We share with you a nice video made by the Kleven family (American CLM in their second years of service in Malawi).
You can see many of the activities carried out by them in their missionary service.
We hope you like.
English
First months in Ethiopia
In the beginning of January I came to Ethiopia, beginning my mission! I’ll work as a physiotherapist in Bushullo Health Center, near Awassa (in the south part of Ethiopia). Joining there Maggie & Mark with their children!
But now the first months I’m spending in Addis Abeba (in the community of MCCJ) on the language training – trying to learn Amharic. It is the second-most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. The graphs of the Amharic writing system are called fidel. Each character represents a consonant+vowel sequence and there are more than 230 of them! Now it’s such big joy for me to be able to read something (finally!). So wherever I go I try to decipher the texts around me – on the buses, on the buildings… 😉
After school usually I spend some time for voluntary service, using my physiotherapy skills and at the same time improving Amharic through communication with the patients 🙂 . People here are so friendly for me, helping a lot with everything, always smiling and greeting. I really enjoy it! And also they teach me their culture – like for example inviting for coffee ceremonies or for enjera. I also had the possibility to be here for Timkat – one of the biggest feasts of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which celebrates Epiphany and Baptism of Jesus. For me it’s so interesting to experience the variety of churches here – catholic is only 1%, the biggest is Orthodox church, then protestants and Muslims. But the religion seems to be very important part of live, even in the language all the most common expression include God – like for example the answer for greeting is “I’m fine, thanks be to God”.
So slowly I’m getting to know this place, these people, this culture, this language. And day by day I’m more and more happy that God sent me here!
Madzia Plekan. CLM in Ethiopia
[Mozambique] Vocational meeting
With the 2015 school year kicked off our vocation meetings. We do it the second Sunday of each month in the catechetical center. We have already done two. It is good to mention that we have formed a team to organize these meetings. Form by Brother Luis (Italian), Sister Maria Pia (Italian), who gave us the news that she will be sent to the provincial community so she will continue to support with their prayers, CLM Beatriz (Mexican), Amanda (American volunteer) and the young Sabonete (Mozambican), who is making the year of discernment to start the stage of basic training in the CLM group of Mozambique.
Basically, they are three years in which vocational guidance is given to young people who have this concern to discover their way forward. We introduce specific vocations for them to choose the one to which they feel called by God. The Bible is our main tool, to know how different people were called and how they responded to the call received is to discover that God calls us all in different ways. We have the opportunity to present testimonies, we can talk about our personal experiences from when we were their age and thus, with games, dynamics, group work, plenary, we share the joy of proclaiming the Gospel in the vocation they choose and help to build the Kingdom of God.
“Life is a gift that we deserve by giving it out”
A Commentary on John 12, 20-33: Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 22, 2015
On our way towards the Holy Week, the most important week in the liturgical year and in Christian life, we are now at the fifth Sunday of Lent. And we read John chapter 12, before getting into the great story of the Passion that begins with Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.
This passage of John’s Gospel presents Jesus in Jerusalem, taking part at the celebrations of a Hebrew feast, together with people coming from several parts of the world. Among those people there were some “Greeks” who wanted to know Jesus, who takes the opportunity to pronounce a brief but very meaningful speech. Let us see:
- “We want to see Jesus”
First of all, let us put our attention on those “Greeks” that wanted to see Jesus. As a matter of fact, when the evangelist writes this Gospel, there were already communities of disciples, Christians, that came from that “Greek” culture, which was de dominant culture of the time, as much as it happens with our today’s “Global-English” culture. This presence of Greek disciples among the followers of Jesus was, in fact, a great cultural and religious jump forward, since Jesus was a Hebrew and stared preaching to them. The proposal of human and spiritual renewal, that Jesus meant for the Hebrews in the first place, became very soon a proposal for other peoples, belonging to other cultures and religious systems.
From this first “opening”, Christian communities opened themselves more and more to new peoples, crossing continuously new frontiers: in Asia, in Europe, in America, in Africa… In every new stage of human history, during the last twenty centuries, new peoples said: “We want to see Jesus”. And after those first two missionaries, Andrew and Philip, many others helped people to encounter Jesus: Paul, Augustin, Patrice, Francis Xavier, Daniel Comboni….and many others.
