Alberto de la Portilla – Page 55 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

¡”Ma Kitelakapel”!

25 May, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

Tragicomic chronicle from West Pokot, Kenya: first episode!!!!

Why “tragicomic?” Because, even without meaning to, I already know that it’s going to be a bit like that…and so, here, I would like to share with you the joys and sorrows of my being here!

IN SUMMARY

– the Kenya Comboni Lay Missioners (CLM) group is a lively and welcoming group, I am glad to be a part of it.

(Father Maciek and some Kenyan LMCs, my first Sunday in Nairobi)

– For about 3 months I will be a guest of the Comboni Fathers in Kacheliba. I need to learn the local language, Pokot (I will have class every morning), and try to get a good understanding of how things work here. Later on, together with another Kenyan LMC, Josephine (who is also already here), I will move to the new house in Kitelakapel, 15 km from here, to start our full-time activities.

– Our house is almost ready.

– During this time we will also be engaged in these activities:

1) Tamarind juice production: there are many tamarind trees in this area. We have put some ladies from Kitelakapel Chapel to work to collect these fruits. A small amount we have already sold in Nairobi, now we have to prepare everything so we can then continue to produce the juice. It will be a way to self-finance ourselves a little bit as a group of Kenyan Comboni Lay Missionaries.

(our tamarind!)

(our lay people selling tamarind juice, peanut butter and honey after Mass in Nairobi)

2) Participation in jumuiyya/parish groups/associations: we will go around among the various groups in the parish, especially in the Kitelakapel area, to get to know people, make connections, get a good understanding of the various realities of the parish, and see what needs there are, so that we can also understand what kind of activities we can fit in, or possibly what new activities to propose, especially in the pastoral area.

3) Activities in schools: we will meet with the directors of some schools near Kitelakapel, to see if the possibility of giving some part-time classes can be materialized, perhaps in exchange of a small contribution (so that we have a little something extra to self-support ourselves)

4) To establish the foundations of our community, preparing our ” charter” and other necessary documents.

– We may become three! Another Ugandan Comboni Lay Missionary may join us in July. For this in particular, we rely on your prayers (because it would be a huge help, given the mountain of work ahead!).

IN MORE DETAIL:

“Polepole ndio mwendo” say the Waswahili (Swahili speakers). It means, more or less, “he who goes slow, goes steady and goes far…” And so, I wish I had great achievements already to list, but unfortunately, or fortunately, things move very, but very slowly here. I have just arrived and I am asked, rightly, to tiptoe into this reality, polepole, because no matter how much experience one already may have–and I have very little–every reality is different, and here, by the way, everyone is rightly very busy, so I really cannot expect everything to be explained to me right away, or to be immediately involved in every possible and imaginable activity.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted with great affection and enthusiasm by the Kenyan Comboni Laity, who immediately made me feel at home. It is good to feel that I am not alone, but that, together, we are walking toward a common goal.

From Nairobi I moved to Kacheliba, about 15 km away from where I am going to live, Kitelakapel. This is how it works here: the main parish office is located in Kacheliba, but the parish covers a very large area full of outstations, that is, small chapels (sometimes they look like tiny houses, and they are actually “churches”!), often far away. There are currently two fathers, and one deacon. And they cannot be multiplied like the five loaves and two fish (unless the Holy Spirit intervenes…) so the work is really a lot. Kitelakapel is one of these outstations, but the fathers would like it to become, sooner or later, a parish, and so, in addition to the little church (larger than the little chapels I mentioned above), there is a house where the fathers stop to sleep sometimes, if necessary, and which could become, in the future, the home of the fathers of the new parish. Not far away, on the same “road” (if you can call it that) the construction of another house is now almost finished, where we Comboni lay people will stay. It’s quite a big house (we trust in the arrival of new lay missionaries!), with lots of space around it, to build a hospital as well (and, I hope, on the other side, also a playground to organize activities with the kids. How to deny my Salesian origins?).

(our little church in Kitelakapel)

(Mass in the chapel in Mtembur)

(Our house inside and out, almost finished! It looks like a Grand Hotel, but then thankfully inside is much more sober than it looks heheheh!)

