Comboni_en – Page 13 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

The joy of Gospel the source of mission spirit

28 July, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

Polish CLM celebrated a greatly unusual thing. Three girls from our community officially entered to the CLM community. God bless them!

During the meeting from 12^th till 14^th June we co-organized and participated in 4^th Mission Congress of Poland. On Friday we began with the Holly Mass and entering of Katarzyna Tomaszewska, Magda Fiec and Anna Obyrtacz to CLM movement. Friday Mass was the very beginning for girls to join our community. They had arrived to Warsaw the day before to have some spare moments for prayer and meditation in silence. During the mass, the girls our friends have been reading the special prayer prepared by themselves for this particular occasion and undersigned the official declaration of participation. The Delegate of the General Father of Combonians fr. Gianni Gaiga submitted girls’ declaration with other Comboni’s fathers celebrating the mass. It must be emphasized that we hosted a family and colleagues of Kasia who arrived especially for this day from Silesia province. Kasia is willing to go to Mozambique, Anna is designated to go to Central African Republic and Magda is still making decision about destination about her mission. Later on the day there was a time to take care about stomach as well – we organised big barbeque. Fr. Guillermo Aguinaga Pantoja who is the superior of the house said that we are always very welcome and the Warsaw community is always open for the CLM. There had appeared our first missionary – Danuta Krol who shared with us the experience from Uganda. We took the possibility of speaking “last minute” with fr. Andrzej Flip who serves in Mozambique and had a return flight the day after. Our well known sister Ula Bayer with the group of children from Mosina near Poznan was also present.

We were in the city centre the next day. The organiser of the congress was Polish Episcopal Commission on Missions and Papieskie Dziela Misyjne (The Catholic Church’s official charity for overseas mission). “The joy of Gospel the source of mission spirit” was theme of the congress with a patronate of John Paul II. It was an unusual meeting because such congress is not a regular one and takes place in ten of fifteen years or even few decades.

Three forms of participation was prepared up to the age of visiting people: for children, youth and adults, so we had divided into three groups to work in parallel. All locations had been in the centre of Warsaw and the adult part was held just in front of the central church. The place and the open nature of the meeting had attracted many people. We promoted the CLM and missions in general, giving leaflets and promotional materials. We had an opportunity to speak and encourage people to this forms of actions in the Church. We had met many orders, congregations and communities also lay organisations involved in mission ad gentes. In the neighbourhood we had met our familiar mates from Akademickie Kolo Misjologiczne w Poznaniu (Mission Academic Circle in Poznan). We spoke with the representative if MIVA (Mission Vehicle Association) who sponsor all kinds of the vehicles to the missions to help missionaries. One of them will go to Equator to fr. Adam Zagaja MCCJ in the nearest future. The congress hosted many NGOs (Non-Government Organizations). One of the most attractive was Szymon Holownia’s: The Kasisi Foundation. Holownia is one of the most popular catholic journalist, writer, blogger and TV presenter who is involved in many actions in Africa now. In the conference panel Holownia emphasized the essence of the lay mission and real meaning of brotherhood help not only in Africa but also here in Europe e.g. for the present massive African immigrants in south Europe. There was also one point of the World Youth Day with youth people from east Europe. They encouraged us to help people from East willing to participate with Pope Francis next year. We met also Karol Pawlowski who had been inspired by Saint Adalbert and the pilgrimage way of Santiago de Compostella and now is trying to establish and promote the way of Saint Adalbert from Gniezno in Poland to Magdeburg in Germany (the web: http://www.droga-swietywojciech.pl). All those meetings helped us to understand that our Church is so rich and diverse and there is still a lot of things to do.

At the end all participants joined the Holly Mass leaded by cardinal Fernando Filoni – Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The homily was told by Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz from Warsaw. Cardinal emphasised that every single man who believe in Gospel must live as a missionary. All walked to The Holy Cross Church in the procession with the cross and icon – the signs of World Youth Day. The day was fulfilled by worship concert and finished with singing the Appeal of Jasna Gora (Jasna Gora is the place of pilgrimage to Virgin Mary).

That rich day and all of the meeting gave us a joy the same as Gospel. Let us joy then and move together on our mission ways keeping the smile and Gospel in heart!

Tomasz Wierzbicki

CLM Krakow

CLM aspirants in Ghana reflect upon the faith of Comboni

21 June, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

As agreed at our last meeting in Abor, this 13^th June, we met at Dadome, an outstation of Mafi-Kumase. This time, the theme of reflection is “the Faith of Comboni”.

