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Mission News from the Central African Republic (CAR)

28 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

I hope you will all be happy with the bishop’s pastoral visit and that it will bear fruit.

Here Fr. Jesús is sick, but gratefully he is getting better… The other members of the apostolic community are in good shape and we thank God for his great love for us. Fr. Samuel will leave for Ethiopia to undergo medical tests and to rest. I pray the Lord that he may return well, full of good health and strength, to face anew the challenges of mission. Today his malaria came back. I hope he will be better tomorrow, because he is due to travel home.

This time I came to Bangui to open an account for the school. There is an organization that helps us and wants us to have an account to which to send the money.

We brought along a Pygmy couple and their baby, who was born with a nose deformation, to have surgery in the same pediatric hospital where they attended little Merveille. He was already operated on and it seems it was successful. May God allow it to be so! He will be discharged on Friday and will return to Mongoumba with us so that we can follow him as long as he needs care, because in the camp there are no hygienic conditions nor anyone who can do it. I hope Honoré (that’s his name) will do well…! The parents are very happy!

Next to Honoré there is a baby who was born without an anus and the waste spreads through the abdomen. He will undergo surgery tomorrow… May the Lord allow him to get well, so that in the future he will have a normal life.

By the grace of God Marveille is now growing normally.

Maria has already recovered a bit from malaria. Keep on praying for her.

Always united in prayer.

A great missionary hug to the all world.

María Augusta, CLM from Portugal in the CAR

New comers course in Ethiopia

25 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

In the first week of May all our community participated in the new comers’ course. It was organized by Comboni Family but participants were from different congregations. All together we were over 30 people.

First day we had lecture about Christianity in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the first Christian countries in the world, starting from IV century. Also in the Acts of Apostles we can read about converting the Ethiopian.

Second day we focused on the Catholic Church history, which was also very interesting, as e.g. how it happened that Ethiopia has two different rites – Ethiopian Ge’ez one (based very much on the orthodox tradition) and Latin.

Then the next day was about the liturgy, mostly about the one of the orthodox church, which also has a lot in common with the catholic one.

And then following day was about culture and some every-day life issues. These four days were common for all of us. But the last day was only for the Comboni family, we got a lot of information about history of the MCCJ’s missions in Ethiopia (starting from the time of Comboni himself) and CMS, and also some present issues of the Comboni Family’s presence.

It was very enriching time. We got many information, but also many new questions appeared, so we are motivate to continue discovering Ethiopia with its history & culture, to serve better here. Also it was beautiful time to be together and getting to know each other.

CLM Ethiopia

“And you, Mary, what do you tell us about mission?”

24 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

On April 29-30, 2017 we were very kindly welcomed in the house of the Secular Comboni Missionaries in Oporto, Portugal, where we held the 8^th formation session of the CLM with the theme, “And you, Mary, what do you tell us about mission?” The CLM Pedro Moreira moderated the session.

The meeting started on Friday evening with the arrival of the participants. For me in a special way it was a time of reconnection that filled my heart with joy, for being once again with people who are a family on a journey. Each one of us is a true gift of God and proof that “there is no distance or separation.”

The theme that was discussed during the entire day on Saturday and on Sunday morning was: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God?” This is the same question that Our Lady asked the three little shepherds of Fatima. It was also our initial question in order to know where we were headed and as a constant point of reference.

With the help of the “Treatise on the True Devotion to the Most Holy Virgin” of St. Luis Maria Grignion de Montfort and the Encyclical “Redemptoris Mater” of St. John Paul II, Pedro Moreira guided us and giving us his witness of simplicity, the beauty of his intimacy, devotion and love in and for Mary, our Mother.

“The more we delve deeply into Mary, the more we are missionaries.” This is one of the statements that resonate with me and that stirred me during the meeting.

Through our group work we meditated on the word of God looking for the missionary virtues of Mary. It was an opportunity to rediscover how missionary Mary was, from the moment of her “Yes up to Jesus Crucified who, from the cross, gave her to us as Our Mother, making her renew her “Yes” win obedience, fidelity and confidence in God’s will. All for the greater glory of God.

