Alberto de la Portilla – Page 100 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Guatemala: News from El Salvador

26 September, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

On the weekend of September 14-16 three members of the CLM community of Guatemala, Mireya Soto, Miriam Herrador and Lily Portillo, together with our adviser, Bro. Humberto Rua, traveled to El Salvador, which is about a five hours drive from here.

The reason? …. Actually there were two and both very important!

First, Aljandro and Ana Cris Camey Figueroa and their four children are there to spend some time of community life, as a preparation for their upcoming departure for Brazil. The CLM community of El Salvador and the MCCJ community have welcomed them and guided them in activities of catechesis, visits, and have supported them in every possible way. They also had the opportunity to do some mission promotion in parishes and on radio. We saw their four children, Esteban, Isabel, Agustín and Lucia, quite enthused and busy in their mission with love and joy.

“EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR THE ADMIRABLE WILL OF GOD, LET US THEREFORE LOVE HIM WITH OUR WHOLE HEART AND PLACE ALL OUR TRUST IN HIM”

St. Daniel Comboni

The second reason was to visit the coordinators of the CLM-PCA of El Salvador, to give them our support. They are in their first year of formation, are well organized and, like in all beginnings, they experience joys and difficulties, doubts and fears. They are very committed people, full of faith and love. As they move forward, let our prayers and everyone’s prayers follow them.

“I FEEL SO TOTALLY FULL OF STRENGTH, COURAGE AND TRUST IN GOD AND IN THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, THAT IAM SURE I I WILL PREVAIL IN EVERYTHING AND BE READY FOR EVEN GREATER CROSSES IN THE FUTURE”

St. Daniel Comboni

We entrust ourselves to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, St. Daniel Comboni, pray for us.

A fraternal embrace from Guatemala

News from Piquiá, Brazil

20 September, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

Greetings friends, hoping you are all well.

We are fine and quite happy, because yesterday was a very special day. Piquiá de Baixo scored another victory, because we finally signed the contract of the second phase of the project of resettlement that makes it possible to begin the building of the new neighborhood. The joy of the moment was contagious and with laughter, hugs and tears hope was revived.

September 17 will remain impressed in our hearts as the day when a dream came closer to becoming reality and, while the journey is still long, people will continue to fight for their rights.

It was a very symbolic day for us, because it coincided with the memorial of Bishop Franco Masserdotti, a Comboni Missionary who was very active in Balsas, a city in the south of Maranhão. He witnessed with his life marked by the defense of human rights and of indigenous people, protecting the family and social justice. He always insisted that, besides giving the poor a fish and teaching them how to fish, it was necessary “to clean the river” contaminated by social injustice.

We thank you for your prayers. Let’s keep in touch.

Liliana and Flávio, CLM Brazil

We let you here a video to contextualize the reality of this people

Maria Augusta Returns to Bangui

19 September, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

Having recently returned to Bangui in early September, after completing her vacation in Portugal, CLM María Augusta, as is her custom, sends us a few lines on what is going on.

Greetings to all! With God’s help I arrived well. On the plane in Casablanca I met Fr. Fratelli, an Italian Comboni Missionary.

Not all went well with the luggage, because one of my bags did not arrive, but it was not the only one. One of the father’s also did not make it, and so it was with several other people. We went to post a claim and we were told that we would get them on Saturday morning.

When I arrived, I found out that Fr. Zé Carlos had died. I am glad I visited him! He was suffering a lot because he had two types of cancer. May the Lord receive his soul in peace!

I am grateful to all the people I contacted in the parishes and for how they welcomed me. May the Lord repay you for all you do for the missionaries, both the prayers and the sharing of your goods, and may He always keep you in his grace.

Thank you all for your generosity!

United in prayer.

Hugs to all

María Augusta, CLM

PS. I just got back from the airport and gratefully all went well. They let us go without opening the luggage. It all came wrapped in plastic to be protected.

Everything was as we packed it, for which I thank the Lord. Everything I carried is something much needed here.

I will still remain in Bangui until Monday.

