Dear friends in Christ:

Every year, during the month of October, we celebrate mission. On Friday, Oct. 7, Catholics in our diocese and in 180 countries around the world were united as they prayed the World Mission Rosary. Sunday, Oct. 23, is World Mission Sunday, a day set aside for Catholics to celebrate their individual and communal call to mission, to solidarity, to unity and to evangelization.  

World Mission Sunday affords us the opportunity to recognize our own call to be united with one another and to help build the body of Christ throughout the world.  

Searching for a home
“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner; remember that you were foreigners in Egypt” (Exodus 22:21).

Many of you have been keeping abreast of the reports of the immigrants flowing into East Africa due to drought conditions. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homeland and are looking for a “welcome” in an unfamiliar place. 

Although these conditions may seem removed from our everyday experiences, we do have immigrants who are coming to our diocese looking for a place to call home. Our faith has a long history of crossing borders, and our call is to welcome those who come to us. 

This welcome flows through and out of the love and mercy of God. Our call is to openly love one another. It is this love, without borders, boundaries or restrictions — whether geographical or related to race — that we proclaim and celebrate on World Mission Sunday.

This year for World Mission Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI has stated in his message, “The universal mission involves all, everything and always. The Gospel is not an exclusive good of the one who has received it, but it is a gift to be shared, good news to communicate, and this gift-commitment is entrusted not only to a few, but to all the baptized, who are a ‘chosen race . . .  a holy nation, God’s own people’ (1 Peter 2:9) to proclaim his wonderful works.”

Serving the global church
This past Aug. 28, our diocese gathered to celebrate our annual “Solidarity in Mission” event honoring 100 years of Maryknoll presence in the world.  We are blessed to have over 20 missioners from our diocese — lay, religious and clergy — who have served and shared their gifts in the global church throughout the world.  

Father Dan Ohmann, MM, gave a challenging message inviting all baptized Catholics to “live a life of mission because we are all the church and being ‘mission’ is who we are as church.” His message re-emphasizes the message of our Holy Father that “together through the Eucharist we come as one people, one race, a universal church united in sharing the message of Christ.”

Let us remember that October is the month set aside to remember mission, but it should not be the only time. We are called to mission every moment, every day, every year of our lives here on earth.

Thank you for your missionary commitment to the church. Please join me in giving generously to the World Mission Sunday collection, which assists over 1,150 dioceses around the world.