Blog – Page 145 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Letter to the comboni family for the jubilee year of mercy

28 February, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

«Not for an instant did this adorable Heart…not beat with purest and most merciful love for men. From the sacred manger in Bethlehem he hastens to proclaim peace to the world for the first time: as a little boy in Egypt, alone in Nazareth, a preacher of the Good News in Palestine, he shares his lot with the poor, invites little ones to come to him, comforts the mournful, heals the sick and raises the dead to life; he calls the burdened and forgives the repentant; dying on the Cross he prays with great docility for his own torturers; risen in glory he sends out the Apostles to preach salvation to the whole world»

(W 3323).

Dearest Sisters and Brothers of the Comboni Family,

With this letter, fruit of a period of prayer, reflection and sharing that we lived together at the closing of the Year for Consecrated Life and the commencement of Jubilee Year of Mercy, we wish to offer all the members of the Comboni Family some of our reflections and we want especially to invite each one of you to live in depth the challenges and opportunities that the Jubilee Year offers us personally and as a Family. To this end we desire to propose to you a day of prayer in common, remembering what Comboni told us: “The omnipotence of prayer is our strength” (W 1969).

“Miserando atque eligendo”: loved and pardoned / called and pardoned

Called by the grace of God to follow Christ in the footsteps of St. Daniel Comboni “Before the world was made he chose, chose us in Christ to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence” (Eph 1:4), we have also received, as an integral part of our charismatic DNA, the call to contemplate the Pierced Heart of Christ on the Cross, the most eloquent expression of the infinite mercy of God for the whole of humanity, and to allow ourselves to be transformed, so that we, too, may become an embrace of love and mercy for all “to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of his grace”. (Eph 1:6-7)

Like all men and women disciples of Christ, we are aware that the Gospel we wish to proclaim is greater than us. We well know that the sequela Christi, which calls us to witness to Him with our lives and our words, is demanding but we are not always equal to the task of proclaiming the message He entrusts to us: at times we lack the necessary depth to live according to our calling.

In our personal prayer, sacramental life, spiritual direction and in the encounter with our brothers and sisters we experience the mercy of God. We are grateful to the Holy Spirit who works in our hearts, granting us the spirit of repentance and purification. We thank God for the gift of joy in being pardoned that renews us and makes us ready to start afresh every day.

Misericordes sicut Pater: within our communities and families

God loves us and forgives us, and makes us experience this mystery through the personal encounter with Him and expresses his mercy through our brothers and sisters. In our communities and families, we are called, consequently, to accept one another, thanks to the Holy Spirit who unites us around Jesus and makes us ever more a cenacle of apostles.

In daily life, in the moments of fraternal correction and in our meetings and gatherings, we come to know how much we live in mutual mercy. If we all commit ourselves to living the Good News of the merciful love of God, we help one another to grow, to be purified and reconciled.

Our brothers and sisters, family members, make us understand that they forgive us when they wait patiently and move in step with us; they bring us into contact with love when they have confidence in us, despite our limits. When the communities and the family live in mercy, they become a place of grace, of healing and reconciliation in which communion and life are built up, without denying one’s own difficulties, weaknesses and limits, or those of others.

All of this qualifies the experience of mercy that we live among ourselves. “Mercy is not opposed to justice but rather expresses God’s way of reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to look at himself, convert, and believe.” (MV 21)

Misericordes sicut Pater: in the apostolic community

God our Father has called us to serve and work together as an apostolic community; in this place of collaboration, we are challenged to grow in our journey of going out of ourselves and configuring ourselves to Christ, the obedient servant. To us, who are called to live the new commandment of love, “Love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another” (Jn 13:34-35), the Lord gives all the graces necessary to share his mercy and makes us able to forgive one another.

The gift of mercy makes us able to go out of ourselves, to live gestures of tenderness and to be charitable among ourselves: that is, to accomplish works of spiritual and corporal charity in our midst.

