Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - St. Francis Xavier SJ

                                    Xavier the Missionary

Providence arranged for Francis Xavier to become the first Jesuit missionary and he became the greatest missionary the Church has known since apostolic times. From Lisbon to Goa, through Cochin, Travancore, Kanya Kumari, Mylapore to Malaya and Japan, he reached where the most daring of merchants, sailors and adventurers had and desired to go even further. He had no gift of tongues and worked no miracles, but he achieved such results because he was himself a miracle, a living miracle people could see and admire and which drew them irresistibly to his Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

LET US PRAY:  Lord God, our Father, you have accorded to India the privilege of being evangelized by St. Francis Xavier and keeping his mortal remains as a pledge of your blessings. As we cherish his memory and are proud to have him as our father in the faith, stir in our hearts the zeal that inflamed his, and grant to numbers of our young people the legacy of his missionary spirit to win Asia and our world for God. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.