Comboni_en – Page 2 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Solemnity of the Heart of Jesus

16 June, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Introduction

We are sharing this pamphlet as a supplement to help us live more deeply the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (16 June), accepting the invitation extended to us by the XIX General Chapter: to deepen and assume our spirituality which is marked by some specific elements that make up our identity as Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus.

We ask the confreres of all communities to study it and discover the best way to prepare for the solemnity: we may opt for a day of retreat or a series of meetings for prayers and/or sharing…

The basic text that must guide our reflection is in No. 3of the Rule of Life:

The Founder discovered in the mystery of the Heart of Jesus the thrust of his missionary commitment. Comboni’s unconditional love for the peoples of Africa had its origins and model in the saving love of the Good Shepherd who offered his life on the Cross for humanity: «Trusting in that most Sacred Heart … I feel more inclined to suffer … and to die for Jesus Christ and for the salvation of the unhappy peoples of Central Africa » (Writings, 4290).

And these are the words of the XIX General Chapter in this regard:

12. We dream of a spirituality that enables us to continue to grow as a fraternal family of consecrated persons rooted in Jesus, in his Word and in his Heart, and to contemplate him in the faces of the poor and in the experience lived by St. Daniel Comboni to be the mission.

14.3 We wish to raise our awareness of the fundamental aspects of the charism (e.g., the Cross, the Heart of Jesus, the option for the poorest and most abandoned) through Comboni’s vision, spirit and sensitivity to go to the roots of his spirituality and reappropriate it.

We may see our missionary life as a “journey” that starts in the Heart of Jesus and reaches our hearts, eventually reaching the hearts of the persons with whom we share both history and destiny. To be – or rather to become – “Consecrated people rooted in Jesus, in his Heart” means becoming what we are, to realise, for example, the identity we receive from the Lord, thanks to St. Daniel Comboni. Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus is our name.

At the end of the booklet of our Rule of Life there is a Letter Concerning the Name of the Institute, specifying what inspired the new choice of 1979. It is useful to re-read and meditate on this text, as a first moment of study.

Our Rule of Life, No. 3 offers us the experience of Comboni: his missionary commitment and his unconditional love for the peoples of Central Africa had their origin and their model «in the saving love of the Good Shepherd» who lets his Heart be pierced. Comboni himself, re-reading his experience with ever greater awareness, speaks of himself as someone who

«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, felt his heart beat faster and a divine power seemed to drive him towards those lands … to embrace and give the kiss of peace and love to those … brothers of his” (Writings, 2742).

The Heart of Jesus is the soul of the mission and its basic motivation.

It is undoubtedly good to seek and create programmes, strategies and structures for the mission, but let us not forget that we are called, above all, “to fan the gift into a flame.” (2 Tim 1, 6ff). The temptation could be one of tiredness (accidia) which dries up the soul and creates pessimism, fatalism, mistrust and lukewarmness, or the desire to become “protagonists” as if we were the be-all and end-all of the mission.

In this regard, we could take some texts from Evangelii Gaudium: 26; 259; 264; 266-267.

Contemplating and Assuming

To root ourselves in the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus, the Son of God, the path proposed by our Rule of Life, as the fruit of conscious experience, develops around two words: contemplating and assuming.

In other words, which we find in the Gospels, we may say: “Come to Jesus”, “See in him the Beloved One consecrated by the Spirit of the Father”, “Eat of him to increasingly assimilate his sentiments” …

This happens especially when we allow the Lord Jesus to penetrate into the depths of our hearts and bring to light those sentiments, thoughts, attitudes and desires that do not belong to those consecrated to the Lord.

Let us allow Jesus to heal us, renew us and transform us. Then we shall become people “won over by Christ” and animated by the desire to win others to him (cf. Ph 3, 2).

“Contemplating” and “assuming” do not become “voluntaristic” acts since, in truth, they are “graces” to which we respond with our awareness and availability.

We may describe “contemplating” as:

“keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus”;
“standing at the foot of the Cross”, as an important stage of a long journey during which we have seen the deeds and heard the words of Jesus, even without understanding them fully;
“standing at the feet of the Crucified One”, to receive the gifts that come to us from his Heart: his Spirit, the water and blood; Mary…;
“clothing ourselves with Christ”, making ours his “vesture”, his sentiments;
“allowing our hearts to be pierced”, so that the gifts of Our Lord may not remain on the surface of our hearts but penetrate them deeply.

