“Jesus asks us all, and you as well, to be missionary disciples. Are you ready?” asked Pope Francis during the church’s annual celebration of October as Mission Month. “We pray that every baptized person may be engaged in evangelization, available to the mission, by being witnesses of a life that has the flavor of the Gospel… It’s enough to be available to answer his call and to live united to the Lord in the most common daily things — work, meeting other people, our daily duties, the chance events of each day — allowing ourselves to be guided always by the Holy Spirit.”
Do you know that 
World Mission Sunday is Oct. 24, 2021? Are you ready? Not necessarily to embrace the foreign missions, or become a priest, deacon or religious. For most of us, Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist is all we need to get started. Then we must add a comprehensive, ever-evolving understanding of ourselves as missionaries. Bishop Robert Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, puts it this way, “The minute you walk outside of your church on Sunday you’re in mission territory.” So, for many of us, even getting up out of bed, willing to serve our families, co-workers is a starting point. Next comes an awareness that the more than 80% of baptized Catholics are not regular Mass-goers, not to mention, others who are disconnected from any religious support or community. This majority of people can be called, “religious wanderers.” Bishop Robert J. McManus, of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, writes, “The ministry of a missionary disciple is to search out these wanderers, and, once found, introduce them to the person of Jesus, the message of his Gospel, and the teachings of his Church.” (Catechist magazine, April-May, 2018)
Here are eight practices for growing as daily missionary disciples:
- Praise and thank God frequently throughout the day for the many gifts you have (and that others also experience—health, possessions, education, friends, jobs, homes, loved ones, etc.
- Watch for the Holy Spirit’s prompting to speak to others. You might start each day with this simple prayer, “Come, Holy Spirit, grant me the courage to listen to others, to hear what they are going through and to help lift the burdens that they bear. If it be your will, use me to help them.”
- Embrace the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as doorways that give meaning to daily sorrows and joys, losses and gains, emptiness and abundance.
- Strive to become a humble disciple of Jesus Christ. Neither boast of successes, drown in failures, or blame others for their problems. When you see someone who has lost his or her way, recall these words, “There but for the grace of God go I.” (Saint Philip Neri)
- Learn to practice detachment from material possessions. These are gifts from God our Father, given to be shared with the needy. We do not have absolute ownership of anything.
- Serve in the face of every kind of poverty; physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. This includes the struggles of the aged, homeless, despairing, and the food insecure, especially among your acquaintances, friends, and relatives.
- Be prepared to speak about God when the opportunity arises. You might briefly share how (your faith in) Jesus Christ has helped you with a similar struggle. “I felt that way when…. And I became hopeful as I realized that God……”
- Accept disappointment with patience and courage. Do not dwell in the darkness of a friend’s negative response. “If disappointed, don’t say hard things. Only think a little, and try to remember that God will bring about what is best in God’s own time.” (St. Mary MacKillop)