Making A Difference Fr John McCarthy MSC speaking in Macroom
At a gathering of benefactors in Macroom, Co. Cork, Fr. John McCarthy MSC told the audience that they “are lay missionaries who have been compassionate in sharing what you have from God with deprived people whom you have never known and will never know in the far distant mission lands of South Africa, Venezuela, and Russia”.
“Being missionary” he said “means a person, a group, or an organisation sent with something to someone. It is salesmanship, it is message, it is a sharing of resources, and it is solidarity where there is urgent and fundamental need.
‘Being Missionary’ in the context of the Christian vision of life and the world is the foundation stone, the driving force, and the heart-beat that expresses the vision and makes it move.
 Fundraising in Killarney for St Brendan's clinic, Venezuela, run by Fr Seamus Kelly MSC (left).
Being a benefactor is much more than just performing the act of giving material support like money to our missionary priests.
It is about praying for them and their work.
It is about having compassion for the poor people to whom they minister in the shantytowns of South Africa or the barrios of Venezuela.
It is being passionate about practising the word of God in a very real way.
It is about sharing resources with others. It is being in solidarity with others.
 Pope Benedict XVI
Speaking in St. Peter's Square in April 2008 Pope Benedict XVI said that vocation and mission are inseparable and the Church's many vocations should have an "intense missionary character". Re-affirming that those called to Christian marriage should also give their lives a missionary flavour, he contended that "it mustn't be forgotten that Christian marriage is also a missionary vocation: The couple, in fact, is called to live the Gospel in the family, in the workplace and in parish and civil communities. In certain cases, moreover, they offer their valuable contribution to the missions "ad gentes".
The Second Vatican Council stated that "The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ". As followers of Christ we are all missionaries.
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