Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Why be a lay missionary?

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AdamAdam Lewandowski comes to the NAP Comboni Lay Missionary Program from Madison, Wis.  During this time of formation in LaGrange Park, Ill., the Comboni community welcomes him and prays for his discernment. Here is a reflection from Adam.

When we encounter God our perceptions change and we are changed. How we understand our world and how we live in the world are shaped by that experience. When I was studying as a physicist I had such an encounter that transformed my perception of reality. I saw that creation was knit together fundamentally by love. Nothing at all is required of us to earn this love.

This encounter was relational and invites me to seek solidarity with all of creation. Though loved by God we are certainly no better than our poorest brother or sister. In fact, out of great compassion God chooses to take the lowest place. Therefore, he is more visible in the suffering and abandoned. He leaves the cathedrals of the wealthy and incarnates in the dung heap. And so I find myself desiring solidarity and simplicity with the poor of the world to be closer to God.

I know that nothing is required of me to earn God’s love. I also know that I am imperfect and fallible. But maybe in serving for three years as a missionary in service and solidarity with the poor I can make one small step in the right direction. And perhaps in reaching out to others in service both I and those I meet will be witnesses to God’s love and be changed and transformed.

Happy world day of missions

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Domund 2013

Hello dear friends,

in this world day of missions;

We want to share with you

the joy that comes from our hearts.

 

On this special day,

We are asked to trust

that love always overcomes the challenges

that we may find!

 

We cannot stand still,

while there are people suffering,

forgotten people in the world

people without right to live!

 

If we are call missionaries

cheerful we accept this mission,

to bring the world of today

The truth of evangelization!

 

To be a Christian is to be a missionary!

So we cannot stay apart!

With Christ and Comboni

we dare to go further: we dare to love! …

 

Happy world day of missions,

We wish you with all our hearts!

Let us continue always together,

On the paths of the mission!

 

With the best wishes: Comboni Lay Missionaries (original in Portuguese)

 

 

Gives life to this October missionary in the heart of the local Church

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Comunidade de vida do Porto

The weekend of 11-13 October, the community life from Porto (Portugal) of the Comboni Lay Missionaries, held a missionary animation in the parish of S. Martin of Bougado – Trofa. The CLM participants were: Susana Vilas Boas, Sandra Fagundes, Franquelim Alves, Carlos Barros and Father Manuel Lopes.

On Friday evening, a presentation was made to the Young and the officers of the parish with the intention of making known the CLM and the Comboni family project for this year. This project – “ZO KWE ZO” – aims to help the health care of the pygmies of the Central African Republic.

We participated in the Eucharist on Saturday at 16:30 and 17:00 pm, and Sunday Masses at 8:30, 11:00 and 19:00 hours, where we gave the testimony of our presence in the Central African Republic and explained the project of the Comboni Family for this year 2013/2014.

At the request of the parish priest of Santa Maria de Alvarelhos, We also participate in the 15:45 Eucharist at the Sanctuary of St. Euphemia.

Thanks to Fr Luciano, pastor of St. Martin of Bougado, who very kindly welcomed us, and the whole community that proved to be quite interested, motivated and generous.

We also thank the parish of Santa Maria de Alvarelhos generosity and openness to welcome us and share with us the joy of this October missionary who leads us all to cross boundaries and go “beyond” in our being Christian.

 

A new polish CLM

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10th October in Comboni’s house in Cracow, we celebrated not only the St. Daniel Comboni’s Day, but also Monika Krasoń’s  joining to the CLM. It took place during the Holy Mass, which was celebrated by fr. Gianni Gaiga – the general vicary’s representant, together with Combonians from the warsaw and Cracow community and their families as well as LMC representants. The most important moment for Monika was the prayer, that was an act of her free and aware decision to join the CLM. She expressed her thankfulness for the life she has been given, the calling and talents, which were given her from God, what’s more she mentioned about the difficulties in choosing the calling and the fact, that after the example of st. Daniel Comboni, she chose missions. It was a very beautiful and touching moment. This event became  for many people an occasion for reflection and afterthoughts about their own calling.

Welcome!

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Asamblea LMC Maia

Today, October 10, 2013, the day when St. Daniel Comboni passed from this earth to a new life, our new web site www.lmcomboni.org is born.

We, the Comboni Lay Missionaries, have been dreaming for many years of having a space on the internet at the international level in which to share what each one of us is doing in more than 20 countries where we are present. Today this becomes possible.

This site is born resting on three pillars:

  • A website where to find the more formal information about who we are and where we are.
  • A blog, from which we write to you, born with the intention of bringing freshness and up to date news to our daily life. We hope to continue to fill this space with the contributions from all the various countries and from those who will visit us. And we invite you to subscribe in order to receive the news items when they come out.
  • And finally a base of formation where we wish to share the formation which we prepare in the various countries, so that we may learn from them, both the CLM, the other members of the Comboni Family as well as any person with Christian and missionary interests or to get to know other cultures.

We wish to make new friends, some here on the internet and, to all who so wish, we invite them to get to know us personally. United we can do a lot.

Today we plant the seed of a tree which together we wish to help grow. We hope that someday it may turn out to be the tree of the word where the Africans sit to converse, to reflect, to rest and to help the community grow.

We welcome you from whatever corner of the world you will visit us in our missionary home, open to all, where we hope you will feel at ease.

Cordial greetings

The Comboni Lay Missionaries