We had times of personal reflection that allowed us to deepen our relation with Our Lady and helped us to be missionaries like Mary.

“She was perplexed by these words.” (Lk 1:29)

And I? How do I react to the voice of God resounding in my soul? Especially when I know what the correct path is, but lack the courage to follow it…”

“To be missionaries demands that we be aware of our smallness and frailty, because that is where God manifests himself.”

“It is from the inside that Mary works at our own conversion. The proclamation of Jesus is deeply intimate, because in it the love of God for us and our eternal destiny are revealed.”

“Blessed is she who believed that what was said by the Lord would come to pass.”

I pass on to you these quotes that touched me, stirred me, as I realized how much I need to grow in my relation to Mary. Mary is the path of love towards Jesus. Who knows the son better than his own Mother? And if we follow those we love, and only love those we know, this is the path we are called to walk as missionaries.

As a community we prayed the rosary, offering our intentions and entrusting ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of hope and of peace. We remembered the Consecration of Africa made by St. Daniel Comboni to the Virgin of La Salette: “O Mary, show yourself to be the queen also of the poor Africans. At this moment, I, their father and missionary, place them at your feet, that you may place them all in your heart. Show that you are the Mother!” (SC 1639-1644)

On Saturday evening we watched the movie, “Mary, daughter of your Son,” that shows the fundamental role of Mary in the work of her son Jesus, which she accepted without understanding it, trusted and hoped faithfully, uniting her life to the mission and the divine reality of her son.

On Sunday we had further occasions to reflect on the dimension of “Us and (in) Mary,” as children of Mary, through a meditation on the biblical story of Rebecca and Jacob.

We concluded our meeting by attending the Eucharist in the parish of Our Lady of Areosa, where we had the opportunity at communion to put into practice the devotion suggested by St. Luis Maria Montfort, because the more we let Mary act through communion, the more will Jesus be glorified.

I am very grateful for this time and for the participation of all!

“Those who do not have Mary as a Mother, will never have God as a Father,” said St. Luis Maria Montfort.

May the charism and the faith of St. Daniel Comboni continue to be our example in this journey as a Comboni Family, so as to be humble missionaries. I leave you with this quote from Comboni’s act of consecration of Central Africa to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, made on December 8, 1875. Let us pray together:

“And you, O Mary, O Virgin of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, protect us, your poor children, keep us safe as your inheritance and property.

Be our guide as we travel, our teacher in our doubts, our light in darkness. Be our health in sickness, our advocate, our mother near the Heart of your blessed Son Jesus throughout our life.”

By Vanessa Sofia Pedro

CLM Portugal

With Mary, Pilgrims of Love

22 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Just like those who start a journey and leave the comforts of home, we, too, our bags on our shoulders and with hearts full of certainties and doubts, started on our journey… Pilgrims, on a road without beginning or end, through ways and byways and more that had never been tried. We advanced on open grounds, through places full of history, on roads paved with love, we walked with Him, full of Mary.

Within the soul the certainty that we are eternal pilgrims, we are in the fashion of Jesus, simple refugees in search of God, in search of fullness and freedom…

We started off and were born as community in the month of Mary, the month of the 100^th anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima. We feel sent by Mary. We are inspired by her, missionaries of yes. We try to follow her steps. To be missionaries means to feel like Mary, pregnant with Jesus, to be the living tabernacles of Jesus, to carry Jesus.

We are far, but we feel like pilgrims of Love and we feel on a journey with all those who gather in Fatima to celebrate the grace and the compassion of the apparitions of Our Lady together with the Pope. We feel that today, and many other days, Mary appears in our hearts and fills them with Grace, Love and Mercy. We are all called to follow her. We are all called to be missionaries, just like her.