Hugs and kisses to all

María Augusta

“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13)

18 September, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

How beautiful is the wood sculpture of Africa at the feet of Christ. I allow the gaze of Comboni to penetrate me, to contemplate me. And how much of me fits into that gaze. I remember someone who once told me “it is impossible that it will not penetrate you, and question you.” And I agree every time I see this image of our tireless San Daniel Comboni.

This is the image I contemplate above the altar in the chapel of the MCCJ house in Madrid, where today I will wait until 4:00 PM, when the CLM David will come to get me to go together for the weekend at Arenas de San Pedro, about 100 miles from here. I can’t resist to enter and spend a moment with the Lord. I pray to him for the mission. Not only for my own, but for everyone’s. The mission of those who are about to go. The one of those who stay. Also in separation there is love. It means to leave what we have and earn something better: the freedom of giving ourselves to Christ. Separation is not something simply physical. It means to go out of ourselves on a daily basis. At each moment. It is what I continue to look for today, but that today is becoming more “doable.”

I leave my country looking for the wisdom and the grace I need so that, in the future, I will deposit my gifts in total surrender. So during the next few months I will be in Madrid, with the family I chose, the Comboni Family, for a missiology course. From the beginning, this program inflamed my heart and brightened my eyes, I must confess, just like it is with the anxious waiting of children the day before returning to school. This is what I am grateful for even today before this Africa at the feet of Christ: the opportunity to grow in wisdom and grace.

I know that I am fragile, but in a community that lives of and for love, I feel strong. Because “all I can in Him who comforts me” (Phil 4:13). “All I can in Him who comforts me,” I repeat. It resonates in me. Only in Him and through Him I could be able to go beyond myself, to go to meet love, to be free inasmuch as I trust in Him and in his hands, loving without measure. “God does not choose the able ones, but enables those he chooses.” Today I am understanding this quite well… and I pray to God that he may make me capable in the mission to which I have been assigned. This is for me and for those who are with me. Family. Boyfriend. Friends. People in general. Each in their own right, are part of this mission and I feel the need to bring them along.

“You become responsible forever, for those you have tamed.”

(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

And so it is… I pray for each of them, and for their mission. Pray for me as well, please. From the bottom of my heart, thanks for your trust… Not so much in me, but in God. Everything, including me, we are only possible in Him.

Take, Lord and receive

my freedom,

my memory,

my understanding

and my will,

all that I have and possess;

You gave it to me;

I return it to you, Lord.

Everything is yours,

dispose of it as you wish.

Give me your love and your grace,

and it will be sufficient.

(St. Ignatius of Loyola)

Keep in touch,

CLM Carolina Fiúza

Mission promotion… all the way to Brazil

7 September, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

Dear CLM the world over. With great enthusiasm we share the experiences that lately have filled our hearts with joy, fraternity, unity and energy.

We, the Guatemalan Comboni Lay Missionaries of the Province of Central America, are happy to be involved in the process of commissioning the first missionaries of our community, who are about to leave for a foreign land. They are, as perhaps you already know, our brothers Alejandro and Ana Cris Camey Figueroa who, with their four young children, will soon go to Brazil.

It has been a great adventure for our Guatemalan community, since it is our first experience of this kind. It means that we all feel like we are all going to be sent, and lately we have actively taken part in the search for benefactors, in mission promotion activities in communities and parishes, and above all, we have joined our creativity, talents and efforts to organize the sale of artifacts we made with our own hands, using recyclable material.

We have been producing baskets, bottle-holders, flower pots, dolls, jewelry boxes, candy jars, crucifixes and other things, by recycling paper, cardboard, cans and plastic bags.

As a community, we thank God for all these opportunities stemming from the mission journey of the Camey family, because it has motivated us to get together and become active, thus discovering that together we are a source of mutual support. We have become much more conscious also of the love we share for mission in the style of St. Daniel Comboni.

We wish to see Jesus proclaimed all over, especially in those places where no one wants to go!

Blessed be God!

St. Daniel Comboni, pray for us.

CLM Guatemala