 
General Theme: Means of perseverance General Objective: That the disciples can participate actively in the mission of Jesus making them missionary disciples that persevere faithfully in their following. Objective of the week: That we, as members of the Church recognize that we exist to evangelize INTRODUCTION October is the month dedicated to the mission. Every year on the third Sunday of October we celebrate World Mission Sunday. What is World Mission Sunday? World Mission Sunday, organized by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, is a day set aside for Catholics worldwide to reflect on their own baptism, when they received the gift of faith, and recommit themselves to the Church's missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice. Pope Francis message for World Mission Sunday 2024:” Let us not forget that every Christian is called to take part in this universal mission by offering his or her own witness to the Gospel in every context, so that the whole Church can continually go forth with her Lord and Master to the “crossroads” of today’s world.” IMVDMFa 70. “In the VDMFa we wish to ensure that no one feels excluded, but rather good administrators of the incalculable riches, rights and duties of their Christian identity, conferred by baptism, to follow Christ in his same mission, participating in his being priest, prophet and king.” There is a call to renew our commitment as disciples of Christ. October is a month specially dedicated for this renewal as Catholics and as Verbum Missionary disciples. Let us again pray and live out our missionary activity during this month. October is the month to pray for missionaries all over the world. Pope Francis in his message for World Mission Sunday 2024 affirms: “I take this opportunity to thank all those missionaries who, in response to Christ’s call, have left everything behind to go far from their homeland and bring the Good News to places where people have not yet received it, or received it only recently. Dear friends, your generous dedication is a tangible expression of your commitment to the mission Ad Gentes that Jesus entrusted to his disciples: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). We continue to pray and we thank God for the new and numerous missionary vocations for the task of evangelization to the ends of the earth.” These missionaries are helping people in need in different places through many assisting projects and they also need financial support. Propaganda Fidei (Society for the Propagation of Faith) is in charge of collecting the money from every country and to distribute to the most needed people in this world through the missionaries living with them. The Guidelines sheet during this month will be focused on the Pope's message for World Mission Sunday 2024. The theme proposed by Pope Francis is “GO AND INVITE EVERYONE TO THE BANQUET” (cf. Mat 22:9). This is an invitation to live out Jesus´ mission in this present moment. Our Verbum Dei Family of Cebu is willing to go to some places to reach out to others during this month. Our theme “COME, ENJOY THE BANQUET OF THE LORD” is taken from the Pope's message with the intention of making us aware of the active participation in inviting all to the banquet of the Lord. MONDAY “Go Tirelessly and Invite my Children To Come to My Banquet” Message of the Pope (World Mission Sunday 2024): “In the king’s command to his servants we find two words that express the heart of the mission: the verbs “to go out” and “to invite”. Mission, we see, is a tireless going out to all men and women, in order to invite them to encounter God and enter into communion with him. Tireless!” John 20:21 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Acts 13:43-49 43 When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you[a] a light for the Gentiles, that you[b] may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’[c]” 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. 49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. Every one of us is called to be a part of the mission, witnessing Jesus and continuing His work in our lives. God's love is so great; His love does not limit to those who recognized Him but those strangers of Him are covered by His immense love. He is telling us to go tirelessly and invite all His children even to those who are in the face of indifference and refusal to come and enjoy His banquet of love. Sometimes, we feel unworthy and unprepared to go, but Jesus is inviting us to obey and trust in Him so that He can freely act in us and we may be capable of imitating Him. So we become effective missionaries in our little ways with our examples and not only with our words. So we are invited to preach with our lives the way we relate to each other and in our family with patience, forgiveness, and humility.
TUESDAY “God’s great love for all” Message of the Pope (World Mission Sunday 2024): “God, great in love and rich in mercy, constantly sets out to encounter all men and women, and to call them to the happiness of his kingdom, even in the face of their indifference or refusal.” 1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. 1 Timothy 2:1-7 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed at the proper time. 7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles. Hosea 11:1-4 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 But the more they were called, the more they went away from me.[a] They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. 3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. 4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them. Aware of the great love of God for us, a universal love that knows no limits, a love that brings forth true happiness and peace that everyone is looking for, a love that bears fruit and grows all the more when shared to others. In one way or another we experienced this love from our brothers and sisters in so many ways, allowing this love to flourish. The world is in need of the Love of God. As His witnesses, we are all invited by Jesus to let our brothers and sisters experience the same Love we received from Him. Let the world know that Jesus is alive in the lives of His true witnesses in the way they love.