Do not be afraid. For you have found grace before God – so said the angel to Mary. By creating us in his image, God looks at us constantly with boundless tenderness, and finds in each one of us a place where to stay. He calls us. Constantly, he sends angels to us to tell us not to be afraid, that God has found grace in us and calls us to be missionaries of love. And often we answer with, “me? But… Me, Lord?” We look left and right thinking he made a mistake. We, often entrapped by our internal wounds, by our anxieties and in our old ways, prisoners of our wounds and imperfections. We who often doubt about God’s call. Thus we make it impossible to receive the call. Let us have trust! Let us be like Mary, answering Yes, carrying it within us, wherever he wants us to go.

The mission needs us. The mission calls us. The mission is difficult, but if we walk together, hand in hand, we are with God, converted in instruments of God, allowing Him to love us and work through us.

Let us say with Mary: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

Community of “Lisanga”

Aitana, David, Neuza and Paula

New formation community in Granada, Spain (CLM of Portugal and Spain)

Mission News from the Republic of Central Africa

5 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

The Comboni Lay Missionary María Augusta Pires, who is stationed in Mongoumba, CAR sends us news whenever she goes through Bangui, the capital, which is the only place where she can find internet access. Here you find the latest news she sent last April.

This time I returned to Bangui early after one month. Since I was feeling tired, I took a test for malaria and it turned out positive. I have started the treatment while the symptoms are still few, so that the reaction to the medication will be less strong and there is less pain. Ana had malaria two weeks ago and feels tired, because we had with us a dentist from Poland and she accompanied her all the time for almost three weeks. In each village there were lots of teeth to be pulled. There was no possibility to treat cavities because we could not move the equipment. Thanks be to God, it helped lots of people who were in pain. Ordinarily this can be done only in Bangui and it is very expensive, with one extraction costing about F10,000 ($18). Some people needed two or three extractions and we charge a symbolic F500, which is less than $1.00.

Fr. Fernando and Fr. Jesús are fine, thanks be to God. Fr. Samuel had malaria early in March and again last week. Now he has typhoid fever (Salmonella). He will have to take one or two antibiotics. May the Lord help him to get well soon… he is a little discouraged… Please, pray for him.

María, a Pygmy woman who has cancer, was feeling a little better. But last week she started having serious diarrhea. We gave her medication to stop it, but it did not. So we started the malaria treatment with injections and immediately she improved. She has slimmed down a lot and now she needs better food. We shared our food with her to give her a more varied diet and we hope she will improve faster. Let us continue to pray to Mary and to her son Jesus.

Last week, twins were born to a mother without milk and she needed help. At this time we are taking care of nine babies. With God’s help and the generosity of those who share to help the poorest, we can work with joy and so share things with those around us.

Two weeks ago, while I was visiting the sick in the hospital, I met a woman who had had a cesarean but who, after three days, still had no milk. They asked me for milk, but I insisted that she needed to do all in her power first to make it come. So I gave her a menthol infusion and on the second day, it started coming a little. We repeated it for two more days and, thanks be to God, Patrice began to suckle well. Mother’s milk is always the best and even more here where milk is very expensive and the hygienic conditions are very poor (the hygienic care of the baby bottles and of the water used to mix the milk). A year supply of baby milk costs about $450. Very few families can afford to buy it.

During Lent, the Wednesday Mass is said in a neighborhood and on Friday the way of the Cross takes place in the same neighborhood. On Friday it will the youth of the whole parish who will take part in the JMJ. On Saturday we will have formation and on Palm Sunday it will be a great celebration. Last week, the catechumens [people preparing to be baptized] of the third year had a three day retreat and on Sunday they received the Oil of Catechumens. Since they are many, it is easier to celebrate baptism in stages.

A new CLM, Simone, who is from Italy, has arrived. He is here learning French in Bangui and we still do not know where he will go to study Sango [the local language].

I have read with joy the entire Astrolabios messages [she gets them by e-mail] and pray that the visit of D. Virgilio will yield much fruit in the future. May the pastoral visit be a success.

That the hearts of his faithful may receive with joy the bishop’s words. I pray that they may improve their lives as Christians and be true witnesses of Christ.

Best wishes of a Happy Easter to all.

United in Christ through prayer.

A missionary hug as big as the world.

María Augusta Pires

Published in the Astrolabio Diary