October is MISSION Month, in honor of the discovery of America, which opened a new page of the history of evangelization.

JOIN our Celebration of
World Mission Sunday   
on October 18, 2009 at the11:00 AM Mass
with His Eminence Cardinal Justin Rigali
at the Cathedral Basilica SS. Peter & Paul  
18th Street & Ben Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia

Click Society for the Propagation of the Faith, World Mission Sunday for more materials or go to www.iamamissionary.org.   
Click Holy Childhood Association for Children’s Liturgy for World Mission Sunday for your School or Parish PREP program.

On October 18th, we celebrate World Mission Sunday and, united with the Catholics of the world, we recommit ourselves to our vocation, through Baptism, to be Missionaries.
This year, we will reflect on Pope Benedict’s “Year of the Priest” message.  All priests, and particularly Missionary priests, can help us learn to be examples of living our faith with zeal and of becoming incisive witnesses of the Gospel in today’s world. 
Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated this “Year for Priests” in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the “dies natalis” of John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests.  On World Mission Sunday in Philadelphia, we will celebrate all priests and Missionaries who, as the Pope describes Saint John Mary Vianney are . . . “very humble, yet as a priest he was conscious of being an immense gift to his people.”  This can serve as a significant point of reference for us all.
Like many priests in the Missions, Saint John Vianney, as the Pope details in his “Year of the Priest” proclamation, “taught his parishioners primarily by the witness of his life. It was from his example that they learned to pray, halting frequently before the tabernacle for a visit to    Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. “One need not say much to pray well,” St. John explained. “Jesus is there in the tabernacle: let us open our hearts to him, let us rejoice in his sacred presence. That is the best prayer”.  Saint John Vianney sets an example for all of us, as do priests and Missionaries in Philadelphia and throughout the world.
One such Missionary priest, living now in Philadelphia, but still being Missionary to his home land, is Reverend Philip Agber. Father Agber, C.S.sp. originally from Nigeria, came to teach religion at Holy Ghost Preparatory School in Bensalem.  Father Agber shared stories with the Holy Ghost community about the poverty, lack of education and the overwhelming needs of the people of Ortese Village in Nigeria.   
One of the families in the Holy Ghost Preparatory School community decided to help alleviate the hardships of the people in Ortese Village, Nigeria.  This family, soon joined by others, started fundraising.  They created Bringing Hope to Nigeria, a non-profit corporation, to provide funds to build a church and a school in Ortese Village, and to develop an outreach program which supports education and welfare of the poor.

Ortese Village is a small, old village in the area of the Benue state of Nigeria. Ortese Village has no electricity, no potable water, no recreational facilities and no viable roads. A traveling priest visits the villagers once a month.  The villagers worship in a tent.  Farming is the main occupation of the villagers, yet it offers no economic stability. Young people growing up in the village are unable to afford school because of the economy.

To go to school from Ortese Village, a child must travel miles. However, the median family earns less than one dollar a day, which puts education out of reach for most village children.  Even if a family could afford the luxury of sending a child to school, they must labor in the fields, leaving no time or means to take a child to and from school. Without a meaningful education, children do not have any hope for a brighter future, and the cycle of poverty continues.
Father Agber, who is from Ortese Village, is working closely with Bringing Hope to Nigeria, to first construct a church, followed by a school. Other projects may follow. He will be directly involved in the school project, and will be traveling in the summer of 2010 to Nigeria to put a committee in place and break ground for the church.
“We have taken on this project because we felt that God brought it to us,” said the families that are involved with Father Agber and Bringing Hope to Nigeria, “While we understand it is a big project, we have put our faith in God that he will direct us to those who can help us.” 
Father Agber and the families involved in Bringing Hope to Nigeria, like many of the priests and Missionaries that we are celebrating this year during World Mission Sunday, are setting examples for us by the “witness of their lives.”
On World Mission Sunday, please support the building of churches and chapels throughout the Missions – where our Mission family gathers, as we do, around the Table of the Lord, giving thanks to God for all His blessings.

Remember, through prayer and acts of sacrifice, by your words and actions, you become a Missionary for the Lord.