Pope says all vocations are missionary in character

(April 14, 2008) Vocation and mission are inseparable and the Church's many vocations should have an "intense missionary character," said Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday. He affirmed this in his address to thousands who had gathered in St. Peter's Square to recite the midday ‘Regina Caeli’ prayer with him. On the fourth Sunday of Easter the Church’s liturgy focuses on Jesus the Good Shepherd and is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The Holy Father offered St. Paul as a model for missionaries, especially priests and religious who dedicate themselves totally to announcing Christ. Priests, he said, are in the forefront of the church’s missionary thrust with their ministry of the Word of God and the sacraments, and in manifesting the healing presence of Jesus Christ with their pastoral charity for everyone, above all for the ill, the little ones and the poor. While expressing the church appreciation and gratitude for their pastoral ministry, the Pope particularly recalled two religious assassinated on Saturday in Guinea and Kenya. One of them is 77-year old British Mill Hill Missionary, Brother Brian Thorp, apparently the victim of an armed robbery in Lamu, Kenya. Pope Benedict prayed that that there would be an increasing number of men and women religious who have a primary role in evangelization. Whether contemplatives or active missionaries, all of them, he said, are united in the same objective of witnessing to the primacy of God over all and to spread his Kingdom in every sphere of society. The Holy Father also said that married couples should make a missionary contribution by living the Gospel in the family, in the workplace and in parish and civil communities.
After reciting the Regina Coeli, the Pope urged for prayers for his upcoming astoral visit to the United Nations and the United States which he hopes will be a "missionary experience," seeking to promote "a time of spiritual renewal for all Americans." Drawing attention to the theme of his April 15 to 20^th trip, “Christ Our Hope”, the Pope said "Christ is the foundation of our hope for peace, for justice, and for the freedom that flows from God's law fulfilled in his commandment to love one another." Listen to him speak in English: