Poland – Page 9 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

We are in Ethiopia!

24 January, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

A few days ago we arrived to Addis Ababa. Magda is with us – she helps us in getting to know the city in these first days. Our time has been quite intensive. After a few first days of adjustment and getting to know Addis Ababa we started our Amharic course. It is good that after a short course in Poland we know some basics of the language. Thanks to that we can go on with the course faster and we don’t need to spend time on getting to know the alphabet.

We have met many interesting people and visited many places in the capital city. Among others, we were in the center for street children run by Salesians as well as in the house of Mother Teresa of Kolkatta. We met with the cardinal, who blessed us for our missionary work. We also took part in the celebration of Timket (baptism of Jesus), which is celebrated in Ethiopia very solemnly.

Tobiasz and Adela CLM in Ethiopia

“Christmas Eve” Polish CLM meeting

21 December, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

On 16-18th December we had our last formation meeting in 2016.

It was very extraordinary time. The main topic for this weekend was “Community”.

On Friday, after the supper, we had some introduction, and we talked a little bit about the components of CLM community. We looked closer at this issue on Saturday during some workshops conducted by Alberto de Portilla – our CLM International Coordinator from Spain.

During our Bible lesson with Sister Joanna, we were analysing Haggai Book. Israel as “exclusive People” needed to cooperate, live as a community and trust God in order to rebuild their Temple.

In the evening, there was a time for the Christmas Eve dinner. After reading story about Jesus’ birth from the Holy Bible, we shared a special wafer when exchanging Christmas greetings. After that, we started to eat delicious Christmas food: croquettes with beetroot soup, dumplings with dried plums, a lot of gingerbreads and some traditional food from Silesia (administrative part of Poland) – “moczka”. It was also a time for the Christmas presents, it was a lot of fun and joy for all of us.

Late evening we started vigil in the Chapel, praying for all the continent in many different languages, having a special prayer for all the missionaries spread all over the World, and at midnight we participated in traditional Mass called “Pasterka”.

On Sunday, during the Comboni lesson we explored St. Daniel Comboni’s attitude regarding community and participation of everyone in the missions through the study of his Plan for the regeneration of Africa.
Jesus is born every day, we just need to be courageous enough to notice it and accept Him in our hearts!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

CLM Poland

Passing through Bangui

13 December, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

We arrived in Bangui to meet Irene, a CLM coming from Kinshasa. She is from the Democratic Republic of Congo group and will stay with us for about a month. A very charming person. May God allow us to give her a good missionary experience and an unforgettable one for her.

We brought along one of the orphans to whom we feed maternal milk. Her name is Mervelle (Wonder) and she weighed around 4 pounds at birth. She is now five months old, is growing normally and weighs in at 11 pounds, but by December 2 she had lost over a pound and the grandmother said that she had diarrhea. We immediately sent her to the UNT and she was admitted. She was undernourished, and had a fever on a daily basis… Both the director of the hospital and Tenda, another medical colleague, thought that she may suffer from meningitis, so on Wednesday we decided to transfer her to Bangui.

We reached Emergency, an Italian NGO working in the pediatric division of the hospital in Bangui, on Friday around noon and left at four. She was checked from top to bottom and x-rays of her lungs were taken. In the end, Mervelle, our Wonder, was admitted to the ICU for pneumonia, and with symptoms of meningitis, anemia and malaria.

They immediately started to give her oxygen. It was difficult to get enough of her blood for analysis. May God help her to recover quickly, if it is his will! May he watch over her. Today is Sunday and, thanks be to God, a nurse told us that she is doing better.

On December 8 we celebrated the closing of the Year of Mercy with the participation of the entire parish. The Eucharist was very lengthy and lasted three hours, but everyone was happy. At 6:00 in the morning we said the rosary, accompanied by many songs, as we took the image of Mary in procession through the communities of Mongoumba. The faces of our people were glowing with joy and with devotion to our Heavenly Mother.

