Mexico – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Easter time

16 April, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

To transform our reality by sharing the good is to live a constant Easter, the missionary life is a constant breath on what Easter is, it gives us the opportunity to know the life of people in realities different from ours and to discover other challenges of humanity. In the places that we are sent to, known in the Church as places of FIRST EVANGELIZATION, if we are attentive we can meet God, discover that his LOVE is a constant in OUR LIFE, know that we can all feel his presence and give of what he gives us to those we meet every day or those he entrusts to us in the mission. It makes, from a greeting, a sweet, food, rest, games, skills, prayer, living together, accompanying, serving, simply a smile… In the middle of two languages that separate us and united by the desire to know God more, to know what Jesus Christ taught us and to receive the sacraments. I was able to experience all this in Xacundutia. A place where time moves slowly and you can give yourself the opportunity to take a DEEP breath.

Xacundutia is one of the seven communities that were entrusted to us CLM in Mexico. It belongs to the parish of San Miguel Arcángel, in the Mixteca zone of the diocese of Tlapa, Gro. We visited the parish during Holy Week to experience with the people these days that are so significant for us as Catholics. It is to rediscover a way of life, where in order to have the basics one has to work every day, in the fields, in the house, in most of the occasions to emigrate for seasons to get more. THERE ARE MANY LIMITATIONS EVEN FOR EVANGELIZATION. Knowing that there are places where it is still difficult for the word of God to reach for various reasons commits us to be available to help as much as possible from our lay vocation in this area.

In our assembly we began the reflection on having a continuous presence, we accepted to open the mission again in this area to work with the people, in their integral development, where we can all make our contribution. We have already taken the first step, where we have noted the challenges that exist, God help us to be aware and available to give the best of each one and support this concrete reality. Starting from what we have and being sincere in what we have to be able to bring a favorable response to the desire to have the word of God in the community and make possible the construction of His Kingdom in the Mixtec area, identifying the cultural richness, the appreciation of the handicrafts they make, the care of the environment and supporting learning with school reinforcement, they are the protagonists of their own growth and development.

Beatriz, CLM Mexico

Towards the mission

7 March, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

Last February 3 and 4, the Mexican CLM held our National Assembly 2024 in Monterrey, N. L. The topics discussed were commitment, belonging, missionary animation and economy.

The dynamic was very revitalizing, it helped the integration of the group. The topics discussed reaffirmed our vocation as CLM, being that missionary disciple in constant integral formation where Christ is the center of his life and in this intimate connection he can give himself to others in the mission entrusted to him.

The meditation was focused on the identity as CLM to be an authentic witness of Christ, recognizing the evangelizing mission, being the salt of the world, for this we must work in social fraternity, transforming the reality of death that we can find in the spaces of our environment, being people generators of life, sensitive to the human needs of the community where we are, rescuing the dignity and freedom of people.

All this helped us to be aware of the team work that we must do to be good missionary animators and to be able to add up to a healthy economy where we all give of what we have to make possible the maintenance of the mission.

In it we committed ourselves as groups and individually to prepare everything for the next sending of some of our members who are already available to leave for the mission ad gentes. Thanks to all the participants, benefactors and MCCJ who supported to make this meeting possible.

Congratulations, CLM! May the fruits continue at the foot of the Cross for the glory of God.

CLM MEXICO

People who change history

29 November, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Today our economy is threatened by the constant changes in the world, in fact, I can not explain what people think when they hear the phrase, THE NEW WORLD ORDER, all this makes people sometimes stop to help the disadvantaged in our present, others continue their lives as usual.

I am Beatriz Maldonado Sanchez, a Mexican who works in a school in Sahuayo, my city, where the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus arrived 70 years ago; at the moment I have a year that I am following the accounts of the international economy of the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) movement, we have already been able to have a formation that helps us to have tools to generate the economic resources that we need in the CLM missionary project; but I still realize that nowadays the challenge is great, so I see that it is necessary to leave indifference to the situation and do simple things that make a difference in our economic reality.

As it was the case of the child Angel SUPPORTED me in the proposal to run a “CANDY STORE” for a month in the school where I work, to collect money and send it to the mission where the laity work; this is how we got 100 euros that we sent to the Central Committee so they can send to the group of Comboni Lay Missionaries who are in Mozambique and thus be able to support the activity of bringing food to the most disadvantaged.

