World Mission Sunday is about continuing Christ’s call to bring the Good News to all nations

UPDATED 11-10-2025

Just before the Ascension, when Jesus returned to his father in heaven, he commissioned his apostles to go out into the world and spread the Good News.

PHOTO GALLERY: 2025 World Mission Sunday Mass

And to this day, it is the responsibility of all the baptized to carry on that “great commission of spreading the Gospel to all nations” as modern-day missionary disciples, Father Peter James Alindogan said during the diocesan World Mission Sunday Mass on Oct. 19.

Father Alindogan noted there are many ways people serve as missionaries. Some had left their homes to serve in foreign lands; others serve quietly in local communities; those like St. Francis Xavier and St. Teresa of Calcutta, who are known throughout the world, and those who are known only to God.

“World Mission Sunday is not only about them. It’s about all of us,” he said.

“God may not send us across oceans but he sends us into the everyday mission fields of our lives – our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our neighborhoods,” Father Alindogan said. “Each encounter is an opportunity to witness Christ, sometimes through words but often through compassion, patience and mercy.”

Father Alindogan, diocesan director of missions, was principal celebrant and homilist of the Mass in St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral, Freehold. He was joined at the altar by Father Habib Akpata, director of vocations of the American Province of the Society of African Missions, and other priests of the Diocese. Other missionaries in the congregation included Sylvia Allen of Sylvia’s Children, a Holmdel-based organization that provides outreach to children in Uganda; Sister Ifeoma Onwjdinjo, who hails from Nigeria and is a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, and Susan Wallace, director of Outreach to Haiti in the Diocese of Norwich in Connecticut.

While reflecting on the day’s Gospel, Father Alindogan said its core message is about Jesus teaching “us to pray always and not lose heart.”

“But it also speaks to our missionary call to keep believing, loving and sharing our faith, even when the world seems indifferent,”

“When Jesus said, ‘Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,’ he gave his followers a mission that requires both prayer and perseverance. From that moment, the Church has never stopped going forth – proclaiming the Gospel, serving the poor, healing the sick and bringing Christ’s love to every corner of the world.”

Missionary representatives from left, Susan Wallace, Sister Ifeoma Onwudinjo and Sylvia Allen share conversation following the Mass.