The Family Jubilee was a success. We held catechesis for both parents and their children. It was good to see the parents and their children take part in the Eucharist together, because they usually do it separately. After Mass, each couple went out looking for a couple that was not married in Church, taking upon themselves the responsibility to catechize them and prepare them to receive the sacrament.

We also want everyone to know that now we have a new car! We thank the Comboni Missionaries of six provinces who shared with us the donations of their benefactors. We are grateful to God who gave them the inspiration to help us, to show solidarity and love.

Do not forget to pray for us. We pray for you.

WE WISH YOU ALL A HOLY CHRISTMAS AND A GOOD 2017 FILLED PEACE, JOY AND MUCH LOVE.

Hugs and kisses from the CLM Anna and Maria Augusta

Mongoumba, CAR

Promoting “Comboni Friends”

9 December, 20167 December, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

In Ethiopia, we are planning to revitalize the group of Comboni Friends and maybe later through this group also find some vocations for the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM).

Last weekend it has been a good occasion for vocation promotion. We celebrated the Feast of Christ the King (two weeks later than the rest of the Catholic World).

The main celebrations took place in the cathedral of Addis Ababa. There was 2-days of special program. Saturday started with exhibitions of different congregations and lay movements; we were presented our CLM.

There was also a spiritual time – on Saturday adoration, prayers, conferences and confessions; – on Sunday: the solemn Holy Mass in the geez rite.

It was a really nice time of prayer & meetings with the people, some of them showed also interest to get to know our group better. So pray for all of us that, if it’s God’s will, the group starts and will grow well 🙂

CLM Ethiopia

Time of sadness – time of joy

14 November, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Last days went by with these two ambivalent feelings. Moments of sadness interspersed with moment of great joy- this because of our children.

On All Soul’s Day we attended the Mass which was celebrated on the local cemetery situated near our St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Gulu. After the Mass we went with our children to pray at the tomb of our small Angel-as we used to call Moses, who died 6 months ago. After prayer we covered the tomb with flowers which we’d picked from the tree growing in St. Jude Children’s Home.

Here The Day of All Saints is a day of great joy- in this special day children receive sacraments of baptism, First Communion and even Confirmation. The Mass in the Cathedral is pretty long- 4 or 5 hours, because there are for example 150 children to be baptized. Anyway we are in Africa, so the length of the Mass is normal, and good that our Cathedral is big and long so all people can enter. After receiving all sacraments all people gathered in the church, lift up their hand and candles and shout loudly to show their happiness. At the beginning, I was very surprised that the day, which in Poland is a calm day of reflection and prayer, here in Gulu is a one of the most happiest day. But when during the Confirmation each candidate reads the name of Patron out you get the feeling that All Saints gather in one place- beautiful experience, unforgettable.

Children from our Orphanage received the sacraments of Baptism and First Communion earlier- on October 28^th– memory of St. Jude, who is a Patron of our Orphanage. Children from both schools- Nursery and Primary, all workers, orphans and friends of our Orphanage met under the big tree to celebrate the Mass. Seven our children have been baptized and eight children first time received Holy Communion. It was a very joyful day for all of us. Children who received First Communion were in different age, between 10 and 16. None of them asked about toys or super gifts. All of them were prepared well by our catechist.

I came back to Uganda 5 months ago- I already live according to my routine, which is different from the one which I had 2 years ago. Now, the majority of my time I spend with children. In the morning with babies and disabled, in the afternoon with children from Primary 1,2,3 and children from Nursery School. But many different people who come to our house break our daily routine, for what we are very grateful. Some of them come for short time- like Peter- our Lay Comboni Missionary from Poland or for longer like David- Comboni Lay Missionary from Spain, who came for more than one month. Also meetings with Comboni Family, during the feast like on October 10th- the Feast of Comboni or just simple accidental meetings on the street, in the town or in the church. All these meetings give us a lot of joy and positive energy. So if someone plans to come to Uganda for a few days or maybe for longer, remember that our house is always open and you are welcome.

Greetings for everybody!!!!

Ewa, CLM in Gulu (Uganda)