World Mission Sunday encourages prayer and participation in global missions
Bishop Michael Olson celebrates World Mission Sunday at St. Martin de Porres Parish in Prosper on Sunday, October 19, 2025. (NTC/Kevin Bartram)
PROSPER — World Mission Sunday is a day set aside for Catholics to reflect on and recommit themselves to the Church’s missionary activity around the globe. Celebrated annually on the next-to-last Sunday every October, the universal Church is invited to participate in the flourishing success of mission work through prayer and sacrificial giving.
In 1926, Pope Pius XI instituted an annual collection for the missionary work of the Church worldwide.
Nearly 100 years later, on Oct.19, Bishop Michael Olson celebrated World Mission Sunday Mass at St. Martin de Porres Church in Prosper.
During his homily, Bishop Olson explained that our shared responsibility as believers is to promote the Gospel message in every way possible. “We can and should support missionary work with our financial gifts, but even more we must seek to live as faithful disciples and loving friends of the Lord Jesus and so bear witness to everyone we meet that Jesus Christ is Lord,” he said.
This year’s World Mission Sunday theme, “Missionaries of Hope Among All Peoples,” was chosen by Pope Francis to remind baptized believers that we are called to bring Christ’s love and transformative message of hope to people around the world.
In a video message, Pope Leo XIV reflected on his own experience as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru. He personally witnessed the life-changing impact that World Mission Sunday can have on a community. Pope Leo mentioned that our prayers and financial support will “help spread the Gospel, provide for pastoral and catechetical programs, help to build new churches, and care for the health and educational needs of our brothers and sisters in mission territories.”
According to Saint Luke’s Gospel, Bishop Olson identified who is called to participate in mission work and why. “Jesus commissions all of His disciples, all of the members of His Church, to share the Good News among those who have yet to hear the Gospel and also those who are in need of being reminded of the Gospel that they have already received,” he said. “It is up to us to ensure that when He comes again, He will indeed find faith on the earth.”
“Christ shares His mission with us to go throughout the world even at great cost to ourselves to share this news with those who do not know Him, just as He was sent from the Father to save all people,” he explained. “For us to fulfill the mission entrusted to us at our baptism requires constant and persistent prayer.”
Bishop Olson reminded the faithful that both personal and liturgical prayer, offered in unison with the Catholic Church, are necessary to “carry out our missionary vocation and sustain the missionaries of the Gospel in so many lands in which it is truly dangerous to be a Christian and the temptation to abandon the faith is great.” He added that prayer also “strengthen[s] our understanding of the Faith of the Church as revealed by God with an urgent demand to share the Gospel. Without such prayer we can abandon the faith and become lost.”
Prior to the final blessing, Bishop Olson recognized Diana Uytingco, a freshman at Nolan Catholic High School and alumnus of St. Andrew Catholic School in Fort Worth, who is a national grand prize winner of the Missionary Childhood Association Christmas Artwork Contest. Her depiction of the Nativity will be the official national Christmas card for the Pontifical Mission Societies.
In relation to World Mission Sunday, Uytingco recognizes art as another opportunity to evangelize to others. “Art can be used as a way of personal expression,” she said. “It’s a way that people can use their God-given talents to honor Him while doing what they love the most.”
Uytingco shared that her colored pencil depiction of the Nativity of the Lord was inspired by the spirit of family. “Our best example of how to be a good family is the Holy Family — Jesus, Mary, Joseph — and their love for each other,” she said. “I wanted to honor them in the best way I knew how.”
Uytingco wants her work to help others reflect on the deeper meaning of Christmas and feel a sense of gratitude. “I hope they will think about the simplicity of the holidays and how Christmas is about God, spending time with our family, and the reminder of why Jesus died for us and what He went through,” she said.
Upon learning that her artwork was a grand prize selection, Uytingco recalled, “It was a totally unexpected surprise. I was very happy and very shocked.”
Bishop Olson’s announcement at Mass, which included the presentation of a certificate and $500 award, was a special moment for her. “I am very grateful to come to this church and meet all of these amazing and wonderful people,” she said. “And it’s truly a great honor to meet the bishop.”
More information about the Missionary Childhood Association Christmas Artwork Contest and entry forms can be found at sta.tpms.cloud.sitefinity.com/mca-artwork-contest. The deadline for the 2025/26 entries is January 31, 2026.