Happy Lenten!

Dear Mission Family,

During this month of March we are occupied with many thoughts and prayers for Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI and are joining our prayers with the global church as the Cardinals prepare to elect a new Pope. 

We are also in the midst of the 2013 Lenten Season when Christ invites us to make a spiritual journey with him these forty days using the three spiritual pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  I am sure many of you have traditionally given up for the Lenten Season candy, extra dessert, and popcorn.  May I suggest and encourage all of us regardless of our Lenten sacrifice to have greater recourse towards prayer and works of charity within our families, workplace, and the marketplace

Please keep our Native American/Alaskan Natives and African American communities in your prayers.  Let us affirm our brothers and sisters who have enriched the Church with their gift of their cultures.

Finally may I also invite each of us to concentrate on a virtue, i.e., love, patience, and mercy that we wish to more freely engage in our daily lives.  No doubt we will grow in the life of holiness and possess greater peace now and for eternity. 

Happy Lenten Trails!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Reverend W. Carroll Paysse

Executive Director

Advent calls us like the magi to follow the "star" that leads to Jesus

 My recent visit to St. Anthony's Mission School in the Diocese of Gallup, NM was a "magi experience" when I saw the smiling faces of the Zuni youth. They were like bright shining stars that gave a glow of joy, peace and a great sense of faith. . .  

The children and their teachers along with their principal shared a real treasure with me as I walked through the classrooms and school campus. Impressed and inspired as their hands went up like festive flags anxious to respond to their teachers questions and inquiries.

As we journey through this season of grace, as we prepare for the birth of Jesus, allow his spirit of love, joy, peace and reconciliation to shine brightly in our hearts and to permeate all whom we meet each day. Let us follow his Star, let us imitate the Zuni People, especially their children, blessings now and for future generations!
 
Advent blessings! 
Father Paysse  

God’s Bounty ~ Our Blessing

Dear  Partner in Mission, 

I saw it written, “God’s Bounty ~ Our Blessing,” and the phrase has stuck in my heart! 

Soon, we will be celebrating and giving praise to God for the multiple gifts that are ours. The Pilgrims and Indians set that stage for us long ago.  Today we gather with family and friends, around tables of plenty on Thanksgiving Day, to remember and give thanks.

But God’s amazing bounty encompasses more than the wonderful fruits and grains of the earth.  The First Sunday of Advent is November 27. We, the People of God, long for the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, taking on our human flesh. At Thanksgiving, through Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter,  we remember and give thanks for the birth , death and resurrection  of our Savior, Jesus Christ. With the eyes of faith we await His Second Coming.  Salvation, the sacraments, scripture and liturgy are among the bounty and blessings of our lives as Catholics.

Advent, 2011,  has been designated as the time to begin the implementation on the new translations in the Roman Missal. Yeees, change - any kind of change - can be difficult.  Yet,  Eucharist is always...a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all benefits, for all that has been accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification. Eucharist means first of all "thanksgiving."(Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 1360, adapted).

I’ve been praying with some of the Mass translations. I am inspired by new phrasing in the Concluding Rites. Pope Benedict XVI has made the words of sending forth after the final blessings more missionary. To site just two: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” and “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”

Accept the challenge! Let us affirm and proclaim this ADVENTure in faith and thanksgiving!

2011, AND THE MISSION CONTINUES. . .

Hello, my name is Father Wayne Paysse and I am the Executive Director of the Black and Indian Mission Office in Washington, D.C.  The office is made up of three separate organizations of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.  They are: The Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, established in 1874;  The Black and Indian Mission Collection, established in 1884 and  The Catholic Negro-American Mission Board, established in 1907.  Sometimes in speaking of the office as a whole, we use the term, Black and Indian Mission Office – which is inclusive of all three organizations.

The ministry of the office is to encourage the ongoing diocesan evangelization efforts within the American Indian/indigenous and the African American communities.  We support Black and Indian parishes, missions,  religious education programs, Catholic mission schools, urban ministry, evangelization programs for African Americans and Native Americans and missionaries in these communities.  

I am so pleased that you have joined us as we begin this new cyber adventure of evangelization. The hope is to reach across miles, touch hearts, raise consciousness and stretch to reach down deep within as disciples, friends and missionaries.  I hope we generate a strong sense of faith community in the weeks and months ahead as I share with you my mission travels across the U.S.A. Sometimes you will accompany me to Indian reservations, parishes, urban centers, Alaskan villages and African American and Indian schools.  

The prayerful and financial support of our friends bring people together to worship God in community and to "be there" for one another with their God-given gifts that baptism calls each and every person to discipleship.  Also, by virtue of our baptism, we are missionaries beginning within our families, parishes  and schools.  We worship, serve and love God and community through our religious family, the Roman Catholic Church.  Because Jesus was the first missionary sent from heaven, we follow His example and bear witness to His love.

 

Please be a herald of good news. Help me to spread the word about the Black and Indian Mission Office!  It is 2011 and the Mission continues. . . so come along we'd love to share the experience of the journey with you!