“Assuming” suggests:

that we make our own the sentiments of Christ, in such a way that they really enter into us who are prepared to assimilate them gradually so that they determine our lines of action and conduct, touch our criteria when making choices, mould our desires and strengthen our purposes;
that by assuming the sentiments of Jesus we discover in ourselves – or close to us – obstacles, impediments, fragilities;
that this leads us to “contemplate” Jesus again and more deeply, allowing ourselves to be moved by the force of attraction he exerts, seeking his pardon, his strength and his grace;
that the difficulties we meet may not extinguish our spiritual life but strengthen it and cause it to grow;
“assuming the sentiments of Jesus” may become in us an interior need to “remain rooted in him”.

Some texts that may enlighten us

«But over the house of David and the citizens of Jerusalem I will pour out a spirit of kindness and prayer. They will look on the one whom they have pierced; they will mourn for him as for an only son and weep for him as people weep for a first-born child » (Zechariah 12,10).

«A further passage of Sacred Scripture: They will look upon the one whom they have pierced » (John 19,17).

See also: Apocalypse 1, 1-48; John 15.

From the Rules for the Institute for the Missions of Africa – 1871:

«The students of the Institute will develop in themselves this most essential disposition by keeping their eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, loving him tenderly and seeking always to understand more fully the meaning of a God who died on the |Cross for the salvation of souls » (Writings 2721).

Our Rule of Life, No. 3.2, lists three interior attitudes of Christ which the Comboni missionary is called to contemplate and assume, in virtue of that same vocation of Jesus and Comboni:

his unconditional self-giving to the Father;
the universality of his love for the world;
his involvement in the pain and poverty of humankind.[1]

The unconditional self-giving of Jesus to the Father

We might pray with these texts from John:

«I am the good shepherd. The Good Shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees the wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; this is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and these I have to lead as well. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one fold and one shepherd. The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me: I lay it down of my own free will, and as it is in my power to lay it down, so it is in my power to take it up again; and this is the command I have been given by my Father » (Jn 10,11-18).

«The world must know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father told me » (Jn 14,31).

«What I have spoken does not come from myself; no, what I was to say, what I had to speak, was commanded by the Father who sent me, and I know that his commands mean eternal life. And therefore, what the Father has told me is what I speak » (Jn 12,49-50).

We contemplate Jesus as the Son who lives and works according to the plan of the Father which he has seen and heard (Jn 5) and assumed with the freedom of the love of the Beloved Son. Jesus may say that the Father works in him:

«I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The words I say to you I do not speak of myself; it is the Father living in me who is doing this work » (Jn 14,10).

His life is a response of love to the love of the Father (cf. Jn 13,1-4).

The universality of the love of Christ for the world

«God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life » (Jn 3,16)

«The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them » (2 Cor 5,14-15).

We think of the testimony rendered by the Gospel of Jesus the pilgrim who goes around to city and village. Wherever men and women live, there he makes himself present:

«He said to them: “Let us go elsewhere to the neighbouring country towns so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came!”» (Mk 1,38).

Jesus meets people everywhere: in the synagogues and in the houses, in the squares and in the streets, on the mountain and by the lakeshore… He encounters men and women, adults and children, Jews and proselytes, Syro-Phoenicians and Greeks. He does not visit Palestine alone but goes beyond the borders of the Promised Land. We find him in Jerusalem and in the Decapolis.

He talks and discusses with Pharisees, Sadducees, Publicans and sinners … He does everything with great love – a love he gives to all without exception. He also has a clear preference for the least and the excluded.

The involvement of Jesus in the pain and poverty of men and women

Here are some more texts that may inspire us in our prayers:

«That evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. He cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah:

He took our sicknesses away

and carried our diseases for us» (Mt 8,16-17).[2]

The biblical texts show how Jesus was involved in the sufferings of people. It is important to comprehend “the movement of Jesus” who takes on himself the sufferings of others, without judging or condemning them. Jesus becomes so involved that he is hurt by these wounds. The “wounds of Jesus” are our salvation since they are our wounds assumed by the Risen One.

Comboni’s involvement …

«Though physically exhausted, by the grace of the Heart of Jesus my spirit is sound and thriving; I am resolved … to suffer all and give my life a thousand times for the Redemption of Central Africa and the Africans» (Writings 5523).

