Comboni Lay Missionaries

11.09 – Happy New Year 2009!

flor

For several days in the street everywhere you could see people with chickens! Walking, riding on motorcycles, in bajajs, mini-busses … Everywhere! And also topic about the price of chicken he was one of the most common ones (because the price is not small, 250 birr, which is about 10 euro!). All these things are the sign of the approaching New Year, which we celebrate today! Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar, according to which today began year 2009. For me, it is still quite strange, once the celebration of the New Year in mid-September, secondly that it is year 2009, and thirdly that the year has 13 months … 🙂 However, here it is the most natural thing and great joy! All the people are very grateful to God that he brought them through another year and they ask to bless them for the new one. Celebrating this day is completely different from ours in Europe; there are no big New Year’s Eve parties. However, in the New Year’s Day, in the morning the girls walk on the streets and visit homes singing a special song – blessing for the New Year. Then give flowers – September in Ethiopia is the time when bloom very typical for this time yellow flowers, beautiful! However, nowadays the most commonly they give a flower drawn on paper. They also expect a small gift. It is also a family holiday – all people prepare doro wat (a special dish from the chicken, mentioned above), and together with the loved ones gather for a lunch. This is very joyful time 🙂

So, Happy New Year!

And let’s pray that God will bless the Ethiopians and give them peace.

flores

Magda Plekan, CLM in Awassa (Ethiopia)

XX General Chapter of the Comboni Missionaries Sisters

Comboni sistersFrom 05 to 30 September will take place in Verona (Italy) the XX General Chapter of the Comboni missionaries Sisters under the theme: “DARING THE MYSTERY OF ENCOUNTER IN ORDER TO LIVE COMBONIAN MISSION TODAY”.

…Our missionary life consists of encounters: encounter with God, with people, with ourselves, with reality and with all that is created. But it consists also of clashes and, sometimes, also of indifference. In the context of a globalized and pluralistic world, we are challenged to cultivate and nurture the mystery of encounter, so that the other becomes a companion on the journey, a sister, a brother, and not a threat to be eliminated or from whom to flee. “Today, when the networks and means of human communication have made unprecedented advances, we sense the challenge of finding and sharing a “mystique” of living together, of mingling and encounter, of embracing and supporting one another, of stepping into this flood tide which, while chaotic, can become a genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of solidarity, a sacred pilgrimage”. (EG 87). Considering the challenges for our missionary life, yesterday and much more today, we realize that these focus on relationships, on the encounter with the great diversity in our world, through a pluralistic mission, through being mission more than doing mission”. (Taken from the letter of the General Council)

As Comboni family, we join in prayer with all the sisters and ask, through the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni, that this time become a time of grace and listening to discover the challenges that the mission poses to the world today.