Little and grown missionaries from the Holy Childhood, most of them actively involved in the Little Mission Clubs, were welcomed by Nuncio Jude Thaddeus Okolo, Bishop of Litoměřice, Stanislav Pribyl and the Diocesan Director of the PMS in the Diocese of Litoměřice, Pavel Moravek. The participants, who came from all over the Czech Republic, also received great encouragement from the National Director of PMs in the Czech Republic, Deacon Leos Halbrstat.
"Missions is a word that we associate with distant exotic lands, with places where wild animals live that we know only from zoos, with people who speak a different language and have different habits of life. Perhaps we associate the word with poverty. But so is mission territory at home," said the local bishop Stanislav in his sermon. He then explained the meaning of the word missionary as one who is sent to proclaim the Gospel like the apostles by Jesus himself. "By being baptized, we have become Christ's ambassadors. A missionary, then, is not a priest in a tropical helmet or a nun. It is all of us and it is meant to be all of us," the bishop encouraged. And our mission field, he said, is every place where we live right now. "How many people are there who are losing hope that their life has meaning or are looking for meaning in their life where it doesn't exist. Maybe Africa, Asia or America would put us in the pocket on that," he added. So how does one go about being a missionary? "First of all, by acting on our own beliefs. This is called witnessing: what I want to say I first live myself," the Bishop of Litoměřice advised the missionaries. Aktivita
During the Mass, the children from the Little Mission Club in Nymburk also presented the proceeds of an aktivity called Missionary Candy, which is one of the commitments of the children from Holy Childhood, where they save a sum of money worth one candy each week.
Searching for the chalice
After lunch, about a hundred children ran around the city to play. The competitors were divided into five teams and tried to redeem a symbolic chalice for the church of an African parish at the special sites, above all in the historic centre or at the Hospice of St. Stephen. The gold chalice could paid only with special missionary currency that the children earned by completing tasks. At the hospice, for example, they tried to be moving at wheelchair or tried how to help sick people with food. On the different site they should blindly put together a puzzle with a picture of St. Zdislava. The children also saw the cathedral tower, the churches, visited the former seminary and various other parts of the city.
As Deacon Leos Halbristat, who is the national director of Pontifical Mission Works, explained, most of these children's assemblies are done on a diocesan basis. "We came to support the one in Litomerice, where the diocesan director, P. Pavel Moravek, took over the coordination. The children find that they are not alone with their mission theme in the parish, but they learn about the diocesan, republican and world purpose of missions," he concluded.
During the event it was also possible to refresh oneself with delicious mission coffee, the proceeds of which supported the PMS project in Uganda.
After the blessing, the little missionaries returned to their homes from where they will spread the good news especially to their loved ones.
The mission congress was the first major mission event held in five years after the pandemic.
World Mission Sunday 2024
Together with the church around the world, there we also celebrated the 98th World Mission Sunday in the Czech Republic.
Already on the Saturday evening, the faithful gathered in parishes, in Little Mission Clubs (groups focused on missionary education for children) or in families for a Mission Bridge of Prayer, which was filled with the prayer of the Missionary Rosary for missions, missionaries, poor and suffering people and for spreading the joy of the Gospel throughout the world. Little missionaries from the Holy Childhood built the bridge of prayer, sacrifice, service and creativity.
To celebrate the World Mission Sunday, churches were decorated in a missionary way, and during the festive service, especially the children prepared commented sacrificial processions in which they brought gifts of the missionary world (fruits, vegetables, bread, ...), means to alleviate the difficult situation of people (medicines, school supplies), encouragement in faith (cross, candles, Bible), gifts for joy (flowers, cakes, a heart with a biblical quote), etc. They also dressed up as representatives of each continent. In some places, World Mission Sunday was also celebrated with dancing.
The celebration of Mission Sunday was accompanied by the traditional activities of us, such as Mission Fairs, Mission Cake and Mission Strudelbaking, prepared by the whole parishes or by the Little Mission Clubs.