It is often hard for us to ‘live in mercy’, assuming the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus. At times, we are more drawn to be charitable towards those outside our community and our family, forgetting those with whom we live daily as an evangelising community. God, who wants us to be merciful, desires that we practise mercy first of all among ourselves and those closest to us.

Misericordes sicut Pater: with the people of God

Our service invites us to entrust ourselves to the people of God who welcomes us in his name. Experience teaches us that, if we are humble and open, our brothers and sisters will be merciful to us. Attitudes of arrogance and superiority on our part evoke a different sort of response. The call to live in mercy, as Comboni did, obliges us to undertake a journey of conversion and healing in order to live our relationships in simplicity, humility and humanity.

Misericordes sicut Pater: towards our institutions

During our journey of belonging to our Institutes/groups/Comboni Family, our sentiments of love, healthy pride and gratitude ought to grow with the passing of years. However, at times we find sentiments of bitterness, destructive criticism and the ‘terrorism of gossip’, as Pope Francis calls it. We may say that this is part of our human condition, marked by sin and still in transformation. Our weaknesses should neither surprise nor scandalise us. They ought not diminish our sense of belonging, our happiness in being Combonians, or our desire and commitment to live, in a worthy fashion, the call to be Holy and Capable, in the footsteps of St. Daniel Comboni.

During this Year of Mercy, let us be reconciled with our discomforts and wounds and let us really “…be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience…” (Col 3:12) and so give new life to our love for our great Comboni Family.

Misericordes sicut Pater: instruments of mercy

The experience of mercy fills us with joy and the desire to proclaim that his mercy is without end (Ps 25:6).

Following the example of St. Daniel Comboni, the experience of divine mercy makes us widen our hearts and open our arms towards suffering humanity so that “... we can offer others, in their sorrow, the consolation that we have received from God ourselves” (2 Cor 1:4). Through our witness, service and presence among the people of God, by means of our being mission, we are called to participate in the saving work of the merciful God revealed in Jesus.

And so … Let us celebrate Mercy

In this Jubilee Year, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy, we ask God the Father for the gift of acknowledging our need of His mercy and our desire to be reconciled: with ourselves, our brothers and sisters in our communities, our family members, our collaborators, the People we serve and our Comboni Institutes and groups.

We therefore invite all the members of the Comboni Family – SMC, ISMC, MCCJ, LMC – and other Groups/movements that take their inspiration from the Comboni charism, to celebrate, on 17 March, 2016, the XX anniversary of the beatification of St. Daniel with a day of prayer-contemplation on the Mercy of God in Comboni. This is an invitation to all of us, as his children, to let ourselves be transformed by the Mercy of the Heart of Jesus and to revive our compassion and commitment to proclaim, in word and in deed, the God of Mercy to our most abandoned and suffering brothers and sisters.

We greet you with deep affection.

The General Councils and Coordinator of the LMC Central Commission:

SMC – Comboni Missionary Sisters

ISMC – Secular Institute of Comboni Missionary Women,

MCCJ – Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus,

LMC – Comboni Lay Missionaries.

Rome, 28 February, 2016.

Something ends, something new begins…

26 February, 201626 February, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

“Our children have just finished their holiday season. This time it lasted unusually long – 3 months. The reason was the election of the new president of Uganda which took place on 18 February 2016. Fortunately everything went well and there were no big problems. In less than three weeks I will be back in Poland again. Well, something ends, something new begins. During the holiday season, I spent most of the time with the youngest children who have some problems at school. It was a kind of remedial classes. After the renovation work, the classes were held in the dining room that was turned into the class room. We spend a lot of time there, learning but also having fun. We painted, created things from plasticine, coloured and cut. In Poland it is something common but for my kids in Uganda it is always something special and new.”

