While I was on pilgrimage in Italy, I took with me a scallop shell with the cross of St James painted on it, a symbol of the pilgrimage of St James that I have taken several times in Spain. I also took with me a simple cross made from wood from the rain forests of Ecuador made by the students at the carpentry and mechanics school where I served as a lay missionary from 1996 to 1999. I think of all the missionaries I worked with in Ecuador. Just in our humble mission site, we had priests, sisters, brothers, and lay missionaries from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Uganda, Italy, and Spain. All of us served there united in our faith, bringing the Gospel message to the people there in different ways. We had more than 100 villages that we served from that mission site, traveling hours by canoe to reach them. I used to travel 4 to 5 hours by canoe every Friday afternoon to work in one of those villages, San Francisco de Onzole. It was amazing visiting Assisi this week, seeing the place where St Francis was born, seeing the basilica named after him, seeing the cave where he lived, seeing the place where he received the stigmata, and then reflecting upon the village named after him in that remote rain forest in Ecuador where I served as a missionary for three years. However, as we celebrate World Mission Sunday, we must realize that all of us are called to have a missionary spirit wherever we are in the world. This missionary spirit is not just for missionaries who serve in a foreign land. St Therese of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun in France, lived her life as a nun in a monastery, but due to her love of the missions and her missionary spirit, she is one of the patron saints of the missions. As we celebrate World Mission Sunday, may we never forget this missionary calling we all have. It is good to be back with all of you for Mass this weekend. Have a blessed week everyone. Father Lincoln.
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