Our Sunday Reflection

SELECT HERE for the Audio recording of the Readings of
Sunday, October 11th, 2020, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, October 11th, 2020, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Sunday, October 11th, 2020, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

 

Pope Francis: in mission with Jesus, the “Father’s Missionary”

By Sr. Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp

 

Pope Francis released his annual Message for World Mission Sunday on Pentecost Sunday. Its theme is taken from Isaiah: “Here am I, send me” (Isaiah 6:8).  World Mission Sunday is celebrated on October 18 in 2020.

Call to mission in the current crisis

The Pope began his message recalling the words he expressed on the occasion of the extraordinary moment of prayer on March 27th. Even in the disorientation and fear provoked by the current international crisis, Pope Francis says the Lord continues to ask “Whom shall I send?”  This is where the call to mission emerges as an “invitation to step out of ourselves for love of God and neighbor” through °service and intercessory prayer,” he writes.

The Church as Missionary

Pope Francis explains that it is specifically the Church that “continues the mission of Jesus in history.” Thus the baptized members of the Church are sent forth in her name. Through our witness and proclamation of the Gospel, God continues “to manifest His love.” This is how He is able to “touch and transform hearts, minds, bodies, societies and cultures in every place and time.”

Response to a relationship

“Mission is a free and conscious response to God’s call,” the Pope reminds us, [which] can only be discerned “when we have a personal relationship of love with Jesus present in his Church.” That leads to the question of our preparedness to welcome the Holy Spirit’s pres- ence and action in our lives. That call comes to married couples, consecrated persons and ordained ministers in life’s everyday events. Another question the Pope says we should ask ourselves is if we are willing “to be sent forth at any time or place to witness to our faith.” And the last question: are we willing to respond as Mary did “ready to be completely at the service of God’s will?”

Mission responds to life

The challenge for the Church’s mission right now is that of “Understanding what God is saying to us at this time of pandemic,” Pope Francis acknowledges. As people die alone or are abandoned, as others lost their jobs, with the necessity of social distancing or saying at home, the Pope says we are invited “to rediscover that we need social relationships as well as our communal relationship with God.” This situation can increase our awareness of the need to relate to others, he says. God will touch our hearts through prayer which will always open us to understand others’ needs. Those of us who have not been able to participate in the Church’s liturgical life now understand “the experience of the many Christian communities that cannot cele- brate Mass every Sunday,” the Pope said.

Whom shall I send?

God’s question expressed by the Prophet Isaiah “is addressed once more to us and awaits a generous and convincing response: ‘Here am I, send me!’ (Isaiah 6:8),” Pope Francis says at the conclusion of his message. World Mission Sunday will be a day on which we will be able to reaffirm through prayer, reflection and material help our active participation in Jesus’s mission in His Church. Pope Francis specifies that the collection taken up on October 18th will support “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.”

READ the reflection regarding Mission in Scripture, the week before World Mission Sunday on October 18th, 2020.

View the below videos for reflections on the readings.

If you or someone you care about is living with domestic violence, and are looking for support or resources, please call Battered Women's Resources Inc. at
978-537-2306 





One out of three women experience domestic violence at some point in their lives. Violence against women creates obstacles for peace and gender equality in the United States and around the world.

Saint Boniface wishes to honor those who have lost their lives in Massachusetts this past year due to domestic violence:
Jennifer Vazquez- Rivera, age 34, from Worcester; Deirdre Zaccardi, age 40, and her three children ages 11, and 9 year old twins from Abington; Jason Swedberg, age 40, from Worcester; Mary Fairbairn, age 57, from Groton; James Ammons-Maddrey, age 27, from Framingham; Shanika Roldan, age 34, from Springfield; Charli Cook, age 44, from North Adams; Karla Rodriquez, age 20, from Hudson, Sandra Kumar, age 53, from Mashpee; Mardiette Deboyes, age 57, from Wareham; Kathleen McLean, age 58, from Dover; Amber Periera, age 30, from Somerset; Migdalia Perez, age 47, from Gardner; and Megan McNeil, age 27, from Worcester.