World Mission Sunday Comes with a World Mission Rosary

Organized by the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, World Mission Sunday is a day for Catholics worldwide to recommit themselves to the Church’s mission through prayer and sacrifice. It is a Eucharistic Celebration linking all the dioceses throughout Asia, Africa, parts of Latin America and Europe, and the islands of the Pacific.

Blessed Pope John Paul II said that it is an important day in the life of the Church as it teaches us how to give (Redemptoris Missino 81). As the central fund of solidarity, all Mission Sunday offerings are entirely distributed to the mission dioceses in the world.

Through our priests, religious, and laity, this outreach to the poor and marginalized help the yearly growing needs of the Catholic Church in mission. The peso we give form new dioceses, open seminaries, build chapels/churches/orphanages/schools, rebuild areas devastated by natural disasters and war, bring the light of CHRIST to long suppressed areas, and to people in the darkest of human circumstance half a world away.

As the National Director of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith from 1950-1966, the late Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen designed the World Mission Rosary in February 1951.

Each decade of the World Mission Rosary has a different color. The green decade represent the forests and grasslands of Africa, the blue decade represent the ocean surrounding the islands of the Pacific, the white decade symbolize Europe as the seat of the Holy Father as Shepherd of the world, the red decade calls to mind the fire of faith that brought missionaries to the Americas, and the yellow decade represent Asia as the morning light of the East. Quoting the late Archbishop Sheen, a completed World Mission Rosary supplies the Holy Father support as it embraces in prayer all continents, all peoples, especially the poor mission territories of the world.

Years after his death, Archbishop Sheen’s invitation to tour the world in Rosary prayer still rings. On your knees, get set, pray!