English – Page 120 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Meeting of Evaluation and community living – CLM 11th Formation Session

5 September, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

The 11^th formation session of the CLM took place on July 7-9 At the Comboni Missionaries House in Viseu.

On Saturday the 8^th, we had the opportunity to carry on the “evaluation” by the candidates, or better… a conversation between each one of the people in formation and the formation team over the steps that are being taken in this journey of discovery of the life of the CLM.

The two years formation offered to the candidates who accept the invitation to know what it means to be a CLM is not limited to these two years. It is a formation leading to life. It is life itself. It is a journey of forward and backwards steps that, now and then, needs attention and evaluation by each individual or within the community, sharing “points of reference – on where I am headed as CLM.” At the end we embraced in a wonderful welcome the CLM Neuza and Paula, recently arrived from the community of Granada. They shared with us their experience in the community of Lisanga together with the CLM from Spain, Aitana and David. They also told us about a project – the project they will be developing during the two years they will spend in mission in Arequipa. This project will have as a background the social pastoral where they will be involved in situation of domestic violence, drawing people to the health center, and the formation of leaders, with the help of those who are already working in the parish.

On Sunday we were able to welcome our families and friends and together celebrate the family we have. Again Paula and Neuza spoke of their experience in Lisanga, but this time not only for the CLM but for the families and friends. The Eucharist followed, then came lunch and an afternoon enriched by music, games and dancing.

We wish to take all who took part, both physically and in prayer. It was a very nice day in which we felt the unity that St. Daniel Comboni proposed to his followers. It is a source of pride to belong to such a family. We are together in and for life.

With love,

Carolina Fiúza

I go, I follow Him, but I am not going alone!

5 August, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

On July 16 in the community of Viseu, in the parish of Rio de Loba, together with her family and friends we celebrated the missioning of our CLM Neuza Francisco. She will soon leave for our mission of Arequipa, Peru. We share with you her feelings, following this great day of celebration.

I talk about a Yes which has nothing easy about it, but means availability, a Yes which is full of commitment and love. It is a “Yes” given from the humble condition I am in, and from what I have within me. It is a Yes full of perseverance, in the certainty that “God does not choose the most able, but enables those he chooses.” (Msgr. António Couto).

This Yes that I am telling you about involves leaving everything, family, friends, and the comforts of a life that for me it had no meaning. It is an attitude of detachment, because only through it we get to experience a personal relationship with Christ, without the dependency and the securities created in the course of a lifetime. I trust in the call that he gives me to be happy here of wherever he will lead me by the hand. It is the certainty of journeying more and more within my very self, to know myself, to be able to touch others, in a relationship which is only possible with the conviction that, walk wherever you walk, God leads me by the hand.

Today I have this deep trust that Comboni walks with me in God’s dream for us and that I, too, am also one of the thousand lives for mission.

Today, He calls me once more to leave my boat at the shore and with him look for other seas. I go, I follow, but I am not going alone. I take along the prayers of all those whose paths I crossed and sowed in me small seeds of a deep love that germinated, and continues to do so, here within my heart. I go, but I do not go alone. I take with me all the hearts I met on my journey and taught me how to love more and more. I take with me all those whose life’s history intertwined with mine and helped me to get to know a merciful and compassionate God.

I hold in me the hugs given along a fruitful and fertile journey, I hold the outstretched hands that, despite the many falls, always helped me get up. I go, but I do not go alone. And, like my grandmother often used to say, I “go with God.”

At this time I am called to Peru. I feel that once more He invites me to love, to share, to be, to offer myself, to trust, so that together with the people to which I am called, we may be one. He calls me to go to the poorest and most abandoned in the outskirts of Arequipa. He calls me to be me and to let the treasure I carry within me bear fruit with others. I embrace the mission of Arequipa, like someone embraces a dream, experienced since forever. It is a dream to which I have given myself, and continue to give myself every day. I am not talking of utopia or of something unreal, but rather of the dream of being totally connected to the reality I have embraced.

I go, not because I want to save the world, but because I, too, want to be part of the open wounds of the world, wounds made of flesh and bone people who in a faraway world carry within themselves fragments of God. I want to be with them, I want to see the face of God in humanity looking for a meaning, with my feet on the ground and my hands filled with nothing. I want to see God in the spontaneous smiles of those who do not know love, but live daily to give praise.