We are convinced that also today there are many other people and human groups that, over any geographical or cultural frontier, wish to know Jesus, not as theological or philosophical figure, but as a real Person that talks to the heart of every person and every culture; a Person that brings to our life truth, free pardon, unconditional love, a proposal of brotherhood for all humanity and, and a special clarity about God the Father…
Today, as yesterday, humanity is in need of new “Andrew and Philip”, new missionaries, people who know Jesus personally (not only from the books, but from their experience of life), people who have found the “treasure” that the person of Jesus represents for themselves and for others, people ready to act as “facilitators” so that others come to enjoy the Word, the Love and the Person of Jesus.
- Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies…
When the “Greeks” are introduced to him, Jesus pronounces a brief speech that may seem enigmatic to some, but for me is quite clear and meaningful, if we pay the due attention to it. Let us see:
- “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.” Here and in other parts of the Gospel Jesus talks about his “hour” and his “glory”. I think that in our today’s language, we could speak of “victory”, “esteem”, “acknowledgement”… Jesus, as all of us, needs esteem and acknowledgement. But the big difference is that the “glory” He is looking for is not vainglory or self-boosting; He looks for the acknowledgement that comes from his Father. And He shares this acknowledgement with the disciples, the simple ones, the poor, those who put their trust in the Father.
- “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”. This is a well- known Jesus’ sentence with a clear meaning: life springs out of sacrifice; glory and triumph comes out of enduring… In the mouth of Jesus, this words speak clearly of his death, that He is ready to accept in the confidence that out of his death will spring new life for humanity.
- “He who loves his life, loses it…”. The example of the grain of wheat works for Jesus, but also for all of us. The sentence reminds us of the parable of the talents, in which the lazy servant is rebuked for not making good use of the talent received. Life cannot be lived in fear and laziness . It must be lived with generosity, given up in service and love. As a poet said, “life is a gift that we deserve by giving it out”.
These words of Jesus are not only “beautiful” words, but a source of real life, words that come from His own experience of love and obedience to the Father for the benefit of all mankind. Jesus was not afraid to give Himself up to the point of death. He was able to go to death, confident that the Father will transform His death into a source of new life for humanity, as in fact it is happening in us and around us.
It is this new life in Jesus that we celebrate this Sunday listening to the Word, sharing our way with other disciples in the Community, sharing the Eucharist, serving others in the family, in our working place, in society, going out to the poor or whoever is in need near us or far away…
As disciples missionaries we know that the best way to “gain” our life is to give it up, as Jesus did.
Fr. Antonio Villarino
Roma
Called to live and be community
During the weekend 21 and 22 of February, the Comboni Lay Missionaries gathered in Viseu for the sixth formation meeting on the theme: “Community: Challenges and Opportunities” oriented by the community-life of Oporto. The meeting was held at the Monastery of Santa Beatriz da Silva, who graciously welcomed us and we are very grateful for that.
During this meeting, we had the opportunity to reflect and understand in depth what is community life. The community appears at the beginning of the Bible, when God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2, 18). So, in fact, we are called throughout our life to live and be community. As Susana said: “The world is our structure. People are our home. Without this world we cannot have another, without people the human been does not live”. Thus, it must be with people and for people that the community exist.
“We have to be parts of one body”
The community is everywhere, in every field of our life: school, work, family, friends, church, catechesis and mission. However, we can only speak fully of community if we accept Jesus Christ as a member of our community, as the brother who loves us so much to die on the cross with the weight of our sins. Jesus loves us and is part of our community and together with the Father and the Holy Spirit are the center, the heart of any community. Like them we must be one voice, be one soul, we must be parts of the same body. This is the real challenge of being community. This is because we are all different in our weaknesses and qualities. And God calls us individually by name. God calls different, sinners. God calls us. And we are, with all that characterizes us, who form community.
“We have to be parts of one body”
And the question we ask many times is: Does the community work despite the differences between people? Yes, it is not easy but it is definitely possible. It works if we know our center, if we are honest with each other, if we use the gifts of each to serve in things where we’re good. It works if we have the humility to share tasks. But not to divide but to unite. Thus, the community goes through faith in the other. The community is a matter of love in which there is only one heart, one mind and one voice. Stop being “me” to be “us”. Where everything is put together.
“The community is love”
The community is undoubtedly love. The love that comes from God, born of Him who loves us first in an overwhelming way. It is this love that moves the world we are called to be for our brothers. And as S John Paul II said: “Love is an act of will.”
So depend on us to forgive, excuse, want to love the others, choose to love despite all its faults and errors, which I also have, and love with our differences and our weaknesses.
By: Paula Sousa