Besides being the general administrator, here I am also someone between a baby sitter and a social worker. All this time I have been here, I have discovered that this is the best place for me. It is amazing and surprising at the same time, because it was not something I had intended to do. Mission teaches obedience and commitment in places where there is a need, not in places where one thinks he/she should be. Sometimes our imaginations are not real; our point of view differs from the real and true needs of the world. Because we think that our needs are: time for prayer and, above all, openness to the Holy Spirit. We also need all of these to discover what God really wants from us, in this particular place. I can’t say I know it already, but I search for it, all the time. I am starting to understand why I have been sent here. Now, as I am actually finishing my two years mission experience, I know I will return here, to my children, to St. Jude.

St. Jude is not just children, but also people who work there. Baby sitters, people who look after the children – I spent lots of time with them. At the beginning of my mission, I was dedicated to managing all the employees, which was really hard, as I was the youngest person here and I was preparing to become their supervisor. I was supposed to check and assess. It was not a very comfortable situation, because I came here to help, not to control. However, as I mentioned before – mission teaches humility, but also verifies our vision about ourselves, our knowledge and behaviours. I have to admit that sometimes even the easiest things ended with some misunderstanding. The way of being, talking, gesturing were interpreted wrongly. Fortunately, we have learnt from one another eventually.

Mission is also a community, very extraordinary in my case. We were sent to a totally new place and created a new community in Gulu – before it had been only in Matany – where Danusia (another CLM) was. There were four of us, young and inexperienced girls: three Polish and one Spanish. Even the time we spent in prayer, talking, resting but also arguing and causing misunderstandings, was beautiful and intense. What always united us, though, was the mission, the people and, most of all, prayer. Each one of us is a different picture of God, but with the same faith and big open heart.

On behalf of my community and myself, I would like to thank all of you, for every little gesture, holiday cards, emails. On behalf of my children, I would like to thank for all the financial support: thanks to it our children now have new uniforms, better food, the possibility of better health control and … we coloured their world. But most of all, I would like to thank you for every prayer, every sigh about us: without you, we would not be here

Ewa Maziarz, CLM

My time in London

24 February, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

It has been a month since I came to London. I’m here to learn English as I will need it at my mission in Ethiopia. I’m staying in Comboni Missionaries House in Notting Hill in London. Comboni Fathers are very kind and helpful. Every day we spend time together on meals, prayers and a Mass. They are my advisors – correcting my language mistakes and they are very big-hearted if I don’t understand something. Fortunately, there is less and less of situations like this 🙂 .

I try to use the time I spend here, the best I can.

I go to the language school in the morning, so afternoons and evenings are totally at my disposal. I usually spend this time on learning. However, the biggest problem for me is still to talk to people, so I am constantly looking for some opportunities to practice English. I usually spend time with my classmates: on bowling, walking or drinking coffee – once a week at least. They are from different countries and even different continents, so the meetings are very interesting and varied. Recently, I have discovered that there are special meetings in London where people who are learning the language can come and …practice 🙂 . Once a week I go also to the meetings of group ‘Soul Food’. We pray, develop spiritually, listen to conference or testimony and share our faith with each other.

Apart from Comboni Fathers community, there are also Comboni Sisters in London. I had the opportunity to meet some of them. We visited them and I can say they were very hospitable, we had coffee and biscuits and talked a little. They invited me to visit them again, and regretted they could not talk to us longer, due to their other commitments and duties. I really think it is worth to take care of the relationships in our Comboni family.

London is a multicultural, various and vibrant city. I have already visited many places: famous streets, buildings, parks and museums. Street artists show their talents on squares; modern and multimedia museums are full of amazing exhibitions. Palaces, old buildings and monuments revive a history. Restaurants and pubs can’t complain about the lack of customers, as every minute there are hundred of tourists passing the street. All of that it is interesting, it delights and impresses, but on the other hand it is a little exhausting, especially the very center of the city – crowded and noisy. And in the middle of everything, there are homeless people – sitting, sleeping or begging for money. I think that’s the view of bother me the most.

