English – Page 188 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

The joy of Gospel the source of mission spirit

28 July, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

Polish CLM celebrated a greatly unusual thing. Three girls from our community officially entered to the CLM community. God bless them!

During the meeting from 12^th till 14^th June we co-organized and participated in 4^th Mission Congress of Poland. On Friday we began with the Holly Mass and entering of Katarzyna Tomaszewska, Magda Fiec and Anna Obyrtacz to CLM movement. Friday Mass was the very beginning for girls to join our community. They had arrived to Warsaw the day before to have some spare moments for prayer and meditation in silence. During the mass, the girls our friends have been reading the special prayer prepared by themselves for this particular occasion and undersigned the official declaration of participation. The Delegate of the General Father of Combonians fr. Gianni Gaiga submitted girls’ declaration with other Comboni’s fathers celebrating the mass. It must be emphasized that we hosted a family and colleagues of Kasia who arrived especially for this day from Silesia province. Kasia is willing to go to Mozambique, Anna is designated to go to Central African Republic and Magda is still making decision about destination about her mission. Later on the day there was a time to take care about stomach as well – we organised big barbeque. Fr. Guillermo Aguinaga Pantoja who is the superior of the house said that we are always very welcome and the Warsaw community is always open for the CLM. There had appeared our first missionary – Danuta Krol who shared with us the experience from Uganda. We took the possibility of speaking “last minute” with fr. Andrzej Flip who serves in Mozambique and had a return flight the day after. Our well known sister Ula Bayer with the group of children from Mosina near Poznan was also present.

We were in the city centre the next day. The organiser of the congress was Polish Episcopal Commission on Missions and Papieskie Dziela Misyjne (The Catholic Church’s official charity for overseas mission). “The joy of Gospel the source of mission spirit” was theme of the congress with a patronate of John Paul II. It was an unusual meeting because such congress is not a regular one and takes place in ten of fifteen years or even few decades.

Three forms of participation was prepared up to the age of visiting people: for children, youth and adults, so we had divided into three groups to work in parallel. All locations had been in the centre of Warsaw and the adult part was held just in front of the central church. The place and the open nature of the meeting had attracted many people. We promoted the CLM and missions in general, giving leaflets and promotional materials. We had an opportunity to speak and encourage people to this forms of actions in the Church. We had met many orders, congregations and communities also lay organisations involved in mission ad gentes. In the neighbourhood we had met our familiar mates from Akademickie Kolo Misjologiczne w Poznaniu (Mission Academic Circle in Poznan). We spoke with the representative if MIVA (Mission Vehicle Association) who sponsor all kinds of the vehicles to the missions to help missionaries. One of them will go to Equator to fr. Adam Zagaja MCCJ in the nearest future. The congress hosted many NGOs (Non-Government Organizations). One of the most attractive was Szymon Holownia’s: The Kasisi Foundation. Holownia is one of the most popular catholic journalist, writer, blogger and TV presenter who is involved in many actions in Africa now. In the conference panel Holownia emphasized the essence of the lay mission and real meaning of brotherhood help not only in Africa but also here in Europe e.g. for the present massive African immigrants in south Europe. There was also one point of the World Youth Day with youth people from east Europe. They encouraged us to help people from East willing to participate with Pope Francis next year. We met also Karol Pawlowski who had been inspired by Saint Adalbert and the pilgrimage way of Santiago de Compostella and now is trying to establish and promote the way of Saint Adalbert from Gniezno in Poland to Magdeburg in Germany (the web: http://www.droga-swietywojciech.pl). All those meetings helped us to understand that our Church is so rich and diverse and there is still a lot of things to do.

At the end all participants joined the Holly Mass leaded by cardinal Fernando Filoni – Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The homily was told by Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz from Warsaw. Cardinal emphasised that every single man who believe in Gospel must live as a missionary. All walked to The Holy Cross Church in the procession with the cross and icon – the signs of World Youth Day. The day was fulfilled by worship concert and finished with singing the Appeal of Jasna Gora (Jasna Gora is the place of pilgrimage to Virgin Mary).

