The Host of the Banquet: Pope Francis!

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Instituted in 1926 by Pope Pius XI as a mandatory, global second collection, the banquet that is World Mission Sunday has since then been hosted by the Pope, and the table set by those who answer Christ’s call to “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), extending an inclusive invitation to all corners of the Earth.

Meant to be held in every parish in the world, the proceeds benefit 1,150 territories where the Gospel has not yet been received, has been only recently embraced, or is courageously upheld in the face of persecution.

"In his 2024 World Mission Sunday message, which celebrates missionaries and their work, Pope Francis reflects on the Gospel parable of the Wedding Banquet, where the king tells his servants “Go therefore to the thoroughfares and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find”.  The invitation to the banquet is linked to the Eucharistic table, where believers share the Body and Blood of Christ, anticipating the final banquet. The Holy Father writes, Here it should be remembered that breaking our material bread with the hungry in the name of Christ is already a work of Christian mission. How much more so is the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, which is Christ himself, a work of mission par excellence, since the Eucharist is the source and summit of the life and mission of the Church.

As Pope Benedict XVI pointed out: “We cannot keep to ourselves the love we celebrate in the Sacrament [of the Eucharist]. By its very nature, it asks to be communicated to everyone. What the world needs is the love of God, to encounter Christ and believe in him. For this reason the Eucharist is not only the source and summit of the life of the Church; it is also the source and summit of her mission: ‘An authentically Eucharistic Church is a missionary Church’” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 84)... Click here to read the entire message.

Go and invite EVERYONE to the banquet !