Prayer for Missionaries and for Evangelisation

The Church is by her nature missionary — «missionary ad gentes», according to the expression of the Second Vatican Council in Ad Gentes (1965). Every Christian community that does not evangelise ceases to be Christian. Pius XI, in the encyclical Rerum Ecclesiae (28 February 1926), asked all the faithful for prayer and material support for missionaries. Paul VI, in Evangelii Nuntiandi (8 December 1975), took up mission again as the «grace and proper vocation of the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelise» (n. 14). St John Paul II, in Redemptoris Missio (1990), reaffirmed that «the mission of Christ the Redeemer, entrusted to the Church, is still very far from its accomplishment» (n. 1). World Mission Sunday is celebrated on the penultimate Sunday of October since Pius XI (1926).

Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of the harvest, who sent the Apostles to the ends of the Earth saying: «Go into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature» (Mk 16:15): look today upon your missionaries scattered in all parts of the world — priests, religious, women religious, consecrated lay people, missionary families. Sustain them in faith against discouragement; in hope against apparent failures; in charity against the hostility of the peoples to whom they have been sent.

Through the intercession of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, universal Patron of the Missions, and of St Francis Xavier, Apostle of the East: send more workers into your harvest (cf. Lk 10:2). May there arise from among the Christian youth of our time generous missionaries for the peoples not yet christianised, for the countries where the faith has grown weak, for the milieus where Christ is forgotten.

And me, Lord, make a missionary at least in the testimony of life and in daily prayer for those who go far. For the Pontifical Mission Societies and for the missionary dioceses of the world, grant the prayer of many and the support of many.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.