Dear Comboni Lay Missionaries and all the People of God.
The mission continues! For the past three months, I have been on mission in Piquiá, Açailândia, in the state of Maranhão, where I work at the Rural Family Home (CFR), which serves students in their first, second, and third years of high school—mostly the children of farmers who, in addition to theoretical instruction, learn hands-on skills in agriculture, vegetable gardening, fruit growing, fish farming, animal husbandry, and beekeeping.
I see this as very important and necessary work so that our young people can continue to live on the land and provide for their families.
On weekends, I’m joining the activities of the Santa Luzia Parish in Piquiá, and will soon begin to get involved in pastoral work.
I always count on the prayers of each one of you to give me the strength to continue on this journey.
We’re happy to share a brief account of our departure from Guatemala and arrival in Brazil.
We started last year with the confirmation of our departure, and with that came the documents from Brazil to process our visa—and then the complications began: our vehicles broke down, many of our household appliances failed, work piled up, and our parents fell ill. Amidst a storm, we reached January without knowing the exact departure date. We bought the tickets and had to change them for a month later because the visa hadn’t come through. While we waited, the visa arrived, and a day later we traveled to Brazil.
How comforting it is to know there is a community waiting for you; the prayers of our community and those who welcome us help sustain us. Without a doubt, the first impression is a shock—even though we know the culture, language, and customs, it always hits you head-on, and stepping out of your comfort zone stirs your very core. You remember the beautiful things, the glorious moments, the joys, but in that instant you remember the difficulties, the lack, what you leave behind, and you turn back to God because only He can sustain you.
We arrived to work… getting off the plane and preparing a topic to share at a parish women’s gathering. We found the roof broken and in need of repair, because it rains more inside the house than outside—dampness and other issues—and thank God, Cristina had already cleaned the house, which had been empty for seven months. The car broke down three times, and we’ve only just begun!
With great effort and joy, we cleaned and repaired the two houses to welcome the laypeople who are going through their discernment process to become CLM of Brazil during Holy Week, and amidst these trials, we managed to get our children started on their studies.
Today, after settling in, establishing a routine, and beginning to work on parish activities, we feel more at peace and have a clearer sense of purpose.
We have resumed activities at the Comboni House, a small group of us, a house that carries out social and human development work in the region. We started with the women’s crafts group and are in the process of integrating other educational and community service activities into the house, as it has been closed for a long time.
We are accompanying two communities that are somewhat struggling and short-staffed; we have begun working with the neighborhood association and we are waiting for their issues to be resolved so we can start Spanish and English classes. Meanwhile, we have already begun premarital catechesis, meetings with the family ministry, and accompanying the Comboni spirituality group.
We are getting to know the place again, reconnecting with the people. It brings us joy and strength when they greet us warmly, and above all, it presents us with a great challenge: to do our work well for the glory of God. The provincial came to visit us, which undoubtedly gave us even more encouragement to move forward and organize together the work to be done as a Comboni family.
We celebrated these three months with the Feast of Corpus Christi and the parish festival of Los Centinelas, a time for fellowship, sharing, and encouraging the community.
There are many emotions, sorrows, longings, and reunions; every missionary needs time to calm the spirit, to settle into the mission field, to find clarity of mind and heart. We love to work and be with people, to accompany them and evangelize them, but above all to be witnesses to God’s love.
May St. Daniel Comboni continue to intercede for each of us, for all his missionaries, and may the upcoming celebration, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, be a time of unity for the entire Comboni family, which struggles with daily challenges, precariousness, and so many other problems that Comboni himself endured.
On Holy Thursday, we dedicated our morning for a moment of prayer at the home of a family from the Ipê community. We prayed together and reflected on the text written by Valdeci regarding CF 2026.
Afterward, we took a walk, observing the glaring contradictions around us.
Ipê Amarelo is a neighborhood born out of the organization of homeless families who used to pay rent. It is a story of the struggle to secure housing in the 1990s, when, through much struggle and resistance, they moved from living in tents to their own homes. But it is also bordered by a large wall that marks social inequality, for behind the walls, guarded by security guards, lies one of the most luxurious condominiums in the region. Visiting the families was a time to listen to their stories, learn about their joys and challenges, and experience the community’s characteristic hospitality.
In the evening, we participated in the foot-washing ceremony at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida Community, a beautiful moment that reminded us that “we are the church of shared bread, of embrace, and of peace.”
On the Wednesday of Holy Week, we visited the Brumadinho Memorial, a place of remembrance and “a victory for the families of the 272 victims of the Córrego do Feijão mine dam collapse, which occurred on 25 January 2019 in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais”.
This was a visit that made us stop and ask ourselves: “What are we doing to our planet?” We left deeply affected by the history of the place, the trail of destruction left by mining, and the feeling that whilst places may change, the destructive practice of the current model of exploitation remains the same in many places. Affected communities, the loss of lives, the destruction of rivers and entire ecosystems, and a deep sense of impunity.
Before and After the Breakup – Source – Correio Braziliense
Everything we saw, heard and felt made us reflect on the need to deepen our understanding of the Spirituality of Integral Ecology, which reconnects us with our common home, with our brothers and sisters, and reminds us that everything is interconnected.
The 2026 Fraternity Campaign invites us to reflect on one of the most profound truths of the Christian faith: “He came to dwell among us” (John 1:14). The prologue of John’s Gospel reveals the heart of the mystery of the Incarnation. God did not remain distant from human reality. The Word became flesh, took on our condition, entered history, and chose to dwell in the midst of humanity. He did not come as a passing visitor, but as one who decided to share the life, the sufferings, and the hopes of his people.
The Incarnation is, therefore, God’s great gesture of closeness. In Jesus, God draws near to wounded humanity, especially to those living on the margins: the poor, the excluded, and those forgotten by society. Christ is born into a simple reality, grows up among the little ones, walks with those who suffer, and proclaims a Kingdom where the least are placed at the center. This logic of the Gospel breaks with the mentality of power and indifference, and reveals a God who chooses closeness, compassion, and service.
This perspective deeply illuminates Comboni missionary spirituality. Inspired by St. Daniel Comboni, the missionaries are called to make the same movement as Jesus: to go out to meet, to live among, and to walk alongside the poorest. Comboni understood that mission does not take place from a position of superiority or distance, but through the concrete sharing of life with those most in need. His missionary dream was clear: to save Africa with Africa itself, valuing the peoples, their cultures, and their dignity.
Within this logic, Comboni lay missionaries play an essential role. They bear witness that mission is not exclusive to religious or priests, but is a vocation of the entire People of God. The lay missionary is one who, immersed in daily life—at work, in the family, in the community—becomes a living presence of the Gospel. He embraces mission as a way of life, bringing the presence of Christ to places where the institutional Church often cannot reach.
The Incarnation teaches us that God does not transform the world from a distance. He commits himself to human reality. In the same way, Comboni lay missionaries are called to dwell in the existential peripheries, to draw near to the sufferings of humanity, and to build concrete signs of hope. Being with the poor is not merely an act of social solidarity, but a profound dimension of the Christian faith. In the faces of the poor and vulnerable, we encounter Christ himself, who continues to challenge us.
In this sense, the theme of the 2026 Fraternity Campaign, “He came to dwell among us,” also becomes an invitation to every Christian: to allow Christ to continue dwelling in the world through our actions. When we draw near to those who suffer, when we share life with the forgotten, when we fight so that all may have dignity, we are extending God’s presence in the midst of humanity.
For where life is defended, where dignity is restored, and where the poor are welcomed, there God continues to dwell among us.
Valdeci Antônio Ferreira – CLM Brazil
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