That rich day and all of the meeting gave us a joy the same as Gospel. Let us joy then and move together on our mission ways keeping the smile and Gospel in heart!

Tomasz Wierzbicki

CLM Krakow

Bread to cross the dessert: the impossible becomes possible

24 July, 2015 by Antonio Villarino

A commentary on John 6, 1-15 (XVII Sunday of O.T.: July 26^th 2015)

Let us remember that in the Sundays of this liturgical year we are reading the gospel of Mark and that we have reached chapter six. Last Sunday we saw Jesus deeply moved before a crowd of people that were like “sheep with no shepherd”. Today we should go on reading from the same chapter of Mark what is known as “the multiplication of bread”.

But, for this episode, the Liturgy has preferred to offer, for this and the next four Sundays, the reading of John chapter six, that is quite rich in theological references. This Sunday we start off with the first fifteen verses. We can read them personally and try to get its meaning for each one of us today. On my part, I put forward make two points of meditation:

1.- Jesus as the new Moses

John begins his story in quite a solemn way. It’s evident that he means that what he is going to say is very important. There are at least three elements that mark this “solemnity”:

– Jesus from the lake climbs up to the mountain. We all know that the mountain, in biblical language, is much more than just a geographical incident. To go up the mountain reminds us, among other stories, of Moses going up the Sinai, where he had that extraordinary revelation of God as liberator and “chief” of his people.

-When He is on the top of the mountain Jesus “sits down” with his disciples. The gesture speaks of Jesus as the Master with an authority that nobody else ever had. As Moses received on the Sinai Mountain the Law for his people, Jesus teaches on the mountain the new Law, the Word received from the Father.

-The Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. We know that the Passover, Easter, was the feast in which the memory of the liberation was made, the identity of the people was strengthened and hope was renewed for a new and definitive liberation.

What John is going to tell us in this chapter six of his gospel has to be placed in this solemn set of theological references.

For he disciples, and for us now, Jesus is not an ordinary “rabbi”, nor one of many prophets or somebody who wanted to purify and renew the ethical levels of society… He is the Eternal Word of God that enlightens like a lamp in the night; He is the bread that nourishes us in the dessert of life; He is the new Moses, who, coming down from the mountain, leads the people and sustains it on the way to freedom and full life. He is the centre of the new Passover, the new alliance with the Father for the life of all.

2.- The impossible made possible

John says that Jesus asked Philip how to do to nourish so many people in an isolated place. And Philip gave him the only possible answer: it’s no possible. All of us would have given the same answer, as we really do in front of so many difficulties and problems with no apparent solution.

Philip was right, but it seems that he has forgotten the history of his own people: to nourish a crowd in an isolated place is impossible, as it was impossible that a tiny people could have been liberated from the power of the Pharaoh; or that this same people would be able to cross the dessert and not die on the intent… But the experience of Israel is that God made all this possible, so that indeed it was liberated, it did cross the dessert, and it did reach the Promised Land.

But we should not think that God acted as a kind of “magician”. It is something more simple and deep: When we allow God to go with us and we do our own part, the powerful give way, waters divide themselves, bread is enough, injustice is overcome, conflicts give way to reconciliation and new levels of brotherhood are possible, till the will of God is fulfilled “on earth as it’s on heaven”.

When we confront problems with faith, hope and charity, the impossible becomes possible, as it has happened so many times in universal history and in our own personal life. When we take part in the Eucharist all this is celebrated and made actual.

Fr. Antonio Villarino

Roma

My experience of mission in Arequipa – PERU

21 July, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

This first year has just flown thanks to the Father. All mission experience is rewarding because you share your life and surely is more what you get than what you give, or we better say “share”. Jesus invited me through St. Daniel Comboni to recognize the African Mission in the Comboni parish of “The Good Shepherd” in the city of Arequipa and more specifically in the community of St. Daniel Comboni in Villa Ecológica. You have to encourage yourself, especially with prayer asking that we can discover the way where He wants to lead us and be docile to follow. The CLM brothers of Spain Gonzalo, Isabel, Jose and Carmen left a living experience in the community of Villa, they cannot forget. They allowed my arrival to be warm and now I feel increasingly identified with the community.

