Pope's missionary prayer intention for October

(October 01,2012) The missionary prayer intention of Pope Benedict XVI for the month of October is for evangelization - that the celebration of Mission Sunday may result in a renewed commitment to evangelization. The Second Vatican Council asserts that the Church is primarily missionary by character, adhering to Christ’s mandate to go out to the world, baptizing all people. Hence all Christians are missionaries, but in their respective fields and competencies. The Gospel is not a monopoly of Christians, but a good that has to be shared. All of the Church’s activities are involved in it. Hence it is important that both individual baptized people and ecclesial communities be involved in the mission, not sporadically or occasionally but in a constant manner, as a form of Christian life. And Mission Sunday, which this year falls on Oct. 21, is meant to remind us of this our basic character. Evangelization is a complex process and entails various elements. Among them missionary animation has always paid special attention to solidarity. This is also one of the objectives of Mission Sunday which, through the Pontifical Mission Societies, requests aid in order to carry out the tasks of evangelization in mission territories. It is a matter of supporting institutions necessary for establishing and consolidating the Church through catechists, seminaries and priests, and of making one’s own contribution to improve the standard of living for people in countries where the phenomena of poverty, malnutrition - especially among children - disease, the lack of health care and education are the most serious. Those not involved in direct missionary work, are bound by their faith to support missionary initiatives, not just through prayers and sacrifices, but also materially. Let’s therefore join the Holy Father this month of October in praying for a renewed commitment to evangelization.