospel, beginning from the Vatican Council II.”
I believe, therefore, that we must come in thanksgiving to the Lord for all these efforts, for this concrete generosity, for the commitment of cooperation among the Churches, and especially the Fidei Donum. Yet the Pope rightly recalls that “there is much to do in order to answer to the missionary call, which the Lord never tires asking to each baptized person.” Thus, after having giving thanks to the Lord for the work done, we need a renewed and more intense commitment.”
[Fr. Rino Benzoni, general Superior of the Xaverian
Missionaries]
“The theme chosen for this year’s World Mission Sunday is “All the churches for all the world” and the image of Moses on top of a hill who prays with his hands outstretched toward heaven helped by his companions is striking indeed (found in the first reading of this Sunday’s scripture). Mission is both faithful prayer to God and struggle for the respect of human rights. These two aspects are strictly linked to each other, appeal to the solidarity of those who believe in the communion of the churches, and sustain each other. Christians will ever be missionaries by opening their hearts to the entire world, giving a special attention to the present situations, and searching for the journey of peace, justice and reconciliations with all people of good will.
May this world mission Sunday widen our hearts to the universal, to those who are different from us. We’ll then put aside our own small problems for a few hours, and we’ll raise our prayers on behalf of the churches of the entire world. You could not have more sweeter music than this one!”
[Gerard Chabanon, general Superior of the Missionaries of
Africa]
“Our mission is to build bridges through dialogue and service, dialogue and movement. We come to the mission field with our own
luggage, and return home after many years spent in foreign lands, in diverse realities and cultures… our
luggage ever filled with new realities. We must work to favor our growth in the knowledge of each other, forming this multi-ethnic society. What distinguishes the missionaries is their outgoing thrust toward the people, establish contacts with them, and build on dialogue. This is the new mentality to form in every country: we see these realities in every day’s life. See the phenomenon of migration, so highlighted in the last decades in Europe, or the new generations born and raised in our country, children of other lands, The experiences of the missionaries who know languages, cultures and diverse traditions are an inestimable treasure of knowledge which can
contribute to mutual understanding. The humanity that is in the process of forming carries the color of the rainbow, and the missionaries, bridge-builders, can help to overcome mutual fears.”
[Father Teresino Serra, general superior of the Comboni
missionaries]
“Our 6,000 members of our congregation represent 68 nationalities, and serve in about 70 countries. Wherever we are, we strive to live in international communities and in multi-cultural groups. And so it happens in many of our Latin-American missions, where missionaries of European origin work side by side with members from Asia, Africa and North America. At the same time, in many of our communities in Africa you’ll find diverse missionary communities of members coming from Austria, Poland, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. We try, in this way, to give a witness of unity in diversity in our church and the universality of the Reign of God. With our international flavor, we intend to proclaim that no one is excluded from the Church, that everyone has a place in the Reign of God, that all peoples, from East to West, North to South, are invited to that perfect Divine communion.”
[Father Antonio M. Pernia, Divine Word Missionaries]
“As a congregation, we are experiencing a moment of special reflection: the Christian countries are no longer the sending missionary communities; there is a graced moment of sharing of all Christians for all the world. It is a discussion which we live in synthony with the message of World Mission Sunday. There are less and less missionaries in the traditionally called Christian countries, while new membership for the proclamation of the Gospel is found in the so-called mission countries… We constantly experience the total inter-change and nurturing of all the churches, for missionaries travel the world wherever the Gospel needs to be heard, both far and near."
[Father Josè Ornals Carvalho, general superior of the Sacred Heart Fathers
(Dehonians)]
“In his message for World Mission Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI appeals to all Christians for the urgency of the call of Christ to proclaim his Reign to the ends of the Earth. It is not an add-on, something out there, but an essential service which keeps in mind the cultural aspects and the present social situations of the world, so that the mission offers the saving grace of God. God is in fact the Father of all, to today’s humanity, in many parts of the world that are oppressed by daily famine, violence and negation of human rights. Every Christian community must discover that it was born to be entirely missionary, and it is on the courage to evangelize that we can measure the love of the faithful towards their Lord.”
[Missionaries of Mary – Xaverian Sisters]
"Mission is dynamic, is life giving. Christ invites us daily to mission! He sends us to love, meet, witness, share, proclaim, seek, and give our life… so that the world may welcome the Life offered by God. We cannot linger, for Christ waits for us till the ends of the world! His hope gives us strength, intelligence and joy!"
[Christiane Megarbané general Superior of the Franciscan Missionaries of
Mary]
(From MISNA)