Alberto de la Portilla – Page 182 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Gathering in Trujillo 2015 (CLM-Peru national meeting)

2 March, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

On 20, 21 and 22 in the city of Trujillo (northern Peru) was conducted the national 2105 CLM meeting. This meeting is held once a year and is nationwide.

It is a time where all CLM in Peru, including foreigners, share experiences on our missionary work: ad-gentes, mission fields, pastoral and missionary animation.

Thanks to the host’s MCCJ Community in Trujillo, the CLM could happily share part of our lives with our CLM brothers of Trujillo and his advisor Fr. José Chinguel. We have no lack of opportunities for prayer, reflection, discussion and sharing on the daily work of the missionary lay life.

On this occasion, we work under the framework of “the conclusions of Guatemala” from which we could make our proposals integrating them within our priorities for this year and the next one. We went to the meeting CLM from Lay Lima 8 and 7 from Trujillo. Unfortunately, some brothers could not attend due to various circumstances. We also have the presence of Anna, a young German missionary who serves in Arequipa. At this meeting we reach specific conclusions for this year aimed to achieve our objectives and goals together as one community of Comboni Lay Missionaries of Peru.

Why this gathering?

It is my third national meeting as CLM and once again reaffirms my missionary vocation. It is a joy to know I am not alone but with me there are others who feel the same call to serve in the periphery. Each testimony has been for me a conviction that we are on track. And the best is that the Lord was present, inspiring and directing our work.

This experience, in which we have gathered to share our life, our joys and why not also our difficulties, is the experience with the Brother, hear and be pleasant host, but with Jesus who calls us to share as a community that has one heart.

This space where everyone comes as he (she) is, with dreams, encouragement, but also weak and with fears, have made us been able to see ourselves reflected in the other. It was an appropriate time to deepen and reflect our missionary being.

Rocio Gamarra CLM – Lima

Aspirants CLM meeting in Ghana

25 February, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

We held our meeting this 14th Feb. We first have a talk on Comboni Spirituality which was presented by our Spiritual Director Fr Godwin Kornu. First of all, he showed us the books that can help us in our journey: The Writings of Comboni, The passion of a life of Don Lozano, We the Heirs of Francesco Pierli. He then explained the word Spirituality by the way a person experiences God, him or herself and the world he/she is part of. The spirituality must be shaped by Christ but it is influenced by the time and our environment. And talking about the spirituality of a person demands to pass through the life, the history of the person, the way he experiences God. And this experience of an individual is unique. Father led us to discover that the “loving heart is a suffering heart” and “what is good is not relative” which means what is good cannot be determined by a tradition or a culture. What is good is good by itself. The relativism is one of the points that the Pope Emeritus Benedict condemned lots. (The theme is very broad so for now it is just an introduction).

After the presentation, we moved on for some discussions. The minutes of the last meeting was read and few corrections made. From the matters arisen, we agreed to levy ourselves with an amount which can be paid from now up to the next second meeting. At last, we decided to have a recollection on the 14^th March to redo ourselves in the Lenten Season. The meeting was then moved to closure with prayer and benediction. After this, we had an agape.

Justin Nougnui, coordinator.

“I was in prison and you came to visit me”

23 February, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

Among the various pastoral activities of the parish of Santo Domingo, led by the Comboni Missionaries in Nova Contagem, it is also the prison ministry, in charge of 15 volunteers, including the Comboni Lay Missionaries, which are part of the parish.

Every Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the group meets to visit the pavilions of the maximum-security prison of Nelson Hungria, located in Nova Contagem, with about 2,000 inmates. The meeting is at 08:00 in the square next to the prison.

The prison situation in Brazil, as in other parts of the world, suffers from high overcrowding due to prison system with little attention to the recovery of prisoners.

Prisons in Minas Gerais, for example, can receive 32,000 prisoners, divided into 144 prisons; actually, there are 54,000 inmates in the different units. This situation only gets worse the living conditions of prisoners, with a further object of punishing instead of re-educate and re-socialize, with serious violations of human rights.

The action and commitment of the group of Prison Ministry, composed mainly of women, is to believe in a work of promoting human dignity, respect for human rights, and the overcoming of the limits of the current prison system in favor of a model that allows effective recovery and reintegration of the individual.

The most important of our pastoral activity is the testimony of a God who does not discriminate anyone, in a place marked by contempt, prejudice and violence, making ours the words of the Gospel: “I was in prison, and you came to visit me “. It is the pedagogy of Jesus, method, model, who heads the way of this pastoral, recognizing the face of God in every person, including the prisoners.

There are many challenges and difficulties in our pastoral activities, such as excessive bureaucracy that often delays and complicates our work, controls, restrictions on visits, limited permissions; but with courage, this small group of volunteers are facing difficulties. This has allowed in 2014, to create two groups of catechesis in prison. And it was possible that some inmates, who had requested, receive the sacraments.

For this are fundamental the moments of ongoing formation that we make at the end of the month, to have a dedicated space of programming and training, allowing prison pastoral agents learn the actions that will help to improve prison visits and the relationship with the inmates. In this also helps the training conducted by the diocese.

In short, this would be the work of the prison ministry. A simple action, giving hand, encountering real faces, listening to the life stories of those who are on the other side of the bars, to bear witness to the dignity of every human being, because as the Gospel says “by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13, 35.).

Emma Chiolini, Comboni Lay Missionary

Improvements on the web

21 February, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

Today we want to share with you the improvements we are making in our web. We have restructured the section “Audiovisual resources” of the website.

We have placed more than 5000 images about our history and service that we carry out as CLM; almost 200 CLM and Comboni´s videos (in the 7 languages we have) as well as over 50 songs about Comboni in different languages so that they are accessible to everybody. You will find the songs and videos differentiated in the various languages.

We hope you like this new enhancement. You can visit it by following this link.

Greetings

From Santa Teresita de Alto Anapati

19 February, 201519 February, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

Katagueta from Santa Teresita de Alto Anapati after many days of rain, sun and sometimes cold, believe it or not. Three weeks we’re here in this missionary lands and we still have three more. Today, thankfully, we have light even a few hours because all the previous time we did not. I can write with keys and leave the notebook and pen. The days go slow, the serenity of the location invites you to live calmly and appreciate the presence of God in this place so far from the city surrounded by nature in the middle of somewhere in the central jungle of our country.

Our job is to sensitize the native community. Especially children and, through them, the parents about the presence of God in everyday life, strengthen faith in them and prepare some possible pastoral agents who can assist in the Eucharistic celebrations that regularly held once or twice a month by the remoteness of the city. The extension of the parish is large and covers many native communities and settlers approximately more than 200, so that priests available cannot keep up.

The natives welcome us with joy and greet us as if we were longtime friends. We come to them through the program of “useful holidays”. In the morning we attend approximately 70 children, in the afternoon quickie prepare our lunch, and then meet another group of children who need special attention. Contact with small enables us to understand life here in the community because everyone here speak in nomatshiguenga language and is a bit difficult to reach smaller by the dialect but the universal language of affection and good treatment allows us to understand.

We are the CLM Nelson and Fisher. Thank God, we live this experience amidst nature with refreshing rain that relieves the earth after the heat that brightens our days. Sometimes there is too much rain, because it is very strong and extends for days.

Nelson y Fisher (CLM-Peru)