Throughout the Catholic world, even in places designated as "Mission Lands", in response to the command of Our Lord and the reminder of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, we Catholic Christians are celebrating Mission Sunday this weekend.

We each earnestly recall Jesus' Command as He was preparing to ascend to the Father to spread the Good News to the ends of the world:    "Go out into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15).     This Command was not given just to the Apostles or to Missionaries.      Rather, this Command from Jesus was given to each and every one of His disciples.     That includes each and every one of us.

In a very particular way, each of us is asked to respond to this question:    "How am I sharing the Good News of Jesus to the ends of the earth?"

Well, we need only remember St. Therese of Liseux, the Little Flower.     St. Therese was a sickly child since she was a girl.     As she grew-up, she wanted to be a religious, but no religious community would accept her as a postulant because she was so sickly.     Finally, St. Therese was accepted as a postulant by the Carmelite Sisters.    She completed her Postulancy and Novitiate and became a Religious Sister.     

St. Therese never left her convent in France, and she died at an early age of only 24.   In 1927, two years after she was canonized as a Saint, Pope Pius XI named St. Therese of Liseux the Patroness of Missionaries.    Pope Pius XI said that St. Therese was credited as bringing many, many peoples in Mission Lands to the Faith by daily offering her pains and difficulties for the spread of the Gospel.

Surely each one of us can do the same thing as St. Therese of Liseux.      We too can offer-up our daily pains, frustrations and difficulties for the salvation of the world, rather than just gripe and complain about them.   Also, like St. Therese who had a unique love for the spread of the Gospel, we can offer-up prayers each and everyday for the conversion of the world.     As St. Therese showed by simple, yet most extraordinary example, Jesus does expect each Christian to fulfill His Command to announce the Good News to the ends of the earth.
     
Thus, following in St. Therese's footsteps, let us daily pray to the Lord of the Harvests that there may be sufficient missionaries and catechists so that the Good News of Jesus can be proclaimed everywhere.    Let us also offer-up our daily pains, our difficulties and our sacrifices with Christ's Passion and Death for the salvation of all people everywhere,