Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-content/plugins/participants-database/classes/PDb_Session.php on line 377 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1758 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1758 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1758 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1758 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1758 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1758 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1758 Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/index.php:1) in /customers/1/6/a/combonimissionaries.co.uk/httpd.www/wp-includes/rest-api/class-wp-rest-server.php on line 1758 {"id":6029,"date":"2020-10-05T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/?p=6029"},"modified":"2020-10-01T11:07:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T10:07:53","slug":"pope-francis-listen-to-the-call-to-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2020\/10\/05\/pope-francis-listen-to-the-call-to-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis: Listen to the Call to Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year World Mission Day will be celebrated on Sunday, 18th<\/sup> October. In his message, Pope Francis writes: \u201cThe missionary journey of the whole Church continues in light of the words found in the account of the calling of the prophet Isaiah: \u201cHere am I, send me\u201d (6:8).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In his message, Pope Francis said: \u201cin this year marked by the suffering and challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the missionary journey of the whole Church continues in light of the words found in the account of the calling of the prophet Isaiah: \u201cHere am I, send me\u201d (6:8).\u00a0 This is the ever-new response to the Lord\u2019s question: \u201cWhom shall I send?\u201d (ibid.).\u00a0 This invitation from God\u2019s merciful heart challenges both the Church and humanity as a whole in the current world crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Francis continues: \u201cwe are indeed frightened, disoriented and afraid. Pain and death make us experience our human frailty, but at the same time remind us of our deep desire for life and liberation from evil. In this context, the call to mission, the invitation to step out of ourselves for love of God and neighbour presents itself as an opportunity for sharing, service and intercessory prayer.\u00a0 The mission that God entrusts to each one of us leads us from fear and introspection to a renewed realization that we find ourselves precisely when we give ourselves to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once again Pope Francis reminds us that \u201cthe mission, the \u2018Church on the move\u2019, is not a programme, an enterprise to be carried out by sheer force of will.\u00a0 It is Christ who makes the Church go out of herself.\u00a0 In the mission of evangelization, you move because the Holy Spirit pushes you, and carries you. God always loves us first and with this love comes to us and calls us.\u00a0 Our personal vocation comes from the fact that we are sons and daughters of God in the Church, his family, brothers and sisters in that love that Jesus has shown us.\u00a0 All, however, have a human dignity founded on the divine invitation to be children of God and to become, in the sacrament of Baptism and in the freedom of faith, what they have always been in the heart of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLife itself, as a gift freely received, is implicitly an invitation to this gift of self: it is a seed which, in the baptized, will blossom as a response of love in marriage or in virginity for the kingdom of God.\u00a0 Human life is born of the love of God, grows in love and tends towards love.\u00a0 No one is excluded from the love of God,\u201d the Pope pointed out.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis asked: \u201care we prepared to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to listen to the call to mission, whether in our life as married couples or as consecrated persons or those called to the ordained ministry, and in all the everyday events of life?\u00a0 Are we willing to be sent forth at any time or place to witness to our faith in God the merciful Father, to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, to share the divine life of the Holy Spirit by building up the Church?\u201d<\/p>\n

In his message, Pope Francis said that: \u201cunderstanding what God is saying to us at this time of pandemic also represents a challenge for the Church\u2019s mission.\u00a0 Illness, suffering, fear and isolation challenge us.\u00a0 The poverty of those who die alone, the abandoned, those who have lost their jobs and income, the homeless and those who lack food challenge us.\u00a0 Being forced to observe social distancing and to stay at home invites us to rediscover that we need social relationships as well as our communal relationship with God.\u00a0 Far from increasing mistrust and indifference, this situation should make us even more attentive to our way of relating to others.\u00a0 And prayer, in which God touches and moves our hearts, should make us ever more open to the need of our brothers and sisters for dignity and freedom, as well as our responsibility to care for all creation.\u00a0 The impossibility of gathering as a Church to celebrate the Eucharist has led us to share the experience of the many Christian communities that cannot celebrate Mass every Sunday.\u00a0 In all of this, God\u2019s question: \u201cWhom shall I send?\u201d is addressed once more to us and awaits a generous and convincing response: \u201cHere am I, send me!\u201d (Is 6:8).\u00a0 God continues to look for those whom he can send forth into the world and to the nations to bear witness to his love, his deliverance from sin and death, his liberation from evil (cf. Mt 9:35-38; Lk 10:1-12).\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis concluded: \u201cthe celebration of World Mission Day is also an occasion for reaffirming how prayer, reflection and the material help of your offerings are so many opportunities to participate actively in the mission of Jesus in his Church.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year World Mission Day will be celebrated on Sunday, 18th October. In his message, Pope Francis writes: \u201cThe missionary journey of the whole Church continues in light of the words found in the account of the calling of the prophet Isaiah: \u201cHere am I, send me\u201d (6:8).\u201d In his message, Pope Francis said: \u201cin …<\/p>\n

Pope Francis: Listen to the Call to Mission<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6031,"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions\/6031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}