October 2023<\/p>\n
My dear friends in Christ,<\/p>\n
From the humble chapel in Khandamal, India to your parish, Catholics around the globe will participate in celebrating World Mission Sunday on October 22, 2023. Pope Pius XI instituted World Mission Sunday in 1926, and the first worldwide collection occurred the following year. Held each year on the penultimate Sunday in October, World Mission Sunday is an effort of the entire Church to help over 1,100 diocese that cannot sustain themselves because they are too poor, young or actively persecuted.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of missionary women and men, priests, religious and laity, rely on our generosity to sustain the Church, which is an instrument of God\u2019s love and mercy, His hope and peace. They rely on our prayers every day, not only on World Mission Sunday. These missionaries are building churches, educating children, and healing the wounds caused by war, cruelty, oppression, terror and despair. With our daily prayer and our generous donation on World Mission Sunday, we all bear witness to the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, making Him present in every continent, country, city, family and heart.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s message from Pope Francis for World Mission Sunday, \u201cHearts on fire, feet on the move,\u201d is inspired by our Lord\u2019s encounter with the disciple on the Road to Emmaus found in the Gospel of Luke (24:13-35). In choosing this theme, Pope Francis has reaffirmed that World Mission Sunday is a privileged opportunity to us to foster missionary cooperation on both the spiritual and material levels.<\/p>\n
Were your eyes opened and is \u201cyour heart on fire\u201d after encountering Jesus in the Eucharist? Will you take the risk of faith to invite everyone to walk together on the path of peace and salvation? Please be generous in support of the collection for World Mission Sunday. Your donation makes an impact in the lives of missionaries and the people they encounter.<\/p>\n
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Peace and prayers,<\/p>\n
+Most Reverend Louis Tylka,\u00a0Bishop of Peoria<\/p>\n
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This collection will be taken October 21-22, 2023. If you wish to make a donation by check, please make it payable to St. Philomena. Donors who wish to use our electronic giving portal click on DONATE at the top of this page, choose Second Collection as the FUND, and then Mission Sunday as the SUB FUND. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"