I began my service teaching a course in electricity and plumbing to a group of high school students. We hope to repeat this year in the new environment that is being completed to build. With Brazilian sister Sharliman Alencar Lobo, who stayed with us for six month and started the project at the library to help children with their homework. A single mother or father alone constitutes many families. Many parents go to work because of low income, so many of these young families cannot afford the time to be with the children in the afternoons to help with their homework and to complement the education received in schools. In some cases, they ignore their responsibilities as parents to their children. Many children are not well fed and are in need during the evenings until the arrival of their parents. The learning experiences in the communities of HUARIN and RONDOS in the Sierra de Huanuco has served us well, and therefore we share a glass of milk and a piece of bread to complement the opening hours of the library, doing more bearable daily life of children. The truth is that we are missing hands and would be nice to have help from a CLM brother, to form a community, tired together with happiness and feel that we are in community returning something that gives us the Lord’s love.

I also assumed the catechesis of adults. I accompanied a group of 12 adults in Villa in preparation for confirmation and two couples were married. It is a great joy to see them eager to know their faith and I always ask the Holy Spirit to give me the necessary lights to share the issues and my life experience with my limitations, trusting in the presence of God who gives us the strength to continue this work.

Due to the circumstances I have happen to be alone. I live in the parish house and make community with the priests of the parish, this has allowed me to continue strengthening me spiritually and be part of the parish reality, but I’m a little distant from the reality of the community of Villa Ecológica. My mission is divided in two. On one hand my profession as plumber and electrician and a bit more knowledge allow me to serve the needs at home and in the parish. All this is performed mainly in the morning. On the other hand, the development of pastoral work in the afternoons or evenings as required. The community of Villa is young, is learning to walk with the help of its own people and is necessary to let them have their own experience of being church and simultaneously accompany to further deepen their faith and help them to discover the style of St. Daniel Comboni “Save Africa with Africa”. I try to encourage them and help them discover how the Lord is working in their lives.

This month ends the collaboration of Anna, the German Lay young volunteer who came for one year to assist in the “cradle St. Daniel Comboni” in Villa Ecológica. She has participated in choirs and brought some economic aid to the most needed families of the area brought from her German home parish. Anna has collaborated with Pamela in the catechesis sector called “Canteras”. In Arequipa there is a pending work, to encourage the formation of a CLM Group. Mary our mother, who cares for me and my family, care also to help you, brothers from the group of Lima to pronounce the Yes to the mission, so that this mission can continue and others start.

Pedro Enrique García H. CLM Peru

To make common cause

18 July, 2015 by Antonio Villarino

A commentary on Mk 6, 30-34 (XVI Sunday, O.T. July 19^th 2015)

We read today five verses from Mark’s chapter six, verses that are a transition between two big stories: the martyrdom of John the Baptist (a painful experience for the disciples and for Jesus himself) and the multiplication of bread (a clear sign of a God that sustains his humble people in the desert).

Theses verses are a transition text, but not for that less meaningful. In fact, the text is full up with deep and clear feelings in two directions: the community of disciples and the crowd looking for a better life quality. In Jesus we can contemplate a double movement, similar to the double movement of the physical heart, from the community to the crowd and back. As it happens with the physical heart, the same happens with community and mission: one movement cannot be without the other, community and mission go together. Let us meditate for a while on those two concrete movements of love:

Tenderness towards the members of the community

Mark tells us about the way Jesus receives the disciples returning from the mission: he welcomes them, listens to their stories and invites them to rest, as he used to do in Bethany.

Maybe you remember a fil by Pier Paolo Pasolini, some time ago, on the gospel according to Matthew. It was a very interesting and moving film, but –if I remember it properly- in it Jesus was a prophet quite severe, with a long face and severe words… Certainly, Jesus was quite clear in his denouncing a false religiosity. But what we read today shows us another Jesus: tender, welcoming, giving attention to the needs of his disciples. This is a human attitude that I feel we need so much in our everyday life: in the family, in the Christian community, in the apostolic group. Quite often we wish so much to do well, we try to be so perfect, we wish the best for our family or our Church. So much so that we risk becoming hypercritical, intolerant, angry, negative… Let us pray that we imitate Jesus and learn from him this tenderness that makes us able to be welcoming to people near us and to care for one another.

