October 2019 will have three significant events: The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on the 7th, the completion/ installation of the seventh anniversary of our Diocese on the 15th, and the Mission Sunday on the 20th.
The Diocese of Udupi was erected by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on 16 July 2012 as a missionary diocese among the majority of people of different faiths with a mandate of the mission of proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ and evangelization to all people through witnessing our Catholic faith and life based on the Gospel values. Our Lady will be our incessant intercessor before God to fulfill our mission. Mother Mary, through her six apparitions to Jacinto, Francisco and Lucia at Fatima, has provided us with a powerful spiritual weapon in the Rosary. We are happy that our families come together in the evenings for family prayer which comprises the recitation of the rosary. The family that prays together stays together! We shall have an added reason to pray both at home and in front of the church grotto during the month dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.
The Mission Sunday is going to be a special event during this month because our beloved Holy Father has declared October 2019 as the Extraordinary Missionary Month. In order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud the Holy Father has proposed the theme for the month: “Baptized and sent: The Church of Christ on mission in the world”.
Four dimensions have been specified by Pope Francis to live more intensely the journey of preparation for and implementation of the Extraordinary Missionary Month – October 2019:
1. A personal encounter with Jesus Christ living in his Church: in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, and in personal and communal prayer.
2. Testimony: missionary saints, martyrs, and confessors of the faith as an expression of the Church scattered throughout the world.
3. Missionary formation: biblical, catechetical, spiritual, and theological.
4. Missionary charity.
Let us, during this month, pray the Rosary fervently for blessings, benevolence and graces to all in the diocese of Udupi. Let us be effective missionaries of proclamation and evangelization since we are all baptized and sent. Let us also pray for the success of the celebration of the Extraordinary Missionary Month. May God bless all of us abundantly.
XGerald Isaac Lobo
Bishop of Udupi