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Vatican City (Fides Service) - In his last gift to us, namely the message for World Mission Sunday 2005 which we will celebrate on 23 October, the late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II said: “World Mission Sunday is an opportune occasion to increase our awareness of the urgent necessity to participate in the evangelising mission undertaken by the local Communities and many Church organisations, in particular the Pontifical Mission Societies and the Missionary Institutes. This mission requires the support not only of prayer and sacrifice, but also of concrete material offerings. I take this opportunity to recall once again the valuable service rendered by the Pontifical Mission Societies and I ask you all to support them generously with spiritual and material co-operation..” (Message for World Mission Sunday 2005, n.4). During his long pontificate which he started in Mission Sunday 1978, Pope John Paul II never failed to underline the importance and determinant role of the Pontifical Mission Societies for the life of the Church and for increasing missionary awareness among the people of God. “As it is only right to give these works (PMS) pride of place, since they are the means of imbuing Catholics from their very infancy with a real universal and missionary outlook; and they are also the means of making an effective collection of funds to subsidise all missions, each according to its needs” (Vatican II, Ad Gentes decree, n. 38). John Paul II’s missionary prayer intention for the month of May this year finds the Pontifical Mission Societies in general assembly which every year in May brings together some 114 national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies from all over the world, together with the general secretaries of each of the four Societies, their President and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples to reflect on the situation of missionary animation in the different countries, discuss the pastoral challenges to mission today, plan the more important activities and examine requests for help and arrange for the fair distribution of the funds collected. We can say that the entire missionary world in all its universality is represented at this meeting: from the poorest countries which do not hesitate to deprive themselves of what is necessary and give of their poverty little in human eyes but of inestimable value in the eyes of God -, to the richer countries which of generous support to so many young Churches. May our prayers accompany in particular the work of this assembly, its sensitive decisions and its responsibility, so that the Holy Spirit, “principal agent of all the Church’s missionary activity” (cfr Redemptoris Missio, 11), may renew the wonders of Pentecost and show us the paths to take in order to make the entire Church missionary and every member aware of his or her responsibility as a baptised Christians. This year for the first time the annual assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies will not be held in Rome, but rather in Lyons, France. This exceptional event is because the home of venerable Pauline Marie Jaricot (1799-1862), foundress of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, has been restored and made into a place of memory and prayer and renewed missionary commitment. The young girl from Lyons “At a very early age, with simple and practical insight, she started a work which has continued to grow throughout the world. Because she was moved by the poor and by the misery of those who did not know God, Pauline started a collection for the Church's missionary work, asking each person for a sacrifice …thus she showed her zeal for a universal apostolate and responded to Christ's plan to save all men and women”. (cfr Letter John Paul II for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Pauline Jaricot, 14 September1999, n.2) Another aspect to underline in the life of Pauline Jaricot is her intense spiritual life, from which he drew the strength necessary for mission and to face the difficulties which she was not spared. Her daily life was illuminated by the Eucharist and the adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament: there could be no better circumstances to recall her missionary testimony that this Year of the Eucharist. “By its union with Christ, the People of the New Covenant, far from closing in upon itself, becomes a “sacrament” for humanity, a sign and instrument of the salvation achieved by Christ, the light of the world and the salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-16), for the redemption of all. The Church's mission stands in continuity with the mission of Christ: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20:21). From the perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross and her communion with the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the Church draws the spiritual power needed to carry out her mission. The Eucharist thus appears as both the source and the summit of all evangelisation, since its goal is the communion of mankind with Christ and in him with the Father and the Holy Spirit.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 22) This month of May culminates with the Solemnity of Corpus Christi which will once again underline how the Eucharist is “the heart of Christian life and the source of the Church’s evangelising mission”, as the Holy Father Benedict XVI said in a Message after Mass on 20 April the morning after his election, in which he asked all to “intensify in the coming months love and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist and to express courageously and clearly faith in the Lord’s real presence”. Let us therefore stay in long, devout prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament letting ourselves be guided by Mary “Woman of the Eucharist” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 53) to whom popular piety devotes the month of May. Let us ask the Lord to send a new outpouring of his Holy Spirit so that the Pontifical Mission Societies faithful to their charisma and attentive to the signs of the times may effectively help the entire people of God feel personally involved in the Church’s evangelising mission still far from completion. (Card. Crescenzio Sepe) (Agenzia Fides 2/5/2005)

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