Fortunately we also have people like Carmita Espinoza an Ecuadorian friend who knows our movement and she DONATED 20 euros for the international expenses that are generated, this is how we can join efforts when they are the work of different hands that contribute and their collaboration make that TODAY WE CAN BE COMMUNICATED, because they were placed in the international box that today is in crisis. So if you want to help in this project we invite you to get in touch from our official website or send a WhatsApp message to your servant at +52 5515 052 960, be part of this great construction for the Kingdom of God.

We can all give something that makes a difference and make history continue to be constructive in the face of challenging scenarios, all this is possible when you let yourself be conquered by the Love of God that can do anything.

Beatriz Maldonado, CLM Mexico

WYD Portugal 2023 and CONAJUM Morelia Mexico 2023

14 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Two congresses with the same objective.

I am referring to the World Youth Day (WYD) Portugal 2023, an experience lived with members of my family and friends that I met along the way; as well as the National Missionary Congress in Morelia Mexico CONAJUM. There I had the opportunity to meet again with friends, bishops from different parts of the world and the country, lay missionaries from other institutes and young people eager to discover their vocation. Not to mention the sharing and teamwork with my Comboni Family where priests, sisters, seculars and lay people were able to listen to each other and support each other. That is why I thank Pope Francis and the Pontifical Mission Societies for inviting us to continue to be part of this project that Jesus Christ inherited from us, the building of his Kingdom.

These events are spaces where our Catholic Church allows young people to meet Jesus Christ through a number of activities where prayer helps them to have a personal encounter with Him; common themes for their growth, pilgrimages that create bonds of friendship, sharing to reach agreements, knowledge of other cultures, forums, concerts, marches, as well as being able to tour the City of Joy in the vocational fair where the encounter with the variety of missionary charisms of the church allow them to know different realities that sensitize them to the needs of others.

It is inexplicable the common experience of praying, listening to stories, laughing, suffering, singing, dancing, crying, struggling, communicating, sleeping, dreaming, admiring, breathing, in the same place embracing the LOVE OF GOD.

All this diminishes any problem or worry because we know that God loves us and protects us by giving us that time to heal any wound and choose what is good for our life, just as we are and where we are. These words fill us with hope to continue walking our path with the confidence that in the falls GOD will help us to get up and in the achievements he will teach us to share them, the communion that these encounters generate gives us the strength to return to our reality and look for the way to give life where there is death.

The central message of Pope Francis to the youth gives us as missionaries the courage to take the Gospel to all the realities that this world presents to us in communion with the bishops. These words that help us to know how to continue in our reality, are the key to make the Gospel come alive. To open our arms and welcome with Love our brothers and sisters who need us is the legacy that Jesus Christ has bequeathed to us. Let us leave indifference behind and act with coherence; because we can all do something to change our reality of death that haunts us today.

I invite you dear brothers and sisters to discover God’s plan in our lives so that leaving behind our fears we can embark on the journey of the mission betting on Justice Peace Integrity of Creation JPIC and the Values of the Kingdom of God.

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Beatriz Maldonado Sanchez, CLM

Taking care of our health

10 July, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Health Care Formation Course for the CLM of Mexico.

The Comboni Lay Missionaries of Mexico are grateful for the course of Formation for Health Care through Biomagnetism that took place from June 24 to 30 at the Oasis House of the Comboni Missionaries in Guadalajara. Elías Arroyo Román, Comboni Missionary and a medical doctor, and Claudia Araujo Facilitator, who shared their knowledge and experience with us.

To fix our gaze only on a transcendent God far from human reality, or to look at man only from science as an organic and material being, are two reductionist visions that threaten the integral wellbeing of man. Health care brings, from the data of divine revelation to the medical mission, the essential values and criteria of valuation that bring health professionals closer to an authentic humanization of health services.

The formation of CLM in health care, together with the practices of love for the neighbor, is to transcend the community work in health services to be able to recognize God in the other, especially in those who suffer and need comfort through each of the spaces of medical care in the mission to which we are sent as simple as it may seem; it is necessary and of utmost importance; having humanization as the fundamental axis of being and doing in the health care of our needy brothers and sisters.

Rocío Adelina Quintero Hernández