Joining me on this adventure will be Josephine, the Kenyan Comboni laywoman who, like me, has given her availability for this mission, and so together, on April 29, we practically founded this new international community of Comboni Lay Missionaries. She is just originally from these parts, and she speaks Pokot, and for that I am really grateful, for the help she will be able to give me in understanding not only the language, but also to avoid possible mistakes or misunderstandings or figureheads related to my ignorance of the local culture.

(Josephine in traditional Pokot skirt, the “loruà”)

(the new LMC international community in Kitelakapel!)

When the construction of the house is fully completed, Josephine and I will move to Kitelakapel for good. At the moment, however, we are in Kacheliba, both because the house is not yet ready and because we need to take the Pokot course (in my case) and experience some community life here with the fathers.

Hoping I have not bored you, I send everyone a big hug and warm greetings.

Ah, important: THANK YOU!!!!!

I sincerely thank all those who have contributed with their donations to start this new community. It is very embarrassing to find ourselves living off the charity of others, it is a new situation for me, but for anything, our own survival, expenses to start the community and any projects/activities with people, we now depend on Providence. The “beautiful” aspect of this is the fact that this somehow means that the flourishing of this new Christian community in Kitelakapel will be the fruit of a shared effort: by me and Josephine, with our direct presence, and by those who support us, through their indirect contributions. It becomes a team effort! Thank you very much!!!

Linda

Community Experience in Guatemala

23 May, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

St. Daniel Comboni had an IMMENSE LOVE FOR THE SOULS OF THE POOREST AND ABANDONED and this can only be lived from a MISSION EXPERIENCE.

For the CLM of Guatemala, having accompanied Maximina and Mercedes in their process of Community Experience, is today a school of learning full of LOVE AND MISSIONARY HOPE; why, many may ask, because each member of the community has participation; Everyone in prayer, in the economy, in the personal accompaniment, in the formation in so many activities that a missionary experience needs and no one said no, we are all in the same boat where GOD the FATHER guides us under the intercession of SAN DANIEL COMBONI, Our Mother the Virgin Mary and SANTO DOMINGO DE GUZMAN Patron of the Community of Xenacoj who opened the doors of his house and his heart, so that they could carry out this experience during 6 months.

In these 6 months there were doors so wide that they were easily passed, but also so narrow that they required for them and the community to be full of prayer, wisdom, understanding, tolerance, tiredness and full of FAITH to be able to pass them.

Thank you Merceditas and Maxi for your availability and abandoning yourselves to the poorest and neediest whom we are sure you carry in your heart and were for them your first school of FRATERNAL LOVE and COMMUNITY UNION.

Miriam Herrador

CLM Guatemala

CLM Ecuador experience during Holy Week 2022

20 May, 202220 May, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

After overcoming the pandemic and having the opportunity to share in person with the communities, we shared this Lent and Holy Week with some communities in the Province of Esmeraldas.

But let’s see the images that say more than words.

During Lent and Holy Week the CLM and accompanied by a candidate and friends of the mission; we were once again present in the community of San Lorenzo in Esmeraldas north of Ecuador visiting and encouraging several rural communities in that region of the country, during that period of time we carried out activities such as:

Tour through the communities, accompanied by groups of young people:

Visit to families of the visited populations.

Talks and prayer of the Stations of the Cross during Lent.

Palm Sunday Procession

With the accompaniment of local Afro music groups.

Holy Way of the Cross personified on Holy Friday

Additionally, I attach a video that was prepared by the youth group, with the graphics obtained during the tour with them during the liturgical time mentioned above.

Meanwhile, other CLM in Guayaquil participated actively in the parishes, in which they do apostolate or accompaniment, in the activities that took place during the days of Holy Week.

We thank God for these moments in which we could once again live the experience of personal contact and walk together with the people of the peripheral areas of our country.

CLM Ecuador

Inauguration of the new CLM house in Kenya

18 May, 202217 May, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

Last Sunday 15th of May it took place historical event – the CLM house of CLM in Kitelakapel (Kenya) was officially opened and blessed by the bishop Maurice.

The ceremony was done in the presence of CLM Kenya (Beatrice, Margaret, Alexina), MCCJ from Kacheliba (fr. Chrisantus and fr. Charles) some brothers from Nairobi and fr. Korir – who represent Provincial of MCCJ Kenya, many Christians and students from surrounding schools and of course… the members of the CLM international community – Linda and Josephine.