Comboni is said to be of multifaiths. He has faith in God, in his vocation, in the Church, in his Institution. But at the top of all is his faith in God in which the rest come out. He has a doubt at the beginning about leaving his parents. But when confirmed by his spiritual director about the truthfulness and clarity of his vocation, he went straight forward. In his zeal to evangelize Africa, he went to the Pope Pius the IXth and even rectified a wrong conception on Africans. His faith in the Church pushed him to say: “Whatever displeases the Church displeases me.” He went forth declaring:” I have sold my will…I am totally obedient to the Church.” Though he was so engaged in the mission in Africa, he was ready to leave it if the Church ordered it. Comboni received his strength in prayer. He said: “Without prayer, we die.” His time of prayer was also spent for mortification. Comboni has a pragmatic understanding of faith because he thought that “faith is an antidote against slavery.”

After this discussion, we went on to think about few issues. The first is about our presence in the Board of Trustees of In My Father’s House, a Combonian Institution witnessing the Good News to the poor and vulnerable. The second one is the creation of a Vocational Center in the same Institution. We postponed any decision making on these two issues for our coming meeting on the 11^th July at Abor.

Justin Nougnui, coordinator.

Message of Fr. Enrique for the feast of the Sacred Heart

12 June, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

“We ask for the grace to become joyful and happy consecrated people because we carry in our heart the treasure of the love that flows from the pierced Heart of the Lord, which St. Daniel Comboni discovered as the foundation on which to build his mission and to which he committed himself without setting any limit. May the trust in the Heart of Jesus become also for us a source of an eternal love that will help us to live our consecration as the most beautiful gift that we have been given. Happy Feast day of the Sacred Heart.” Fr. Enrique Sánchez G., mccj, Superior General.

Consecrated in the Heart of Jesus

The words consecration and consecrated, with all their synonyms, can be enhanced and integrated in our lives, especially during this year earmarked for the religious and consecrated life, to the extent that we allow ourselves a moment for reflection and, perhaps even more, for gratitude for this gift.

At the same time, these words are likely to be emptied of their meaning and the richness they evoke, if we do not compare them with the experiences of our life; if we do not give, through our life, an authentic meaning to what we assert in words.

We are consecrated. Very little is needed to make this proclamation which, however, is not so obvious when we ask our life-witness to express the content of what has been the choice of our life.

Although it must be said that there are extraordinary examples, very close to us, of people who have treasured their consecration and whose life has been transformed into a light that can penetrate the darkest shadows, now we need to stop and ask how much our consecration to God defines and characterizes our identity and our acting.

To reflect on our consecration can become an extraordinary occasion to better understand what we mean when we identify ourselves as persons consecrated to God for the mission.

Our missionary consecration

To help us in our reflection, especially on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, I would like to share with you some brief thoughts that might be provocations for asking us to what extent and how much we are living our religious consecration and mission.

Pope Francis invited us to do a memory exercise, to recognize in the past the gift of our vocation, of our charism, letting flow from within our heart the gratitude and thankfulness for this gift. He recommended us to contemplate the present of our consecration to live it with passion, without making calculations, with the generosity and enthusiasm of the first moment, when in the silence and complicity of God we heard our name pronounced and dreamed of a mission without frontiers.

The Pope asked us to look to the future with hope, which means confidence in God, in his proximity, in the certainty that He continues to cherish in his heart a plan for humanity that no one can frustrate, because it will always be a project of love and love does not halt in the face of obstacles.

To live our missionary consecration in this way leads us to rediscover, to experience again the joy of the first moment of our call, and to say in simplicity: Lord, how great you have been in setting your eyes on me. You could not have bestowed on me a more extraordinary gift.

Being a missionary was the best choice that you have done for me; thank you, because you have remained faithful and because what has happened to me so many years ago continues to maintain its freshness.

Thanks for this missionary present that is a challenge to us. Your call is sometimes in danger of being overshadowed by so many obstacles that we find in our path. We lack your passion, your enthusiasm, your courage in not letting ourselves be overcome by the indifference of our time, the consumerism that surrounds us, the superficial hedonism that assails us with its traps that increase our selfishness and superficiality.

We need missionary passion, first of all to believe in you with all our heart, to find you in the brother who suffers, in the sister who is abused, in the young man condemned to live without the possibility to dream of an appropriate future, to come out of our shelter and comfort.