Madzia Fiec CLM in London

100 days

26 February, 201622 February, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

100 days of the biggest environmental crime in the history of Brazil.

17 people dead, destroyed an entire community, toxic sludge that destroys Rio Doce, walking 600 km to the Atlantic Ocean and contaminate it.

100 days without any concrete plan for the recovery of Rio Doce.

100 days of absolute impunity.

100 days without anyone going to jail.

Day November 5, 2015 it seems to be a calm day in the community of Bento Rodrigues, a small town in the interior of Minas Gerais, with 600 inhabitants. That day, at 16:30 pm, the mobile phones of the people began to sound like screams coming from far away. Cries warned the dam failure containing the mud of Samarco mining. (Vale).

A river of mud at a terrific speed, which was directed towards the community, and in short time, hit another to enter Rio Doce and then into the ocean and contaminate it.

A toxic sludge with its 15 meters high of violence and destruction.

The violence destroyed forever the river, vegetation, wildlife, community, leaving red sludge making no longer possible to generate life.

100 days have passed and still remains immune, the news is set aside as if nothing had happened, something that does not matter anymore, to return to a superficial and false normality.

But normality is the one of injustice, normalcy is king in the profits of the multinational, Vale and company, not yet claimed responsibility for what occurred.

Faced with this serious situation, the state government did not treat this as an emergency, leaving the company the task of solving the problem with its own media, lawyer, operating engineers and scientists monitoring … at its benefit and interest.

In 2013, a commission denounced the irregularity of the dam due to increased erosion of the mountain that endangered the safety of it. A danger caused by the exploitation of the territory. At the time of the disaster, it was found that the company did not have an emergency plan and no security measures were taken.

In Minas Gerais, there are 754 dams containing waste sludge from mining companies and of these, 42 do not have security certification. Realising corruption, false balances, interest… We are talking about multinational companies that make billions.

In Minas, mining companies and politicians were always partners, like two old friends together in a system that creates benefits, earnings, but not for the common good, not for the people, not for our sacred land.

This environmental disaster involves all of us, because the damage is global, not just local, and always will be a large open wound in the history of this country.

Irrecoverable permanent damages, such as the death of people and an ecosystem that will never be the same.

Fraternity Campaign of the Catholic Church in Brazil this year, has the theme “Common home: Our responsibility”, «Scorra come acqua il diritto e la giustizia come un torrente perenne».

(Amos 5: 24). The Earth is our common home, so destroyed, abused and exploited house. We must work for an ecological culture that can defend, love and heal the world and where we are all responsible for this healing.

And to care for the earth, we must also challenge the capitalist system that explodes, kills and creates inequality by first placing the money and not the value of life.

100 days spent, 100 days that have not been forgotten, and we must not forget, we can not build the future with this lame and sick, and should stop reporting.

The common house, our responsibility!

Mineral extraction by mining companies destroy the mountains of Minas Gerais, as well as in other countries.

During extraction work, highly dangerous chemicals that contaminate soil, water and create toxic sludge dams threaten the people and communities are used.

Emma Chiolini CLM(Fonte: artigo de Marcus V. Polignano, revista Manuelzão, UFMG)

Remembering the past…

11 February, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Five months have passed since my arrival in Brazil, I arrived on December 1, 2013 in Nova Contagem, on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.

The first months were not easy, as all beginnings, because of the new culture, language, customs, way of doing things very different from mine, in a place that I did not know. You have to go to mission open to re-learn and be patient with yourself and others, give yourself time to enter, find, meet, hear, interact, listen and understand. You have to know how to create a culture of encounter with the other and their difference, their time, their thoughts that allow us to identify the coordinates where you and me can start a shared way. We should not just relate superficially but, we have to “touch-meet” and be “touch and meet”, being willing to change. It is not easy when we are adults, when we have our own formation, our own way of thinking, it is sometimes painful, difficult, but it is important and enriching. Re-learn to know how to accept, re-learn to wait, to know how to re-learn to grow and, above all, know how to love. On mission, you have to be with your head, feet and heart, otherwise you live a partial and limited experience. In these five months, I have learned to do this and I still do, every day, with the difficulties and the problems that this entails.

