KENYA: Mission Month of October Calls for Renewal of Missionary Zeal, Church Official Says
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
As the Catholic Church across the globe begins the Mission month of October to promote missionary activities to the nations especially to people who have not yet heard the Gospel, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Kenya, has emphasized the renewal of missionary zeal during the month-long celebration.
“During this mission month of October, we are called to remember the mission and to go and share this joy of the Gospel with those who need to hear this word,” the PMS Director in Kenya Fr. Bonaventure Luchidio said in an audio clip shared on social media.
The Kenyan cleric added, “To evangelize, we need one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which is the gift of Holiness. Through the help of the Holy Spirit God can cleanse us, wash us and rededicate us so that as we go to evangelize, we do not go on our own but empowered by the Spirit to go, preach, witness and proclaim the Gospel of the Lord.”
Fr. Luchidio emphasized the importance of reciting the Rosary during the mission month saying, “We need to pray the Rosary remembering the missionaries in different continents; Asia, Oceania, Europe, America and Africa.”
“The Rosary will always unite us as a people in one accord to pray to God so that with that prayer God can give us the ability and the necessity to do the work of evangelization,” the cleric underscored.
The Church has also set aside World Mission Sunday to be commemorated during this month on October 18, an event that was created by Pope Pius XI in 1926 to be marked on the penultimate Sunday of October every year as the day of prayer for missions for Catholics to publicly renew its commitment to the missionary movement, and support the missionary work of the Church through prayer and sacrifice.
Speaking on this year’s theme of World Mission Sunday ‘Here I am Lord, send me,’ Fr. Luchidio has highlighted that it is a day all the baptised including the bishops, the priests, the Religious men and women, the lay, all the youths and all children in their different ways are “called to remember the mission… and take the word of God to the whole world.”
“We are also called to support the thirsty, the sick, the hungry and to witness Jesus Christ through the Gospel, “the Nairobi-based cleric ministering under the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) stated.
According to Pope Francis in his message for World Mission Sunday this year, “Mission is a free and conscious response to God’s call. Yet we discern this call only when we have a personal relationship of love with Jesus present in his Church.”
The Pope’s message that was released this year on the Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday, May 31 explained that “the 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.”
“The charity expressed in the collection that takes place during the liturgical celebrations of the third Sunday of October is aimed at supporting the missionary work carried out in my name by the Pontifical Mission Societies, in order to meet the spiritual and material needs of peoples and Churches throughout the world, for the salvation of all,” explains the Pontiff.
