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Magazine

Spirit of Mission

Spirit of Mission: Great Bridge to Unity

By Joseph Veneroso, M.M. | December 1, 2025
Last May 8 is destined to become one of those “Where were you when ... ?” moments. As white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel and joy erupted at the words Habemus papam! I was sitting outside having lunch when Maryknoll’s bells joined the chorus ringing out from churches around the world. We had an hour to wait to learn who would be the 267t...
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Spirit of Mission: Is AI Good News?

By Joseph Veneroso, M.M. | September 2, 2025
The white smoke had barely stopped billowing from the roof of the Sistine Chapel on May 8 when posts began to blitz the internet. One “meme” video showed Pope Leo XIV in papal finery. His Holiness declared that “woke” meant waking up to others’ suffering and that Christians should speak out in the face of injustice. These beautiful sentim...
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Spirit of Mission: Too Many Saviors?

By Joseph Veneroso, M.M. | June 2, 2025
Let’s be blunt about it. We see many Christians today flooding the news and social media with interpretations of Christianity that directly contradict Jesus’ teachings and proclaim other saviors of Western civilization. The late Irish actor Richard Harris grappled with a similar situation in his poem titled “There Are Too Many Saviors on My C...
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Spirit of Mission: Christ Our Light

By Joseph Veneroso, M.M. | March 3, 2025
In the Book of Genesis, the first thing God creates is light. Not so God can see, but rather so that we can. The Bible and all of Creation will reveal God. Light illumines everything. Without it, nothing is visible. Yet light itself is invisible! It must be reflected off of something. But for the full miracle of light to be experienced, one more th...
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Spirit of Mission: The Thought that Counts

By Joseph Veneroso, M.M. | December 2, 2024
A rabbi was giving a workshop on Scripture to Maryknollers in Africa some years ago. As part of his visit, the missioners showed him around Tanzania: Mt. Kilimanjaro, wildlife in the Serengeti, and of course, the wonderful hospitality of a Tanzanian family. As they sat down to dinner, Father John Sivalon, who was Maryknoll’s regional superior for...
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A large, colorful, hand painted picture of Jesus hangs on the side of a wooden building.

Spirit of Mission: On Finding Jesus

By Joseph Veneroso, M.M. | June 3, 2024
"Who do you say that I am?” If you could go back to the time of Jesus, what would you see? The first challenge, of course, would be figuring out which one was Jesus. He wouldn’t be wearing the bright white, red and blue robes portrayed on holy cards. He would be wearing the same faded cotton or linen robes as everyone else. Without a halo, he...
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