Lord, it is good to recognize with humility and simplicity that we lack the passion which is not afraid of sacrifice, renunciation, abandonment, the passion that allows us to leave everything to make of you and your mission the most important thing of our life.

You gave us a vocation that makes us privileged people, because for us you have chosen, as a place to meet you, the poorest, those farthest away, those who do not count in the eyes of our contemporaries.

“The hope of which we speak – says the Pope – is not based on numbers or enterprises, but on the One in whom we have placed our trust” (2 Tim 1:12).

We want to live, and we cannot but do so, in the hope of when we have been witnesses of your fidelity, your trust, your kindness toward us. We are not scared of tomorrow because we know that you have preceded us and prepared for us the morrow that will be completely different from what we could have established with our own efforts and our resources.

We are not afraid to decrease, to die, because we are convinced that, wherever you are, life cannot but win and that it will always be you the one to write the beautiful history of the mission, which will also become ours.

A consecration lived through small and large details

When we speak of consecration, I intend to say that we are referring to an experience, to a life that makes us live through the small and large details of our existence and of our daily work, as we fulfil the dream that we carry in our heart as the ideal that drives us to go farther and farther.

I intend to say that being consecrated is nothing but accepting with joy that our life is in the hands of the One who gave us our existence. It is to accept that we are the Lord’s possession, that we are or we are becoming God’s gift to humanity.

How many times we have heard that the consecrated persons are people who have freely agreed to give up everything to allow God fulfil his dream of love for humanity.

It’s nice to think so, because it helps us understand that the consecration is not a work that comes from our own will or ability, but an experience of great freedom, generosity and above all of deep docility.

What does it mean to be consecrated to God?

To be consecrated to God is to educate our heart to be always open and willing to what He wants to do of us. In this sense, consecration is synonymous with abandonment, obedience and courage, because with the Lord we know where the adventure begins, but we do not know how far He will take us.

To speak of consecration means entering a world in which our parameters are no longer applicable, because we enter the world of the mystery of God, which breaks all our logic and our calculations and turns everything upside down, as He becomes the protagonist of our history and the master of our existence.

And here we can think of many sayings in the Gospel: “You did not choose me, no, I chose you” (Jn 15:16); “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17).

What great strength resounds in Paul’s message when he remembers how he was chosen and how, in his ministry as an apostle, he has realised that “We know that by turning everything to their good God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those that he has called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).

So, the question that arises is very simple: who is, after all, the one who is consecrated?

How many times have we to recognize that in our lives we have advanced because the Lord has not pulled back? How many times have we to realise that were not our qualities, our merits and our virtues that made us worthy of the gift of the choice that the Lord made us?

We have a great responsibility in preserving and developing the grace received from the day we said yes to the Lord. Will we always remember that God calls and does not change his opinion over time? To which loyalty does He challenge us?

St. Daniel Comboni’s witness

“Since I have an extreme need of the help of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Sovereign of Central Africa, the very joy, hope, fortune and the all of her poor Missionaries, I write to you, my friend, the apostle and faithful servant of the divine Heart which is so full of love for the most unfortunate and abandoned souls on earth.

How glad I am to spend half an hour with you, to commend and entrust to the Sacred Heart the most precious interests of my trying and difficult Mission, to which I have vowed my whole soul, my body, my blood and my life!” (Writings 5255-56).

The consecration of the Comboni missionary, to be a real source of happiness, will always have to try to respond to this clear conviction of Comboni, a consecration that will be born of the experience of love that flows from the Heart of Jesus. The Heart of God who has loved so much humanity and who had no hesitation in handing over for love his Son, his only Son.

It is from this love that our consecration originates and finds support. It is and will always be from this open Heart that we can receive the light and strength to live only for God and for his work. It is from the Heart of Jesus that we will have to learn how to become God’s people who find their joy in serving the mission with an undivided heart.

It will always be the Heart of Jesus to help us look to the future without falling into discouragement, sadness and disappointment, because from the Heart of God new things are always born for the good of all those who open themselves to love.

Like Comboni, we must learn not to be scared by the difficulties of the mission that we are called to live. It will always be a difficult and laborious work, but we must not forget that it is the mission of God, not ours. It is the mission of the Lord in which we are called to become mere collaborators and facilitators of his love.

As our holy founder, we too are invited and called to live fully the gift of the missionary vocation, willing to devote all our heart and soul, becoming men of deep faith, accepting with joy to witness through our poverty, our chastity and our obedience, and always trying to create environments of intense fraternity.

