October is a special month for the entire Church because the Synodal Assembly will take place in Rome. And “when the Church is in Synod,” the Pope reminds us, “this synodal dynamic alone carries its missionary vocation forward.”

“Mission is at the heart of the Church,” Pope Francis says in the video that accompanies his prayer intention, created and produced by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. “Through prayer and discernment, the Holy Spirit helps us carry out the ‘apostolate of the ear’ that is, listening with God’s ears in order to speak with the word of God.”

Since the Synod is “a journey,” its objective is “to reach out to everyone, to seek everyone, to welcome everyone, to involve everyone, without excluding anyone.”