Let us accompany this new CLM community with our prayers.

Letter to the Comboni Family

12 May, 202210 May, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

“Let us all toil with no other aim than to gain more souls for Christ: let us join hands together. Let the vow, the objective and the commitment of all who love Jesus Christ be one.”

(Writings 2182)

Dear Comboni Missionary Women and Men,

We, the members of the General Councils and the Coordinator of the CLM, having gathered together from 22 to 24 of last April, at the native home of Saint Daniel Comboni in Limone, and moved by the desire to make you participants, at least in part, of what we lived and shared, write this letter to you desiring that the communion we experienced may reach all of you, there where Providence has placed you, to serve and give your lives for the sake of the proclamation of our Crucified and Risen Lord.

It was the first meeting that could be held in person, after the time of isolation caused by the pandemic with all that it entailed, with the high price paid, even with their lives, by so many brothers and sisters. Such was the pandemic that it forced the postponement of the General Assembly of the CMS and also the General Chapter of the MCCJ which will be celebrated in June of this year during which the CMS are celebrating the 150th anniversary of their foundation and will have their General Chapter in October. All these reasons have given meaning to this meeting, not least the synodality to which the universal Church invites us, and the very fact of our being a Comboni Family is, in itself, an expression of a synodal Church. Walking as a Comboni Family is not optional, it is not even the meeting of the leaders, but it is life in the communities, in the concrete missions where one lives and works with shared objectives.

Our “coming together” as a family came about quietly but, in fact, it has evolved due, not so much to the result of programming as to the perceived desire and the awareness of belonging to a common root. Coming together is always an opportunity to grow in the awareness of being part of the same charismatic family because this is how St. Daniel Comboni thought of us, and an occasion to strengthen the commitment to continue to feel part of it; the fruits that have grown over time confirm that this it is the right path.

Our proclamation and witness, beyond the ministries and services we are called to give, is, first of all, to live as brothers and sisters, members of the same Family: without this witness, even the most beautiful activities lose their value. All those who have experienced collaboration and working together as a Comboni Family know that it is not easy and, for some, this implies a commitment to be able to appreciate the value of collaboration. However, we sincerely believe in it and invite you to keep this horizon as a desirable goal.

We wanted to have this meeting also to evaluate the progress made so far, taking as a basis the letter on collaboration written in 2017 and the work on ministeriality that involved a large number of members of the CF, thanks to the commitment and dedication of the appointed Commission and to other trained and qualified collaborators. We thank the Lord who surprised us with what we were able to achieve and above all for those who participated and enjoyed this journey.

Bro. Antonio Soffientini, sharing the reflection on this theme made by the Italian province of the MCCJ, invited us not to attach an adjective, a “label” limiting ministeriality, because ministeriality has many expressions and is not only towards “the external, ad extra “, but also” inward, ad intra “and the latter often escapes any mapping. All the services that the life of the CF requires are ministerial: training, authority, administration, coordination and accompaniment in every phase of the life of the members, from the beginning of the journey to old age.

A lasting sign

The General Moderators of the four expressions of the Comboni Family wished to express their unity and the desire to see the growth of the seed which the recognition of the Charism of St. Daniel Comboni has generated in them in recent years and which these two days of encounter have revived, entrusting it to an olive tree planted by all of us together, in the soil of the birthplace of Saint Daniele Comboni. Thus, next to the centuries-old olive trees dedicated to various relatives of San Daniele Comboni, one dedicated to the Comboni Family will grow.

Now there remains the challenge of continuing the journey and for this reason, we wish to “pass the baton” to the new General Councils of the MCCJs and CMS who will be elected in the upcoming General Chapters, asking the CMS and CLM to act as a “bridge” and link for the future journey together.

May the Good Shepherd of the Pierced Heart show us the way and, as he promised, walk with us until the end of time.

The General Council of the Comboni Missionary Sisters

The General Council of the Secular Comboni Missionaries

The General Council of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus

The Coordinator of the Central Commission of the Comboni Lay Missionaries

“This Institute, then, becomes like a little Cenacle of Apostles for Africa, a centre of light sending to the centre of Africa as many rays as the Missionaries who go out from it. These rays of light, bringing warmth as well as illumination, cannot but reveal the nature of the Centre from which the spread out” (Writings 2648)