Even for us, the great challenge of the consecration will be the willingness to sacrifice everything for others, for those we meet in the mission. This also means acceptance of martyrdom, which will ask us to impregnate the heart of our brothers and sisters with our lives offered up in our daily existence, in humble and hidden service, in joyful acceptance of the surrender of ourselves to allow God to manifest his love.

Only if educated in this school of love, which is the Heart of Jesus, we will be able to experience in total freedom the choice for the poorest, and to give a face to the love of God, through the construction of a more just, more caring, more respectful world, capable of generating the happiness that we all carry in our heart as the only true yearning of our lives.

We ask for the grace to become joyful and happy consecrated people because we carry in our heart the treasure of the love that flows from the pierced Heart of the Lord, which St. Daniel Comboni discovered as the foundation on which to build his mission and to which he committed himself without setting any limit.

May the trust in the Heart of Jesus become also for us a source of an eternal love that will help us to live our consecration as the most beautiful gift that we have been given.

Happy Feast day of the Sacred Heart.
Fr. Enrique Sánchez G., mccj
Superior General

What are the Comboni Lay Missionaries engaged in?

6 June, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

The answer is a bit complex, for now I will just tell you what Caro and Mine (two CLM) do in the mountains of Guerrero, in Na’Savi culture, officially known as Mixteca.

They are located in the village of Huexoapa, in the municipality of Metlatónoc, and the parish of San Miguel Archangel, Diocese of Tlapa. In Huexoapa live about 200 families, their language is tu’un savi or Mixteca, although some also speak Spanish.

The CLM have a missionary presence in this town for six years, eight have been the missionaries who have served in this mission, in different periods. Each has shared part of their being, their knowledge, their faith with the people and in turn, the people with them.

Caro came to this mission in September 2014 and Minerva in February 2015 to take over the companions who were there. God willing, they will be for three years in this town. Although the time they have there is not enough to know and understand all the wealth and weaknesses of the culture they have tried to assimilate what it has been possible for them, feeling part of the people, enjoying and appreciating the good in it, and contributing to build a better place, each from their skills and knowledge.

Caro offers evening classes remedial education, for the moment 19 children of various grade levels are involved, and she take care of them at different times. The support is reduced only to read (12 children) and mathematics (7 children) primary level. It is very probable that the number of children increases, as more and more people are interested and come to her asking her to “help them to study.” Minerva teaches knitting and sewing, but now informally, since she just came to the place, the ladies are just beginning to learn about their work, but those who have already approached have shown great interest, and not only ladies but also some of the young, who learn very easily.

Other activities they perform, is the accompaniment of children, youth and adults participating in some pastoral activities, such as support for the three catechists of the community in the preparation of the catechism for confirmation, first communion and presented sacramental talks; weekly meeting with young people in which human and Christian formation occurs; formation in values and catechesis to children; Holy Hour on Thursdays; support in the preparation of the Liturgy of the Word to the young person who is going to chair, or in the organization of the liturgy when they have Eucharist, which is most of the times. They are also having guitar lessons, and have a quasi choir, two mandolins, a tambourine, three guitarists (two women and a man), and two more persons interested, but they have failed to learn because of lack of instrument, although all are just learning, they are encourage to play some songs at Mass or at the Liturgy of the Word.

Also they spend one day a week to visit families so we can know them more closely, some of the time accompanied by a young or a child from the community that helps as a translator, since they do not speak the local language, and not all families speaks Spanish. They are striving to learn, both in daily life, trying to memorize the words that people taught, and in the hours they devote to study, with the help of a young lady from the village.

They are also trying to cultivate a small orchard, on the back yard that is part of the house that the community gives them to live. For this, as for other activities that they perform as well as the needs that are presented to them, they have the support of the people involved in the above activities and who do willingly.

Caro and Mine know that work is hard and sometimes things do not go as they wanted. Although there are many the signs of life found in this culture, there are also present signs of death, coupled with this their personal limitations and defects, however they know that “the works of God are born and grow at the foot of the Cross” (St. Daniel Comboni).

Being with this people they realize that they receive more than they give, but I will speak on that subject later.

I conclude making you an invitation to join in the building of the Kingdom of God, from what you feel called to provide: counseling, financial support, prayer, giving part of your time or giving your life to the service of the mission.

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” We have lack of you!

CLM Mexico

“Comboni: God, the Cross and the Mission”

6 May, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

From the 17 to 19 April we celebrate in Viseu the eighth meeting of the training program of CLM in Portugal. The training was dedicated to the theme “Comboni: God, the Cross and Mission”, presented with enthusiasm by our sister Carmo Ribeiro. Participating in this meeting, Carlos (CLM), Andreia, Carolina, Flavio, Marisa, Neusa, Patricia and Paula, CLM candidates.