WEDNESDAY “We Can Change for the Better in Service of God” Message of the Pope (World Mission Sunday 2024): “Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd and messenger of the Father, went out in search of the lost sheep of the people of Israel and desired to go even further, in order to reach even the most distant sheep (cf. Jn 10:16).” 1 John 4:9-10 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Luke 15:1-6 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ Matthew 9:9-13 9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” John 8:1-12 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” We are all equal in the eyes of God, regardless of one’s past. We may sometimes lose our way and go astray, but there will always be those who understand our burdens and reach out that we may not go astray. As disciples, we too are imperfect. But our imperfections do not stop us from giving our all for the service of the Lord. When we acknowledge who we are and follow the Lord regardless, our identity as disciples will outshine the sins of the past.
THURSDAY “VDMD: Servants of the Word of God” Message of the Pope (World Mission Sunday 2024): “Both before and after his resurrection, he told his disciples, “Go!”, thus involving them in his own mission (cf. Lk 10:3; Mk 16:15) To return to the king’s command in the parable, the servants are told not only to “go,” but also to “invite”: “Come to the wedding!” (Mt 22:4). Here we can see another, no less important, aspect of the mission entrusted by God. As we can imagine, the servants conveyed the king’s invitation with urgency but also with great respect and kindness. In the same way, the mission of bringing the Gospel to every creature must necessarily imitate the same “style” of the One who is being preached. In proclaiming to the world “the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead” (Evangelii Gaudium, 36), missionary disciples should do so with joy, magnanimity and benevolence that are the fruits of the Holy Spirit within them (cf. Gal 5:22). Not by pressuring, coercing or proselytizing, but with closeness, compassion and tenderness, and in this way reflecting God’s own way of being and acting.” Luke 10:1-3 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Mark 16:15-16,20 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. As VDMD our charism is to pray, live and preach the Word of God. We are to “Go” as Jesus commissioned each one of us, so we can invite everyone to the wedding banquet. “Go” is in the present tense since Jesus knows the urgency of preaching each day “in season and out of season” 2Tim 4:2-5. All must be invited and must encounter the love and mercy of God through us! As servants of the Word of God we are to bring the Good News to others just like Jesus did, full of love and compassion for His people especially, the least, the lost and the last. Our pedagogy of preaching must imitate that of our Master’s whose effectiveness is due to His loving connection and obedience to the will to His Father. So let us offer ourselves as servants of Jesus who is always willing to reach out to others so they too, can partake in the wedding festivities, just as we did. As it is said in Acts 4:20 “As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard”.
FRIDAY “Fidelity to the Mission: A Call and a Grace from God” Message of the Pope (World Mission Sunday 2024): “The Church, for her part, in fidelity to the mission she has received from the Lord, will continue to go to the ends of the earth, to set out over and over again, without ever growing weary or losing heart in the face of difficulties and obstacles. Evangelii Nuntiandi 14: The Church knows this. She has a vivid awareness of the fact that the Savior's words, "I must proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God," apply in all truth to herself. It is with joy and consolation that at the end of the great Assembly of 1974 we heard these illuminating words: "We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church." Evangelii Gaudium 25: Throughout the world, let us be “permanently in a state of mission”. 1 Corinthians 9:16 16 For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 2 Timothy 2:1-13 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrusted to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 3 Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. 5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. 7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. 11 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. Romans 10:1, 13-15 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[f]14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[g] "I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic church." This line is very familiar from the Apostle's Creed that points out that we are the Church - the people of God. The church who receives the call of Jesus to remain faithful to the mission. Mission is a grace from God which gives us the privilege to serve Him in proclaiming the Good News of Salvation. Fidelity is essential in the mission because our life itself is a mission. By our fidelity, neither obstacle nor suffering can hinder us to reach out to the ends of the earth. Thus, Jesus is telling us in Mt.28:20 "Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you and I will be with you always to the end of age." Which means that doing the mission is living in union with Christ Jesus.
SUNDAY 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Wis 7:7-11 Psalm Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17 2nd Reading: Heb 4:12-13 Gospel: Mk 10:17-30 or 10:17-27 PRAYER FOR SYNOD ON SYNODALITY (OCTOBER 2024) We stand before You, Holy Spirit, as we gather together in Your name. With You alone to guide us, make Yourself at home in our hearts; Teach us the way we must go and how we are to pursue it. We are weak and sinful; do not let us promote disorder. Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong path nor partiality influence our actions. Let us find in You our unity so that we may journey together to eternal life and not stray from the way of truth and what is right. All this we ask of You, who are at work in every place and time, in the communion of the Father and the Son, forever and ever. Amen. October 2024 Pope's Intention We pray that the Church continue to sustain in all ways a Synodal lifestyle, as a sign of co-responsibility, promoting the participation, the communion and the mission shared among priests, religious and lay people.
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About the Guidelines SheetThe Guidelines sheet is a prayer guide with the Word of God to help us journey together and be one in our weekly prayer as one community. This contains daily passages from scriptures together with reflections focused on a common theme and intention for the week. Archives
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