«I am ready to sacrifice my life a thousand times for the one hundred million and more Africans who live in these scorched regions » (Writings 2409).

In his programmatic homily preached in Khartoum on 11^th May 1873, his words are prophetic:

«The first love of my youth was for unhappy Africa and, leaving behind all that was dearest to me in the world, I came, sixteen years ago, to these lands to offer my work for the relief of their age-old sufferings. Subsequently, I had to return home due to ill health … but my thoughts and actions were always for you.

Today, at last taking back my heart by returning among you, I open it up in your presence with the sublime and religious sentiment of spiritual paternity … Yes, I am now your father and you are my children and as such, for the first time, I embrace you and press you to my heart …

Rest assured that my soul responds to this with unlimited love forever and for each one of you. I return among you never to cease being yours, and all consecrated for your greater good in eternity. Come day, come night, come sun come rain, I shall always be equally ready to serve your spiritual needs: the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the young and the old, the masters and the servants will always have equal access to my heart. Your good will be mine and your sorrows will also be mine …

I make common cause with each one of you and the happiest day of my life will be the one on which I will be able to give my life for you».

(Writings 3156-3159).

… and ours

By means of these attitudes contemplated and assumed, the Spirit of Jesus consecrates us in the depths of our hearts.

It is possible to re-interpret the three vows in these attitudes:

obedience, as unconditional self-giving to the Father;
chastity, in the universality of love;
poverty, in making common cause with the poorest and most abandoned.

On the Solemnity itself, we may renew our missionary consecration with greater awareness!

These three attitudes cannot be separated and neither can they be placed in distinct compartments. Each one refers to the others; each vow requires the others. Growth in one vow means growth in all of them.

Nevertheless, we may ask which of the three vows challenges most our personal growth and response.

We wish you all a very happy celebration of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!

On behalf of the General Secretariat for Formation,
Fr. Fermo Bernasconi, mccj
Fr. Alberto de Oliveira Silva, mccj
Fr. David Kinnear Glenday, mccj

Original: https://www.comboni.org/en/contenuti/115443

[1] No. 3.3 of the Rule of Life adds: «The contemplation of the Pierced Heart of Christ …

is a challenge to missionary action as a commitment to total human liberation
and to that fraternal charity which must be a distinctive sign of the Comboni Missionary community».

However, we wish to leave these two points for another time.

[2] This summary includes a series of cures performed by Christ; Matthew interprets them in the light of Is 53,4. The fourth Song of the Servant of Yahweh in Isiah 52,13-53,12 is also meaningful.

Feast of Saint Daniel Comboni: 10 October 2022

10 October, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him bears much fruit” (Jn 15,5).

“Have courage; have courage in this difficult hour, and even more for the future.
Do not desist, never give up. Face without fear whatever storm comes.
Do not be afraid. I die but my work will not die”
(The last words of St Daniel Comboni pronounced shortly before dying on 10 October 1881)

Dear Confreres,
Happy Feast Day of our Father and Founder Saint Daniel Comboni! Fraternal greetings to you all, wherever you may be, for the celebration of this feast which is always a fount of grace, of blessing and also an opportunity to return to the source of our existential consecration according to the Comboni charism.

On 10 October 1881, like “the grain of wheat fallen on the ground …”, our Founder Father died in the land of the Sudan, but that “good seed” has sprouted and even today continues to bear much fruit! On this recurrence of his and our feast day, we cannot fail to remember the words of Father Francesco Oliboni, on 26 March 1858: “But you must not be despondent, do not turn aside from your goal, continue the work you have begun; and, even if only one of you should remain, let him never give up hope or withdraw”. These words, as we well know, have brought courage to a whole generation of missionaries to Africa, among them Comboni; and these are the same words that inspired the plea our Father and Founder made to his missionaries shortly before his death: he asks us “to be faithful to the mission”. It is this special grace of fidelity to the mission that we wish today to ask of God and of Mary, the Mother of Nigrizia.

