“Go and invite everyone to the party!”| World Children’s Mission Day
On the day of Epiphany, children and youth around the world have an important appointment: the GMMR
It is World Mission Day for Boys, which, thanks to the widespread activities of the Pontifical Work of Missionary Childhood (POIM), takes place on all five continents.
The Work, recognized as pontifical by Pope Pius XI in 1922, was born on May 19, 1843 thanks to an idea of Monsignor Charles de Forbin Janson who, after meeting with Pauline Jaricot, founder of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith, began to propose to children “a Hail Mary a day and a penny a month.”
For the first times, the recipients were their Chinese peers, but later the initiative was extended to all little ones in need; therefore, today, as then, the little ones are called to become missionaries among their brothers and sisters near and far.
The task is not only to give an offering for the needs of the poorest, but also to pray and proclaim Jesus.
In Italy, the Missio Ragazzi secretariat and team, in the wake of the World Mission Day slogan, have titled the 2025 GMMR “Go and invite everyone to the party!” For that is what it is all about; a party that no one can miss, where everyone can be called and welcomed, and feel like children of one Father.
With the motto “children help children,” POIM invites little missionaries to join the proposed projects, with an offering that will reach the Universal Solidarity Fund of the Pontifical Missionary Works (FUIS) and give the less fortunate the opportunity to eat, study, care, etc.
New this year, in Italy, is the proposal “Un Rosario e un soldino per…” (A Rosary and a penny for…): each child is entrusted with a continent to pray for and then asked to support the project, even with their own little savings. The Rosary Chaplet, handmade for this occasion in the 5 colors of the continents (Africa, Asia, America, Oceania and Europe), can be requested from the following email address (ragazzi@missioitalia.it) with a minimum contribution of €2.50.
Happy Epiphany to all, with the hope that the little ones, with their works of mercy addressed to their peers all over the world, can, in their simplicity, transmit the example to adults.