2026.10.18 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parishioners,

Today we celebrate World Mission Sunday. This celebration reminds us to pray for missionaries and to support their work materially. For this reason, along with our prayers, we take up a special collection at all our Masses this weekend. World Mission Sunday is a unique effort for the entire Church to help over 1,100 dioceses and offer practical support to the poor through local churches and their witness to Christ. Many missionaries serve in difficult circumstances, often far from their families and cultures. They bring education, healthcare, pastoral care, and spiritual support to communities with very limited resources. Our prayers, offerings, and sacrifices help sustain this mission. Even a small contribution, given with a generous heart, can become an instrument of God’s providence.

However, our financial generosity must go hand in hand with our personal commitment. We cannot support the Church’s mission with our money while refusing to forgive, serve, or care for those around us. Our world is filled with suffering. Wars, violence, poverty, loneliness, discrimination, and divisions rob many people of hope. Even in our own Parishes and neighbourhoods, people feel lonely, abandoned, and unloved. To be a missionary today is to bring the light of Christ into these situations: when we visit a sick person, we become missionaries of compassion; when we listen to someone lonely, we become missionaries of love; when we forgive someone who has hurt us, we become missionaries of reconciliation; when we encourage someone who has lost hope, we become missionaries of the Gospel. This list can go on and on. On this Mission Sunday, we pray that we all become generous missionaries of compassion, kindness, and hope.

Fr. Vijai, CSC ~ Pastor