I realized that I am finding God in a different way; I am living in a different way. The depth of gestures, events, situations, places, creates a dialogue with Him, more intense and deep. Share the Word of God in a small brick house, simple and poor, has a completely different feel and a perspective completely different.

Here in Nova Contagem I got involved in prison ministry, visiting the prison. Prison is an environment, hard, difficult, with many challenges. The first are those bureaucratic and time it takes to get to the identification and review. Most of the time I relate to prisoners standing behind an iron gate in a small space where you have to reach out for a handshake, negotiating with the bars. Are important moments of encounter, listening times, to greet, to promote human rights (prison ministry also aims to denounce the inhuman and unjust situations) and share the Word of God. It is an “intense” moment to pray the Our Father, hand in hand, with all the difficulties of the bars and then conclude with a round of applause to thank everybody.

In addition to the prison ministry, I am starting to learn the APAC (Association for the Protection and Assistance to the Convicted) system. It is an alternative to the prison system, where there is respect for the person and dignity. No police in these structures, no humiliating reviews, volunteers and the prisoners themselves run everything. An innovative system that does not punish, but educate and are educated together. Living the two experiences: APAC and prison allow me to see the differences, see how in APAC people is recover and in the penal system do not, because on one hand there is the respect for the individual and the importance of the person in prison, on the other hand the imprisoned is considered a waste of society, worthless.

They are two completely different worlds.

In the community of Ipê Amarelo, where I live, I help in the pastoral care of children. Up to now, I am dealing with families visiting and invite then to weigh each month as a form of control to combat and prevent situations of malnutrition, undernutrition and obesity. Going into some of the houses, which opens to me a reality made of so much poverty and deprivation.

Finally, another important moment in my missionary experience is the family group of addicts (drugs and alcohol). People involved are simple people, often women, mothers or wives who share stories of hardship and pain (who lost a son because he killed, who have a child who is using drugs, a husband with alcohol problems). The instrument of this group is simply to share and listen, tell us how to make a change. And direct individuals seeking recovery by offering help and support. There are a lot of strength and a lot of faith in these people, it is a group that “transform me” every time I participate. Every Tuesday I am pleased to participate and return home converted.

Meaningful to me is life in community, planning a common path with others, accepting differences, reflection and the experience of Comboni spirituality, love for God and Life. It is a journey of growth and discovery of others and myself.

Very important are the times of prayer together, where through the Word of God, we share our own experience and missionary group, a moment of personal and community relief.

Here, up to now, my missionary walk part from these meetings, these moments, these roads. I have still much to discover, but I am on the way and, with courage and faith to follow this path, reminding me that mission is not a matter of doing great things, but little things that are valuable.

02.10.2016 Today…

It seems like yesterday I arrived in Brazil, but it was two years ago and I am in the third.

I feel a little tenderness to read these words of the first moments. I remember, still, the first insecure and timid steps. Today, looking back, I see the way I did and am still doing, a beautiful path, sometimes difficult, sometimes falls, but always walk and climb. The mission will change you if you allow it for changing. It is not true that we have no expectations when we went out of our country, we had it and they fall when we start to shed our mentality and try to get into the mindset of the other, dropping our barriers.

Community life teaches much about this. Coexistence is an ongoing mediation and auto-meditation, discover and auto-discovering, sometimes fighting, sometimes through difficult times, but always trying to find each other. Each of us has its personality, its temperament and its wounds we carry and the fights are not so much with others but with your own wounds.

We need witnesses, be word embodied in action right where we live and this place is, in first place the Community.

“Community, place of forgiveness and celebration,” a place for sharing and communion.

Today my feet are strong and safe, but always in a walk of discovery and learning … barefoot.

Emma Chiolini, Comboni Lay Missionary