English – Page 137 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Witnesses of a Common Journey

14 August, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

On August 7 of this year 2016 in Viseu, Vila Nova do Campo, we celebrated the missioning of the CLM Marisa Almeida with a Mass presided over by Bishop Ilídio Leandro in the parish church of Vila Nova do Campo.

José Tolentino Mendonça says: “With a friend at your side, no journey will be too long.” This journey made together with the CLM seems to have started yesterday. It feels like yesterday when I started it with Marisa, the CLM whom we gift with “all that we are.” To have known Marisa has been one of the greatest treasures that this journey has given me. Just like in this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus came to repeat once more: “Do not be afraid.” He knows us. He knows our deepest fears, our anxieties, our obstacles and the wounds we need to heal. But, in the face of all this, he repeats: “Do not be afraid.” Often, so very often, we are fixated on our weakness, our fears and our insignificance. Many times we repeat by words and by the way we live” “Lord, I am so small, sinful, weak and helpless.” And he continues to repeat to us: “Do not be afraid.”

This is what happens to you. It happens to me and the same happens to Marisa. Many were the times when silently each one of us asked: “I? me? My God! With all the people who are daring and courageous, you pick me?!” Very often we have thought of not being up to it. But he does not choose the able ones, but enables those he chooses. It is to us, frail and sinful, that God gives the Kingdom of Heaven. This was the treasure I found in the CLM and that all of you are invited to follow and discover in life: Love. Love is what keeps us here. Love is what sends us out. And when we dare to follow, share and live this love, we are and we experience a bit of the Kingdom that the Father has prepared for us in Heaven. He puts us on his journey and for this we are here.

But I am not alone. None of us lives in solitude. Marisa does not exist for herself. We are together as I often say. And this being together is going with her, even though we are oceans apart. It is because she experienced and felt this love that Marisa answers the call with a YES. She makes mistakes, like the rest of us. She falls, like us. She is afraid, like us. But in her heart she listens to Jesus who tells her: “Do not be afraid.” And she trusts in him enough to say YES with her life.

We go with her, stay with her and are missionaries with her. Mission is accomplished by the feet of those who go, the knees of those who pray and the hands of those who help. By doing this, we stay together. United we experience the love of God.

At this point, I thank the entire Comboni Family, present through the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, the Secular Comboni Missionaries, the Comboni Sisters and the Young in Mission, to the entire community and to all those who are close to her, physically and spiritually – you turned this moment an experience of love, a bit of heaven. Let us feel challenged, like her, to trust in God by answering YES to his invitation to love. “To think of a loving person is to pray for her,’ says St. Teresa of the Child Jesus. For this reason I invite each one of you to think of Marisa so that her mission may be rich and fruitful!

Do not be afraid, let us stay united!

Paula Sousa. Portugal

News from the mission of Mongoumba

12 August, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

On July 3 the pastoral year ended. All the newly baptized, the scouts who already took their pledge and all the participants in the various pilgrimages attended Mass. The first pilgrimage was to Bangui for the coming of Pope Francis, and the second was to Mbaiki for the feast of the Sacred Heart. The Eucharist was quite long, lasting about three hours, but everyone was very happy.

The bishop of the diocese erected a shrine in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on a hilltop from where one can enjoy a beautiful panorama. About 250 pilgrims from Mongoumba took part in the pilgrimage. We started off on May 30 and arrived on the night of June 1. I did not get to walk, because I had to drive one of the two vehicles loaded with kitchen utensils, the food and the cooks. However, I attended the prayers and the catechesis offered during the pilgrimage and then on June 2 in Mbaiki. On the day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus we went in procession to the shrine – a distance of about 4km – carrying along the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Mass was broadcast by Radio Maria of Bangui, a radio station that easily reaches as far as Mongoumba. The pilgrimage concluded with a Mass in Batalimo, one of the parish’s chapels, with a Mass and the baptism of 30 adolescents. We were able to thank God for all of us being there in good health and happy. Annia was sick with malaria and could not attend. Neither could Elia, because someone had to stay behind to take care of Annia.

School ended at the end of June with a low percentage of graduates, since only about 50% of the students passed this year. I hope we will have better results next year…

Today I am in Mbaiki. I came to bring the teachers who are taking part in a two week course mostly dealing with French, math and education. May God help them to learn well so as to better teach their students.

Annia, the recently arrived Polish CLM, is adapting well and already knows enough Sango. She studies a lot, and continues to study French. It must not be easy to learn two languages at the same time.

I take advantage of the fact that now I am freer from school to help with the undernourished children.

Elia went back on July 2 and we already miss her! May the Lord help her and that all may work out well with the arm she fractured. She suffered a lot with it! If she can return we will be very happy.

Always united in prayer. I wish you all a good vacation.

Kisses.

