I have called you by name

Anonymous


“I have called you by name.” (Is. 45:4b)

October 19 was Mission Sunday in the Catholic Church. The priest spoke about mission, missionaries and martyrs from centuries past. I asked myself, “what is our mission today and who are our missionaries and martyrs?” One need not go to a foreign land to be a missionary because the mission can be in our own country, city, church, neighborhood or family. Right here, right now there are people who need to hear the message of God’s love and to hear God call them by name. I thought especially about LGBT people whose lives have been brutally ended. They too were missionaries and martyrs who lost their lives for living and speaking the truth. I thought of people who witness the LGBT experience and God’s love even in the midst of physical and emotional threat. They face great opposition, mean-spiritedness, rejection, and hatred. These missionaries live and bring the message of God’s inclusive and unconditional love. They live and bring God’s words, “I have called you by name”.


“We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers,

unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in

hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, knowing, brothers/sisters

loved by God, how you were chosen. For our gospel did not come to you in word

alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and (with) much conviction.”

1 Thessalonians 1:2-5a


Let us remember and honor our LGBT Martyrs and Missionaries. Let us pray for those who continue this mission of witness, this “labor of love” that they will be safe in body and mind. Let us pray so that we may live and believe what God has said, “I have called you by name”.

…..but for now I must sign

Anonymous