Quite often, when I am visiting schools or parishes, speaking to groups about the missionary work of the Church and the need for everyone to take responsibility for it, I hear the same feedback: I have so little. How can I make a difference when the problems are so large?



My first response is simple -- we can all pray, daily, for missionaries and the people they serve.



It has been a great privilege for me to travel to many mission sites around the world as I do my job and when I ask missionaries anywhere what I can do for them, to a person, their answer is always the same: Pray for us.



As Pope Francis recently said, "Prayer is the bread of faith."



Of course, missionaries have material needs as well as spiritual ones; you may be surprised at the difference that even the smallest contribution can make to their work. For that reason, I encourage everyone I meet to regularly use our spiritual enrollments, especially at Christmas. Our special Christmas enrollment greeting cards are offered for $5.



Many of us spend so much more on secular greeting cards; perhaps their verses do not quite express exactly what we want to say to the person to whom we are sending it. Imagine if with every card you send, your message said, "You are so special to me that I've asked thousands of missionaries to pray for you!"

The person receiving the card becomes enrolled as a member in The Society for the Propagation of the Faith and shares in the intention of 15,000 Masses said over the period of one year by priests in the missions as well as a daily Mass said at the Vatican.



And how does $5 help a missionary's work?

-- Twelve disabled elderly in Haiti are fed at a mission clinic

-- Six children in Zambia are vaccinated against polio

-- Three people suffering from cholera in India will receive life-saving IV fluids

-- Seventy-five children in Ecuador will have pencils for school

-- A child in Pakistan is introduced to psycho-social counseling at a Church-run center



To order our Christmas enrollment cards or to see our variety of everyday five- and ten-year leatherette, padded enrollment folders, go to www.propfaithboston.org/enrollments, email dmanigat@propfaithboston.org, or call 617-542-1776. Your friends and relatives, living and deceased, are eligible for membership, and with it, the prayers of grateful missionaries.



- Maureen Crowley Heil is Director of Programs and Development for the Pontifical Mission Societies, Boston.