The context of the feast of Comboni this year 2022 brings with it much grace and blessing. First of all, almost three months after the celebration of the XIX General Chapter of our Institute, today, we have officially published the Acts of the Chapter. On November 20, exactly in forty days, the beatification of Fr. Giuseppe Ambrosoli will take place in Kalongo (Uganda). Finally, in this moment of grace, the Comboni Missionaries are celebrating their General Chapter in Verona, enlivened by the sacrifice of Sr. Maria De Coppi, killed in Mozambique on 6 September. All these anniversaries are, for us, occasions of grace and growth that contribute abundantly to giving taste and the odour of holiness to the feast of St. Daniel Comboni. At the same time, they become an occasion of recollection and intense prayer to renew our Comboni identity, to build an ever more intimate relationship with our Father and Founder and with the entire mission of the Church.

The example of life of our Founding Father continually challenges us to go beyond our limits and fragility and to embrace “holiness” as a gift of God that is transformed into a way of life. Today, Comboni wants to speak to the heart of each of us with the same words with which he challenged, instructed and encouraged his missionary men and women and the laity, sometimes using sweet expressions, at other times harsh, but always with the words of a father who loves his children. Let us therefore refine our capacity to listen and open our hearts and minds to accept his words as a father so that our relationship with him may become ever deeper, more stimulating and fruitful.

On this feast day, let us dedicate some of our time to contemplate and meditate on his example of life, on his choices, on his determination; let us humbly ask for his intercession so that we too may continue to be faithful to our vocation as consecrated persons and missionaries at the service of the People of God. Let us keep our gaze always fixed on the Heart of Christ and love him tenderly so that he may continue to be the only source of our life and the driving force of our mission. Certain that without a radical return to Christ and to the charism of Comboni, our mission will not bear fruit.

Let us make our own the desire of St. Daniel Comboni that our communities may become small cenacles of apostles where brothers and sisters can meet together to celebrate, reflect and pray, in a synodal spirit, involving, where possible, the laity with whom we work in the missions and in the local Church.

Let us also ask for the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni in the process of discernment regarding the choice of circumscription superiors and their respective councils, so that God may give us holy and capable superiors, in love with the Comboni mission and the Institute, to animate and accompany the confreres and to promote and coordinate the activities/priorities of the circumscription, also bearing in mind the orientations of the XIX General Chapter.

May Mary, Mother of the Church, intercede for us.
We wish all of you a Happy Comboni Feast Day.
The MCCJ General Council

“The Way of the Cross in the Writings of St. Daniel Comboni.”

29 March, 202228 March, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

The cross is “foolishness” for those who do not understand it… said St. Paul (1 Cor 1:18). Here we publish a Way of the Cross with 14 phrases by Saint Daniele Comboni on Jesus’ journey to the cross. Comboni deeply understood the “scandal” involved in seeing Jesus on the cross: he saw it as a necessary means for evangelization and as a reality that his missionaries had to embrace in order to continue God’s saving work in the world. What Comboni says is very strong and even scandalous in our day, but in these words of his we can find light and wisdom for our missionary life. [comboni.org].

Via-Crucis01ES

Father Pedro Pablo Hernández

A family that dreams

21 March, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

Last weekend we celebrated the VII Meeting of the Comboni Family in Spain. We have experienced the joy of reuniting and we have verified that the missionary dream of following our vocation as a family (religious, men and women religious, lay and secular Comboni Missionaries) is renewed.

The house of the Comboni Missionaries in Madrid welcomed this group of 30 people belonging to the various communities of CMS, MCCJ and CLM in Spain. The Comboni Seculars could not be present on this occasion. Pietro Ciuciulla, of the MCCJ General Council, as well as the leaders of the 3 branches present and Alberto de la Portilla, Coordinator of the CLM Central Committee.

The focus of the meeting was to accompany, through reflection and prayer, the 150th anniversary of the foundation of our Comboni Missionary Sisters. Prado Fernandez led the presentation of the history of the first Comboni Sisters who accompanied St. Daniel on his first journeys, marked by the Cross as victims of the Mahdia, the revolt that devastated the first Comboni works in Sudan and marked from the beginning the vocation of the CMS.

From his first intuition, Comboni dreamed of a family, for his first journey counted on lay missionaries and on these courageous and forward-looking women as mission companions. In the course of its history, the witness of the sisters consolidates the liberating impulse of women in all latitudes. Rereading those early sufferings launches us into the challenges of the present moment. And we renew our awareness that today the Comboni charism is actualized through the Comboni Family. Fr. Pietro insisted on this when commenting on the inspiring document of the General Councils of the Comboni Family of 2017: “The charism grows and is renewed when it is shared with others who recreate it in the peculiarity of each style of Christian life”.

