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Evangelization is the Highest Form of Love | Pius XI on World Mission Sunday · Vox Liturgica

• 0:02
  Vox Liturgica: Evangelization is the highest form of love. From Pius the eleventh's encyclical on Catholic missions. Pope Pius the eleventh in 1926 at the request of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith instituted World Mission Sunday on the penultimate Sunday of October. In masses on this day commemorations are made from the mass for the propagation of the faith. In 1926, Pius XI also wrote an encyclical on Catholic missions.
• 0:49
  In it, the Holy Father says the following about the importance of evangelization: The Church has no other reason for existence than by developing the kingdom of Christ on earth to make mankind participate in the effects of his saving redemption. Whoever, by divine commission, takes the place on earth of Jesus Christ becomes thereby the chief shepherd who, far from being able to rest content with simply guiding and protecting the lord's flock, which has been confided to him to rule, fails in his special duty and obligations if he does not strive by might and main to win over and to join to Christ all who are still outside the fold. When we ponder over the fact that the pagans number, even in our day, almost a billion, we have no rest in our spirit and seem to hear sounding in our ears the words, Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet. There is no need to insist how foreign it is to the virtue of charity which embraces both God and men for the members of Christ's church not to think of those unfortunate souls who live in error outside the fold. Surely the obligation of charity which binds us to God demands not only that we strive to increase by every means within our power the number of those who adore him in spirit and in truth, but also that we try to bring under the rule of the gentle Christ as many other men as possible.
• 3:07
  That men should be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. Can we give a mark of greater love for our neighbors than to assist them in putting behind themselves the darkness of error by instructing them in the true faith of Christ. As a matter of fact, this type of charity surpasses all other kinds of good works inspired by love. Just as the mind surpasses the body, heaven surpasses earth, eternity surpasses time. Everyone that acts thus inspired by love and according to the full measure of his ability demonstrates that he esteems the gift of faith in the manner that one should esteem it.
• 4:12
  Moreover, he manifests his gratitude toward the goodness of God by thus sharing the same great gift precious above every other gift with the poor pagans. He also shares with them, at the same time, all other graces which are intimately connected with the virtue of faith. We read that Christ commanded not only Peter but all the apostles, go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. It evidently follows from this that the responsibility for spreading the faith falls upon us. God himself shall one day ask of us a strict accounting of this tremendous obligation which he has laid upon us.
• 5:17
  Strive to have introduced and gradually to extend the pious custom of praying the Lord of the Harvest that he send forth labourers into his harvest, and of asking for the heathen the light of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God. Everyone can pray. Of this fact there can be no question. Everyone therefore has at hand and can make use of this all important help, this daily nourishment of the missions. For these reasons you will act according to our desires and will also do something in keeping with the religious spirit and feelings of the faithful if you order that special prayers for the Missions and for the conversion of the heathen to the true faith be added, for example, to the rosary of the Blessed Virgin or to the other prayers which are customarily recited both in the parish and other churches.
• 6:31
  It would be well, venerable brothers, to make a special point of inviting and encouraging children in the religious orders of women to take up this holy practice. We are particularly desirous that in all institutions, orphanages, parochial schools, colleges, and convents of sisters, there should daily arise to heaven, the prayer that the divine mercy may descend upon so many unhappy beings, inhabitants of the densely populated pagan countries, can the heavenly Father refuse anything to the innocent and chaste who ask it of him? On the other hand, such a pious practice leads to the hope that these children who have been trained to pray for the conversion of the heathen from the first moment when the flower of charity begins to bud in their young and tender hearts may with the help of God themselves receive a vocation for the apostolate, a vocation which if it is nurtured with care may perhaps in time supply capable workers for the mission field. Since the words of Christ are true, the harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few even in the present condition of affairs. Europe, from whence most of the missionaries have come, is itself in need of priests.
• 8:24
  And this is at a time when with the help of God it is most important that our separated brethren be led back to the unity of the church and that non Catholics be convinced of and delivered from their errors. It is a well known fact that today the number of young men called to the priestly and religious life is not less than in former times. Still, the number of those who obey the call of God is certainly much smaller. It but remains for us now to exhort you again, venerable brothers, all the bishops of the Catholic world, to share with us the cares and consolations of our pastoral office and to come to the aid of the missions in order that the missions themselves quickened as it were by this renewed strength may bring forth a more abundant harvest in the future. May Mary, the most holy queen of apostles, graciously look down with favor upon this our common undertaking that self same Mary who since she keeps within her motherly heart, all men committed to her protection on Calvary, cherishes and loves not only those whose fortune it is to enjoy the fruits of the redemption, but all those others likewise who do not yet know that they have been redeemed by Jesus Christ.
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  Pope Pius the eleventh, Saint Peter's, Rome, February 28, in the year of our Lord, 1926.