We were welcomed generously (and comfortably) by the Community of Viseu of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, to whom we are very grateful for the hospitality.

The kick-off of our trip was the movie “The Mission” 1986, a historical drama directed by Rolland Joffe that presents the period in the history of the evangelization of the Guarani Indians of Brazil.

On Saturday and Sunday morning Sister Carmo guided us in finding Comboni, his life and mission, which transmits Christ: “Speak of Comboni, his life and mission, is to talk about his experience of God. This experience that molded, shaped, give meaning and direction to all his life. The life that became mission. The experience of God is the aliveness of God, let God live in us, and above all let us live in Him”.

In first person, we get to know Comboni through his writings read in parallel with quotes from the Bible that inspired it.

Our itinerary went through the discovery of the pillars of the life and mission of Comboni who are also the pillars of any Comboni vocation. Here I present these pillars citing the writings of Comboni.

1^st Trust in God

“May the Lord dispose as best it pleases Him. We are in his hands and we are only too well supported. Thus may it be done according to God’s will”. E 457

2^nd charismatic moment: pierced Christ’s love, of Christ the Good Shepherd

“The Catholic, who is used to judging things in a supernatural light, looked upon Africa not through the pitiable lens of human interest, but in the pure light of faith; there he saw an infinite multitude of brothers who belonged to the same family as himself with one common Father in heaven. They were bent low and groaning beneath the yoke of Satan, and they were placed on the threshold of a most terrible precipice. Then he was carried away under the impetus of that love set alight by the divine flame on Calvary hill, when it came forth from the side of the Crucified One to embrace the whole human family; he felt his heart beat faster, and a divine power seemed to drive him towards those unknown lands. There he would enclose in his arms in an embrace of peace and of love those unfortunate brothers of his, upon whom it seemed that the fearful curse of Canaan still bore down “. E 2742

3^rd The Love of the Cross

“I find myself right on top of Golgotha, in the same place where He was crucified the only Son of God, here I was redeemed.” E 39-43

“The cross has the power to transform Central African in a land of blessing and salvation”

4^th Cenacle of the Apostles

” 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 are 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 they spread out “. E 2648

5^th Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of Africa

“To you I owe, O Mary, not died yet … Oh Mary show yourself also queen and mother of the poor Africans, because they are also your people… Show yourself Mother!” E 1639-644

6^th Saint Joseph

“St. Joseph is always young, always has a good heart and honest intentions and always love Jesus and the interests of his glory.”

“We are the happiest in the world, because we are in the hands of God, Mary and good San Joseph.” E 5082

7^th Prayer

” Since the work I have in my hands belongs completely to God, for it is with God above all that we must deal with every important and lesser matter of the Mission: therefore it is very important that piety and a spirit of prayer should prevail among its members”. E 3615

8^th Sense of Church, belonging

“I refuse to convert the entire world, if by the grace of God it were possible, if not mediate the mandate and approval of the Holy See and its representatives.”

In addition to the richness of these days, yet there was time for two meetings. We visited and were visited. On Saturday afternoon we visited the Community of Sisters Conceptionist of Santa Beatriz da Silva, who shared the joy and the mission of a life totally dedicated to God in a fruitful silence and inhabited (as someone said, it’s beautiful!). On Saturday night, we received a visit from two Comboni Missionary Sisters, Sister Lourdes Ramos and Sister Augustine Guida. Sister Lourdes Ramos shared her missionary experience among the indigenous of Amazon and later on the island of Lampedusa. Following the example of Comboni, a life made mission, forgetting herself, wounds to serve and love the brothers.

By unfortunate coincidence, that night of April 18, shipwrecked at sea an immigrant ship in route to Lampedusa, we know the tragedy that followed … that night the sister made memory of those who leave their houses and risk their lives to live and when arriving to land has nothing to live with. “We are all people,” I think that even today, in our prayer these brothers are not indifferent… “He felt his heart beat faster, and a divine force seemed to push him to these barbarian lands, to squeeze in his arms and give a kiss of peace and love to those unfortunate brothers “…

Finally, we finished our meeting celebrating Easter, the glory of the Risen Christ; LIFE that flows from the pierced heart. “My God is a God wounded”, recognized by Thomas in the marks of his love for us: “My Lord and my God!”

Patricia