In this spirit, the Map of the Ministeriality of the Comboni Family, was presented, which gathers more than 200 missionary presences in the world, with tremendous vitality in the most diverse contexts, educational, health, social, pastoral, transforming impact… The mission is understood today from the ministeriality, from the service to the people in these various areas. This integral mission of the Church must integrate service, accompaniment, reflection, sensitization and social transformation in the process.

The mission process

Taken from Fr. Alvarez SJ

In the final part of the meeting, the leaders of the 3 branches present shared the current situation of their organizations, with various challenges and hopes. This 2022 coincides for the first time the General Chapter of CMS and MCCJ. It is a moment of special density, to remain faithful to the vocation that is carried out in new ways, with new means. A moment in which we renew the intuition to continue dreaming together how to develop the Comboni mission in the world.

Gonzalo Violero, CLM Spain

190th Anniversary of the birth of St Daniel Comboni

15 March, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

« I have come to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were blazing already! » (Lk 12,49)

Keeping the flame alive

Introduction. As we celebrate the 190^th anniversary of the birth of Daniel Comboni (Limone Sul Garda, 15 March 1831) and the 140^th anniversary of his death (Khartoum, 10 October 1881), we are invited to celebrate our charismatic memorial and to invoke the presence of the Spirit which illumined his life from birth to death. His beatification (17 March 1996), whose 25^thanniversary recurs this year, was a charismatic gift for the entire Comboni Family. On that occasion, ([1]), the general councils published a message together with a letter to encourage the members of our missionary family to be joyful and to gaze in spiritual manner at our father, seeking inspiration and fruitfulness for our missionary service. Finally, with the canonisation, the Church enrolled him in the register of saints, recognising the validity and relevance of the Comboni missionary charism and proposing St Daniel Comboni as a model of Christian life and mission, the example and paradigm of universal missionary commitment, which unites different continents and people in the passion for God and Humanity. Then too, our general councils gifted us with a message ([2]) and a letter ([3]) inviting us to look upon St Daniel as the witness and master of that sanctity to which we are called and the mission we live. This letter is part of this movement of the memorial and actualisation of the charismatic gift entrusted to St Daniel and, in him, to all of us: a gift from God that is revived in every Comboni generation.

Considering his roots. The memorial we keep of the birth of St Daniel Comboni invites us, before all else, to consider the family, ecclesial and social roots that influenced him so much and which he often mentioned ([4]). His birth occurred amid difficulties and limitations. His parents were migrants, having come to Limone looking for work. His father, Luigi Comboni had, at the age of fifteen, come to Limone from Bogliaco in December 1818. His mother, Domenica Pace, was born in Limone (31 March 1801) but her family was from Magasa, in the mountains. Luigi and Domenica married on 21 July 1826, in the church of St Benedict and, according to the baptismal register, had six children; to these we may also add twins who died and were not baptised ([5]).

“Daniel Comboni grew up with his parents in their modest house in Tesol, sharing the joys and sorrows of the family. Of all his siblings, only Vigilio (1827-1848) and Marianna (1832-1836) survived” ([6]). He had great affection and esteem for his mother and father. His mother died on 14 July 1858, during his first journey to Africa, and it was with his father Luigi that Daniel kept up constant correspondence in which he recognised the religiosity of his parents and the influence they had on his missionary life and vocation. Contained in those letters are the human and Christian elements that constituted the fertile soil that gave growth to the vocation and mission of St Daniel (the memory of the beauty of the lake and the mountains, pride in Christian faith and life, devotion to the Cross and the Saviour, the contemplation of his love and Pierced Heart, the passion for God and the most needy): “Have courage therefore, my dear father. I have always opened my heart to you, I speak to you every day, I am aware of your worries and I am enjoying a foretaste of the delights God has reserved for you in heaven. Courage therefore! May God be the centre of communication between us. May he guide our undertakings, our affairs, our destiny and let us rejoice that we are dealing with a good master, a faithful friend and a loving father” ([7]). The celebration of the 190^th anniversary of his birth gives us a new opportunity to come closer to him and his family and ecclesial roots, strengthening awareness of our own roots as a spiritual background that gives stability to our personalities and spiritual fecundity to our missionary life. This celebration also gives us an opportunity, as the Comboni Family, to deepen the role of Limone and to continue the collaboration undertaken at the birthplace of St Daniel Comboni.

