The 98th World Mission Day will be celebrated on Sunday, October 20, 2024 on the theme “Go and invite everyone to the banquet” (cf. Mt. 22:9). Pope Francis has released his message for World Mission Day 2024 on 25 January 2024, Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul.
In the text, 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 Pope noted that the king’s banquet “it is an image of ultimate salvation in the Kingdom of God.”
In the last part of his message, the Pontiff recalls that God wants "everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth". “This is the heart of mission," Pope Francis stressed, "that ‘all’, excluding no one."
World Mission Sunday was instituted in 1926 by Pope Pius XI at the request of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (Latin: Propagandum Fidei).
On the occasion of the 98th World Mission Day, the Carmelites of Australia and Timor-Leste have prepared the following resource that can be very useful in extending the Pope's invitation to all, especially those on the margins of society.
To see the resource on the pdf World Mission Day 2024 (3.15 MB)
To see the Message of His Holiness Pope Francis