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The Church on Mission. The Church spreading the Gospel, the Good News. This is at the forefront of the Cycle of Prayer as we enter October. The word of the Lord abides for ever. That word is the good news which was preached to you (1 P 1:25). For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (He 4:12).

October is also the month of the Holy Rosary, with the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on the 7th. Our Saint Who pages in this issue therefore focus on “Saints Who Promoted the Rosary”. It was the favourite prayer of Saint John Paul II, whose feast we usually celebrate on 22 October but is eclipsed this year by World Mission Sunday: “The Rosary is a prayer both so humble and simple and so theologically rich in biblical content. I beg you to pray it.” Our own Saint John Henry Newman (9 October) thought it essential too: “It seems so simple and easy, but you know God chooses the small things of the world to humble the great…. Everyone who has practised the devotion knows that there is in it a soothing sweetness that there is in nothing else.”

In May of this year, our regular author Bishop Barron’s ministry Word on Fire launched a “10,000 Rosaries” campaign, calling for Catholics to join them “in praying for the intention that those who have fallen away from their faith may return to the Church with a renewed understanding of God’s love and mercy”. As our Lady is reported to have said to Saint Dominic, “If you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Rosary.” They rapidly exceeded their goal and by the end of the month the figure had skyrocketed to over 63,000—and that was just the ones logged on the website. Think how many must have been prayed since then. “The Church on Mission” indeed.