Faithfulness in the midst of adversity. The memorial of the 140^thanniversary of the death of Daniel Comboni invites us to look at his life from the viewpoint of the supreme moment of his gift of himself for the regeneration of Nigrizia. In the letters he wrote during the last months of his life, he appears to be a missionary surrounded by difficulties but rooted in the faith: famine, plague and hunger, the lack of water, the scarcity of means to keep the missionary work going, the sickness and death of his missionaries … In his own words, those were “times of desolation” when “the sufferings to be alleviated are unfortunately too many” (^[8]).

Faced with such difficulties, Comboni remains anchored in faith in God and the missionary vision that inspired and sustained his life. “I am happy in the cross which, when borne willingly out of love for God, gives birth to victory and eternal life”: these words ([9]) sum up, at a crucial moment, the mindset of his whole life. His return to the foot of the Cross, to the contemplation of the Pierced Heart where it all began, fills with light and courage the moment of his return to the Father and lies at the origin of the confidence and “courage for the present and even more for the future” ([10]) that Comboni instils in his missionaries in the moment of A-Dio: “I die but my work will not die!” ([11]).

The two dates of the memorial we keep this year mark out a life’s journey in which the power of the Spirit takes shape in the life of St Daniel and renders perceptible and alive a small patch “of the unlimited love” of God ([12]); he lets himself be “formed” by the Love he contemplates, keeping his gaze fixed on Jesus crucified. St Daniel leaves us a testimony that generates life for our time.

Birth and death. We are celebrating these anniversaries of the life of St Daniel Comboni after a year, 2020, that was marked by the coronavirus pandemic and after having begun the year 2021 while the whole world is still experiencing uncertainty in public health and the economy. In the Comboni Family, we too are suffering the consequences of this situation: we have lost men and women missionaries who, after many years of mission, enriched us with their testimonies and hoped to live out their old age in peace ([13]); the pace of our activities has been brought to a halt and our plans and projects have been suspended; the limits placed on our travelling has sorely tried us, challenging us to be creatively close to the poorest and the least and those most affected by the pandemic; we feel unable to find a way out and we share the feeling of disorientation and loss that is overpowering many of our brothers and sisters.

Seeing Daniel Comboni and in the span of his missionary life and vocation, from birth to death, we understand how, in the moment of crisis and uncertainty, he recognised and awaited the movement of the Spirit, reviewed his plans and renewed his missionary commitment, embraced the Cross and its difficulties, seeing in all these things a sign of the loving presence and mysterious action of God, of a divine hour with its promise of renewed life. In all these situations, he yields to the attraction of the love of God for Africa and he is not afraid to be part of a tiny group; he perseveres, plans, takes risks and is able to offer his life, without counting the cost. From him we learn the attitudes we need to live through such uncertain times as the hour of God: patience and faithfulness to the missionary vocation; the ability to involve ourselves creatively, always placing people and God at the centre; the sense of communion (being a cenacle) that keeps us together and strengthens our charismatic identity and our missionary vocation in the Church of today.

Daniel Comboni urges us never to allow the burden of Covid-19 and the negative consequences of social distancing to close us in upon ourselves but to overcome conflict and competition and regain the spirit of collaboration between laymen and laywomen, sisters, brothers and priests; to increase the feeling of communion and friendliness of living together which Comboni recommended to his followers; to keep hope alive, even in darkness and rediscover the strength to care for ourselves and to be resilient; to accept the changes that are taking place and see opportunities where others see failure; to assume birth and death as doors to pass through, challenges to our creativity and occasions for mutual support; to consider losses (lives, occupations, health and economic security …) as an opportunity for conversion and support among ourselves, individuals, families and communities. During the pandemic we have maintained communion, we have exchanged information and set in motion processes such as the Social Ministeriality Forum with meetings held using Zoom; the present situation challenges us to find new ways of being united as a Comboni Family, to face together difficult movements and changes and continue the process of collaboration ([14]).

