World mission day 2021

It is impossible for us to be silent! Christ is risen!

This is the cry of joy of believers. This truth has come down to us, it is our most precious heritage, to receive and to pass on. Yes, God is love and mercy and all men without distinction are called to know Him. It is because God first loved us that we in turn have been made capable of loving and bearing witness.

So now is no better time than the one we are living in. And as in every era, let's find the means, the words, the gestures of the announcement. Because God wants to act in this troubled 21st century. Let us not let ourselves be won over by discouragement or cynicism but let us announce the One who comes to free us. Like the first disciples, it is in the concrete of our lives, close to those we meet every day, in our families, in our workplace, in our leisure activities, that we are called to become apostles.

Living as close as possible to men, sharing their daily lives, this is what preserves us from escaping into utopia, from endless verbiage, and from a disembodied faith… Today we cannot be silent about the lack of freedom in many countries, on the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters and of ethnic minorities ... We cannot be silent about the projects and laws that foster a culture of death or about the irresponsibility of certain states in the area of ​​protection of our common home.

It is the Lord who is persecuted, it is Véronique's veil that the television screens show us! To our brothers we owe all human and material solidarity. But urgently we owe them above all the proclamation of Christ. If we have received faith, forgiveness and hope freely and abundantly, how can we not, in our turn, make ourselves missionaries of this faith, of this forgiveness, of this hope? God is coming to save us, and he needs us, you, the Church.

† Bishop Georges Colomb

World Missionary Week Prayer

God our Father,
you gave to Peter and the other apostles
the courage to bear witness to your Son,
dead and resurrected to reveal
your love.
They couldn't shut up
what they had seen and heard.
We ask you to send
many missionaries,
so that Jesus Christ may be known,
loved and served around the world.
Pour out your Spirit on us,
may He make us witnesses
of your Word, joyful and daring.
Amen

Message of his holiness Pope Francis
for world mission day 2021