Praying with the Pope in October

Proposals for the month

• Learn, share and participate in the initiatives promoted in your own community or in your diocese, on the occasion of this extraordinary missionary month.
• Pray, individually or in community, for the missionaries who announce the Gospel to the people who do not know it, asking for the gift of more missionary vocations.
• Promote a moment of reading and shared reflection of the Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” within your community, to define some concrete actions of evangelization and missionary dynamism to carry forward.

Pope Francis calls us to renew our missionary dynamism in our country and throughout the world. The theme “Baptized and sent: the Church of Christ on mission in the world” invites us to set out on our way with determination, individually and in community. “The heart of the Church’s mission is prayer.” (Pope Francis, June 2019). The Pontifical Mission Societies / Missio, invite all the faithful, wherever they are, to pray at midday every Friday in October.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

when your only begotten Son Jesus Christ

rose from the dead,

he commissioned his followers

to “go and make disciples of all nations”

and you remind us that through our Baptism

we are made sharers in the mission of the Church.

Empower us by the gifts of the Holy Spirit

to be courageous and zealous

in bearing witness to the Gospel,

so that the mission entrusted to the Church,

which is still very far from completion,

may find new and efficacious expressions

that bring life and light to the world.

Help us make it possible for all peoples

to experience the saving love

and mercy of Jesus Christ,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

One God, forever and ever.

Amen.