The light of the testimony of St Daniel Comboni illumines the discernment that what we are living calls us to prepare for the immediate future which will not simply be a return to the familiar past. It offers us criteria for assuming the values we hold dear, the friendship and affection of family and friends; to understand the common destiny of humanity, threatened by the pandemic and ecological disaster; to commit ourselves to social transformation (including climate change, care for our common home and healthcare for every person …) giving our contribution creatively, rejecting the superfluous and favouring solidarity.

These attitudes are rooted in the faith, in “a strong awareness of God” and “lively interest in his Glory and the good of people”, especially the impoverished and marginalised who are the antidote St Daniel suggests to counteract the stress of the pandemic and the uncertainty of the times we live in. He inspires us to see the world and the events we are living with “the pure eye of faith” ([15]) and warns us that any missionary, whether man or woman, lacking this attitude “will end up in a kind of emptiness and intolerable isolation” ([16]). He also points out the way to remain faithful: “… to keep one’s gaze fixed on Jesus Christ, loving him tenderly and striving to understand better every moment that passes the meaning of a God dead on a cross …” ([17]). Comboni speaks of an “impetus of divine fire” coming from the Pierced Heart which men and women missionaries receive at the foot of the Cross to take everywhere; that flame that nourishes their commitment to the regeneration of people and the transformation of the society in which they live ([18]).

Keeping the fire burning. The memorial of the birth and death of St Daniel Comboni reminds us that the chief challenge we are faced with at this time is precisely that of keeping alive this flame, this divine impetus burning in our hearts and “seeing the beauty of the spiritual paternity of St Daniel whose heart was burning and (…) succeeded in prophetically kindling the fire of the Gospel, overcoming boundaries, (…), suffering misunderstandings, limiting visions and concretising an innovative missionary vision”. Fidelity to Daniel Comboni is played out in “keeping to the path he has commenced” and in “believing in the power of the fire of the Spirit (…) that comes down upon us and makes us courageous frequenters of the future” (^[19]).

General Councils of the SCM, CMS and the MCCJ and the International Commission of the CLM

[1] Letter dated 23 February 1996, for the Day of Reconciliation. The message “Gazing at the rock from which we were carved” is dated 6 April 1995.

[2] “A Gift to be Welcomed and Studied” dated 15 March 2003.

[3] “Daniel Comboni, Witness of Holiness and Master of Mission” dated 1 September 2003.

[4] Both by visiting his native home and especially by letters to his parents, to his father after his mother had died, to his cousins, the parish priests and citizens of Limone. The correspondence of Daniel Comboni with his father includes 31 letters. The first was written from Cairo on 19 October 1857, the last on 6 September 1881, a month before his death.

[5] Positio, Roma 1988, Vol. I, p. 14.

[6] Mario Trebeschi and Domenico Fava, San Daniele Comboni e Limone, Limone sul Garda 2011, p. 39.

[7] Daniel Comboni, Writings 188.

[8] Daniel Comboni, Writings 6631.

[9] Letter to Sembianti, Writings 7246.

[10] In Annals of the Good Shepherd 27 January 1882.

[11] Giovanni Dichtl, letter to Cardinal Simeoni, 29.9.1889.

[12] Daniel Comboni, Homily in Khartum, Writings 3158.

[13] During the first wave of the pandemic, 13 Comboni Missionary Sisters died in Bergamo. In the second wave, between 8 November 2020 and 10 January 2021, 20 Comboni Missionaries died in Castel d’Azzano; others died later in Milan, Ellwangen (Germany), Guadalajara (Mexico) and in Uganda; a total of 35. Altogether, up to the end of January 2021, 48 Comboni men and women missionaries died victims of Covid-19.

[14] During the Social Ministeriality Forum, the member of the Comboni Family commission reflected together on this time as a good opportunity for new modes of encounter, while waiting for better times when we can meet face to face. To keep the process going, two webinars were planned. For the first one in December, 279 people registered, representing the Comboni Family all over the world.

[15] Daniel Comboni, Homily in Khartoum, Writings 2745.

[16] Daniel Comboni, Rules of 1871, Chapter X.

[17] Daniel Comboni, Rules of 1871, Chapter X.

[18] Daniel Comboni, Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, IV Edition, Verona 1871, Writings 2742. “… Then he was carried away by the impetus of that love set alight by the divine flame on Golgotha and came forth from the side of the Crucified One to embrace the whole human family…”.

[19] Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Homily for the memorial of St Daniel Comboni, Rome 10 October 2020.