Maria Augusta, CLM Mongoumba

A Family history in Villa Ecológica

5 August, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Andrea is a warm and beautiful 3-year-old child who lives in a small house in the poorest region of Arequipa, Peru. She shares her living space with her parents and two older brothers. Her life has always been difficult since her parents are very poor and her house has only one light bulb, no running water, two beds for everyone to sleep on, and the house is missing most of its windows. Consequently, her home is very cold during the days and especially in the nights.

However, things became much worse for her and her family when her father fell and hit his head approximately six weeks ago. He has a history of chronic seizure disorder and needed hospitalization for a hematoma he received after his fall. What little money the family had prior to this injury was spent for medical costs.

The house is equipped with a small propane stove, yet little money exists for purchasing gas and, thus the children are not fed proper meals. A hole in the ground serves as a toilet and the family shares a garden hose with the local community, in order to receive any water for drinking. Andrea’s first words to me after meeting her were not, “I’m hungry”, rather “My father is in the hospital”. I was moved to tears by her strength and acknowledgement that her father’s situation was direr than her own.

In Andrea I can clearly hear Jesus’s words (Mt 5: 3,6):

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Andrea and her family are not seeking pity, rather some of the basic necessities that we all may take for granted: food and water. Karissa, I, Sister Yanibell, and our friends are using some of the funds given to us by Dr. Barbara De Lateur- thank you so much for your continued support of our efforts. We are going to build the family a small kitchen, in order to provide meals and bring water closer to the home. We also hope to do more for these wonderful people in the future, for example construct a proper bathroom, if our funds will permit this. We have also asked permission from her parents, in order to have Andrea visit with us on weekends so that she, too, may share in the comfort of a safe and warm environment.

God bless you all for your prayers for Andrea and her family and please remember equality begins with the first step of sharing.

Peace,

Matt, Karissa, Lydia, and Violet Misner

Our friend Héctor

1 August, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Hello Everyone!

The Misner family is doing well in Arequipa and are giving aid to several members of the community needing our help.

First I would like to present to you one fried of the Villa Ecologica named Hector. Hector is 86 years old and is a frequent patient in our clinic. He is very strong for his age and is not suffering from many of the same problems that other older patients are. However, he does not have a place to live, eat, or other basic necessities that are necessary for him to live.

Although someone might think Hector is “poor” because he does not have much money, he is not limited in his activities. He is growing a beautiful garden near his home and likes to share with the clinic and his friends. He is very nice person and his love for life is very contagious so we visit him frequently. He is living the words in the Gospel of today’s Mass, reading from the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians in 3: 1-5. 9-11: “Aspire to the things that are above, not those of the earth.” Hopefully, we are all also demonstrating the same faith as Hector.

He does not have a house after a very strong wind knocked over his home many months ago. Therefore, he has to sleep in a shack in the days, which is located above the house to his niece, and is sleeping in an old car at night. He can’t sleep in the house of his niece because it is very small and has little space for his five other family members. We have a little money that we received from Ralph and Polly Winburn who are friends of mine from the States- thanks so much for your help! We will build a small house for Hector to live and hopefully more in the future if we can obtain more money. I will send more photos after the construction when I have them.

We are very grateful for your support and send the peace and love of Christ to you all.

We will be in contact soon!

Matt, Karissa, Lydia, and Violet Misner

Vocation promotion in Ghana

31 July, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

The Institution In My Father’s House built by a Comboni Missionary is having its aim to show the love of God to the poor and marginalized. For this, almost every year new entrances are carried on while others have to leave for further studies either to continue the Senior High School or to move to a Tertiary Institution. The clm aspirants living within the premises of the Institution see it good to widen the horizon of all those who are under formation within the premises of the Institution. It is for that matter, we are planning to start a Vocation Group to tackle the issue. But before this, we met to reflect upon our role as “clm.” Apart from our various services, we thought of doing something special to identify ourselves as clm. We are very much involved in the activities of the house but we want now to be more focused on our identity as clm and following the charism of St Daniel Comboni. We continue the reflection to select a special service at IMFH in addition to the Promotion of Vocation.

In this sense, we invited a Scholastic to present a topic upon Vocation this 17^th July.

In his presentation, he explained the word vocation and demonstrated the kind of vocation we have in the Bible. The amazing part was his own experience up to the end of his third year of Theology. He concluded on the need of faith and prayer to journey with the Lord. Justin Nougnui, the coordinator of the clm group helped the Scholastic for the translation. In addition to what the Scholastic said, he drew the attention of the children and all those who were at the presentation on seriousness and academic performance. It is so important to be serious and concentrated before you reach a target, and also we cannot do away academic performance if we want to say yes to God’s calling. He then motivated the children to focus on their study if they want to do great things in life.

Justin Nougnui