2.- Sensible to the needs of the crowd

The attention to the small group of people near him does not make Jesus indifferent to the need of the crowd; rather it’s the opposite: together with the community he becomes more sensible to the needs of the crowd of people that are like sheep with no shepherd; they are hungry of bread, understanding, love… The attitude of Jesus has been imitated by so many disciples, among which Daniel Comboni, who arriving at Khartoum (Africa) said to the people: “I want to make common cause with each one of you”.

Before so many people that today, as in the times of Jesus, are looking for a better health, a better and more just food, a real dignity, a sense of life, real love, the answer of the disciple missionary it’s not indifference, it’s not look away, but to “make common cause”, to share the problems ,expectation and possible solutions. This making common cause will give way to many initiatives of solidarity, but the first thing is not to be indifferent, to allow the situation touch our heart, to move our feelings, to share with the people; from that sharing will come out our concrete help, knowing that if everyone does its best, the miracle of brotherhood will take place.

Fr. Antonio Villarino

Roma

The relevance of the social teaching for our society

14 July, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

On July 11^th, we held our formative meeting at Abor. Pierre Ngayo, a comboni Scholastic doing a pastoral experience at IMFH shared with us on the topic: The Comboni charism and the Social Teaching of the Church.

At the beginning of the meeting, Rev. Fr Joseph Rabbiosi welcomed everybody and wished to the group to grow and be engaged.

The Scholastic started by mentioning the credibility of the Soc. Teach. of the Church that is the theological, which is to respond to the appeal of Jesus in Mat 25 about the final judgment and the second is social, the proximity of the Church to the daily life of the society. He later continued by presenting the Topic into three parts.

The first part is the Relation between the Soc. Teach. and the Word of God. In Lk 4, 16-21 and Is 61, 1-2 the Scriptures speak about bringing good news to the poor, to free prisoners, to bind up broken hearts, give sight to the blind and to proclaim God’s year of mercy… The Soc. Teach. finds here a biblical foundation.

The second aspect he developed was the relevance of the Soc. Teach. for the Church in Africa. What is the role of Christians in our society? Issues of corruption, Human right, poverty, rural and urban migration, Human dignity are met all over our continent. Why is it that most of our countries which are populated by Christian in majority are experiencing such things, very high rate of corruption? Two synods were held to reflect upon the challenges that the Church is facing in our continent. The first one was held in 1994 during a period whereby there was a socio political instability all over Africa. The conclusion was published the post Synodal Exhortation Ecclesia in Africa. The second synod held in 2009 and its conclusion was published in Africae munus. The hope of the Church is that we Christians, mostly lay faithful should make our society a better place to live in: “You are the salt of the earth, the light of the world.”

The third aspect is JPIC and the Comboni charism. Comboni came in Africa where slavery was going on, a reality that made him so sensitive and close to Africans. The aspects then of Justice, Human Dignity were so needed and Comboni engaged himself totally for it. The Scholastic suggested that the aspect of JPIC could be well developed by lay comboni missionaries in the province of Togo Ghana Benin. He then added some guidelines for us which are first to be fond with the Soc. Teach. of the Church by reading the Magisterium, especially those encyclicals and Apostolic Exhortations that treat the topic e.g. Populorum progressio, Rerum novarum, …Africae munus,… The second one is to take time to study the Word of God. The third one is to be sensitive towards the needy and vulnerable and the fourth is to develop fund raising activities. In the conclusion, he left with us three questions for our meditation:

How can our encounter with the word of God help us to change our society?
Why do we think that the Social Teaching of the Church is relevant for our situation as African Christians?
What is our experience in the domain of JPIC and what are the challenges to develop it in our Province?

After this presentation, we were clarified about the kind of services we can render to In My Father’s House Institution by the Administrator of the Institution. We agreed to meet on the 8^th August and proceeded with the concluding prayer followed by the community food.

Justin Nougnui, coordinator.