Pope’s missionary prayer intention for February

(February 1, 2010) And before we go ahead, here’s a comment on the missionary prayer intention of Pope Benedict XVI for the month of February- that the Church, aware of its missionary identity, may strive to follow Christ faithfully and proclaim His gospel to all peoples. On World Mission Sunday last year, Pope Benedict wrote, “The Church’s mission is to spread hope contagiously among all peoples.” Contagiously is a word we ordinarily use to describe the spread of disease. But our Holy Father uses it to make the point that we should be spreading the gospel without even being aware of it. People will naturally be drawn to us and become “infected” by our good humour, our kindness, our cheerfulness, our faith, but especially by our love for others. They will want what we have. In that same message the Pope also asked us to pray for an increase in the Church’s passion for her mission to spread the Kingdom of God. Keeping in mind that this month we begin the 40-day period of Lent (excluding Sundays), the Holy Father asks us to pray that we may follow Jesus faithfully, so we can proclaim him better to everyone. We need not go all over the world preaching about God, but Lent is a perfect time for us to help others with our prayers, sacrifices, fasting and good works.