I walk in the confidence, commitment and joy of knowing that I am following Christ, I bring Christ and will always meet Christ. I walk and every step I take, I take it freely in the knowledge that I will always be in his merciful arms where I will take shelter at sundown, and He will be my hope who will make me get up at each new sunrise.

I leave in the name of a community, in the name of the Church, in the name of Jesus Christ, to announce the Gospel of Love. And in this deep growth in myself, in God and in others I ask you: Pray for me.

With love and gratitude,

Neuza Francisco

“Share the Joy of the Gospel” – Ethiopian Comboni Friends’ annual retreat

4 August, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Addis Ababa, July 30, 2017

“Share the Joy of the Gospel” – Ethiopian Comboni Friends’ annual retreat

“No one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”

“O God your ways are holy!

You are the God who does Marvelous deeds”

(Ps77:13a.14a)

On July 21-23, 2017 at the Comboni Postulancy House in Addis Ababa we held our annual retreat as Comboni Friends of Ethiopia. I was really looking forward to this chance to pray, worship, build our friendship and strategize. This is always a special time for me: to leave the office and get away from hustle bustle. I said: “O Lord, your ways are holy”. Earlier this year, I went on a silent retreat for a week. What better, I thought, than a week of silence for an introvert? So it was a bit of disappointment when I learned that Comboni Friends’ retreat would not be one in complete silence. But God continued to surprise me and make me laugh.

“Share the Joy of the Gospel!”

I was very pleased with the Comboni Friends retreat. During the weekend-long meeting we felt like a family. Praying together, eating together, working together. Preparing meals, washing dishes, playing games, talking – doing everything together was great fun! On Saturday afternoon we went out to play Bible games on the street and I really liked that idea to share the Joy of the Gospel with others.

“By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have loved one to another” – we continued our retreat activities in Mother Teresa’s House, where our group got involved this year in monthly volunteering. It was the first time for me to visit the compound and as one of the sisters guided us through different departments of the centre, a thought came to my mind: each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor and for enabling them to be fully a part of society. This requires us to be attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid. The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “Faith is gift that is given to us to be shared”. My prayer and hope is that every member of the Comboni Friends in Ethiopia will be willing and committed to put those words into practice. The task of each one of us is to live what we believe. This is the most important way of spreading and strengthening our faith.

During the reatreat, Comboni Missionaries did work hard to share the joy of the Gospel “in deeds and in words”. We thank them for what they did for us and pray for them, especially for Fr. Juan, responsible for Comboni Lay Missionaries in Ethiopia, Fr. Sisto, the Superior of Ethiopian Province and Comboni Lay Missionaries from Poland working in Ethiopia who reactivated the Comboni Friends group in Ethiopia. “Your good work will be poured out in the sight of all mankind” – dear lay missionaries, we rejoice that our Heavenly Father has performed this in practice, and we thank Heavenly Father for your work.

Tesfalidet Lelisho

Closing and opening

31 July, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Today we put the conclusions of our meeting into solid concrete steps on the way forward as Comboni Lay Missionaries working on this beautiful continent of Africa. We all have different realities within our communities. Some have found it easy to collaborate within our communities, some have found challenges. There are communities that communicate well and understand the expectations of our family and the greater Comboni community, others have just understood how it all fits together.

This meeting has closed now, but through the Holy Spirit it has opened the eyes and hearts of all of us. We are all stronger together, as one Comboni family. Our time in Anchilo has brought a continent of people all working to help expand the kingdom of God closer together. It has shown us our strengths and our weaknesses. We have put forth resolutions to make our paths more clear for all of us. These resolutions will help us all to understand deeper our vocation, our responsibilities, and the way forward in the spirit of St. Daniel Comboni.

African CLM

Fruits

30 July, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Our meeting has brought forth the realities of our missionary vocation to the group.

We have discussed topics like communication, vocation, economics, formation and much more. Through these discussions we have found where we have met our goals, areas that we need to improve and the challenges we face in doing so.

Much like St. Daniel Comboni we have all found some difficulties in expanding the Kingdom of God. With the charism of our founder and intercessor, we find the strength to carry on in our mission and find the path to do so.

Like the palm tree bearing the coconuts fruit, it is not easy to share the sweet taste of salvation but we find the strength to climb, through our faith and our community.

African CLM