EUROPE/ITALY - “Bread broken for others”: 24 March 13th Day of Prayer and Fasting to commemorate Missionaries killed for the Gospel Cause

Tuesday, 15 March 2005

Rome (Fides Service) - March 24 is the annual Day of Prayer and Fasting in memory of missionaries killed for the cause of the Gospel. The initiative was started in Italy by the Youth Movement of the Pontifical Mission Societies in 1993 and in recent years has spread to other countries. March 24 is the date when Archbishop Oscar A. Romero of San Salvador was assassinated in 1980. The slogan for this year is “Bread broken for others”, and this year the day coincides with Holy Thursday.
“The Eucharist, sacrament of unity and bond of love, strengthens and makes more visible the bond with the martyrdom of Christ - we read in the note of presentation of the event -. The Church was born of the sacrifice of Christ and she is anchored to it as every day in different times and places she celebrates Mass in memory of the Paschal sacrifice of Jesus. Sharing the Body offered and the Blood shed, the Church becomes the Body of Christ, bread broken for others, a living sign of his love for all humanity, communion with Christ crucified and his sacrifice. The Eucharist in fact builds the Christian community and places it at the service of all.”
This year the Day is in memory in particular of the 15 missionaries killed in 2004 while bearing witness to Christ. “The missionary martyrs gave their lives and were killed because they preached the Gospel “ad gentes”, obeying the command of Jesus: “go and teach all nations” (Matthew 28,19). They are hosts of followers of Christ, crucified like Him. They all drew from the cross of Christ and from the Eucharist, the strength to struggle to carry the Word which saves and liberates from all forms of violence and slavery, serving in particular the poorest members of humanity and those who suffer most.”
The invitation to celebrate the Day is addressed to parishes, religious communities, seminaries, mission groups and youth groups and all men and women of good will, to enter into spiritual communion with missionaries in every corner of the world, through prayer, fasting and solidarity. Because this year the Day falls on Holy Thursday PMS Italy suggest to people to “unite with the offering which Jesus made of himself and the sacrifice of the martyred missionaries by taking part in the Mass “of the Lord’s Supper” and afterwards an hour of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament”. On Good Friday we are invited to fast “to be more closely united with the missionaries and the poor of the world and so our prayer may be pleasing to God”. Fasting which becomes testimony: those who wish to do so may send the money saved to the PMS in aid of Christian communities affected by the seaquake tragedy in Asia.
For Holy Week 21 to 27 March, the PMS handbook offers suggestions for a Prayer Vigil, the Stations of the Cross, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Holy Thursday, and other indications for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
The sick are encouraged to offer their suffering in memory of the missionary martyrs and for the spread of the Gospel, “creating in this way a wave of spiritual power to sustain missionaries involved in evangelisation and to ask the Lord for the gift of new missionary vocations”. Everyone is encouraged to visit a place of suffering (hospitals, homes for the aged, lonely invalids, prisoners, …) to share with those who suffer the very life of Christ and “to remind ourselves that the energy for proclamation of the Gospel comes from suffering and sacrifices of many people”. Inviting a brother or sister from a foreign country to lunch on Easter Day 27 April, could be a living sign of “the new style of life which the Gospel brings to communities”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 15/3/2005; Righe 46; Parole 655)


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