Dear Friends,

As you receive this edition of In the Word in your inbox, we are preparing, with the rest of the Church, to respond to Pope Francis’ invitation to celebrate an Extraordinary Mission Month throughout October.

This coincides with the annual celebration of World Mission Sunday on October 20, but Pope Francis has called us to an even more active awareness and promotion of mission this year to commemorate the centenary of Pope Benedict XV’s Apostolic Letter Maximum Ilud, published in November 1919.

“Its farsighted and prophetic vision of the apostolate has made me realise once again the importance of renewing the Church’s missionary commitment and giving fresh evangelical impulse to her work of preaching and bringing to the world the salvation of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again,” Pope Francis writes in his World Mission Day Message, entitled, Baptised and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World.

Pope Francis’ message also challenges us to not sit back and think of mission as simply something ‘The Church’ does, but rather to realise that it has important personal implications for each of us.

“The missionary mandate touches us personally,” he says. “I am a mission, always; you are a mission, always; every baptised man and woman is a mission. People in love never stand still: they are drawn out of themselves; they are attracted and attract others in turn; they give themselves to others and build relationships that are life-giving. As far as God’s love is concerned, no one is useless or insignificant.”

In this Extraordinary Mission Month then, let us ask ourselves if we are living up to our potential as missionaries. Am I a mission, always? Do I recognise that other people I meet are a mission, always? How am I revealing the love of God to others, so that they are attracted to God’s love and can then share it with others?

We will be celebrating the Extraordinary Mission Month in various ways in our SVD parishes, communities and ministries in the AUS Province and we invite you to join us. Together, let us renew Christ’s mission in ourselves and our world.

Fr Henry Adler SVD
Provincial.