The Comboni Lay Missionaries of Guatemala this year are committed to Formation and Awareness in our commitments for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. We are beginning this journey trusting in Our Lord Jesus Christ under the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni and Our Mother the Virgin Mary to enlighten us to be able to see, hear and feel the cry of the Living Christ in the streets, in the peripheries, at the borders, in the bus terminals, in the shelters, in our communities and in all those places where there is always a cry for help.
We share with you the Final Message of the Seminar on Human Trafficking and Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean “I have seen the oppression of my people, I have looked upon their suffering and I have come down to deliver them” (Ex 3:7-8). (Ex 3:7-8)”
It was a great joy when our Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Steven Avinu assigned me to start a new station at Gborxoxome. The faithful there were already well organized under the Mother Station St. Anthony of Ave-Afiadenyigba. Gborxoxome is some kilometers away from my residence, I moved in with a motor.
The service started with the Celebration of the Word this 6th December, 2020 which I presided. Just after the service, we nominated some leaders to run temporarily the business of the station. With Comboni spirit, it was necessary to engage and prepare some native as catechists with whom I can collaborate. Currently, the catechists are well equipped due to also the training organized at diocesan and parish levels. We share the services and weeks: a team in charge of the sick, projects and Seva (another station) visitation, another team in charge of evangelization and recollection. We carried out an evangelizing activity during which we proclaimed the Good News at Kpota (a nearby village) from house to house.
Other service was to visit the sick and aged brothers and sisters. With God’s grace, the Deacon Godsway Alato (currently priest) helped by taking the Holy Communion to some of the sick. Later, the Acolyte Elikem Akakpo was sent to the station for five weeks pastoral. He continued paying visit to the sick and aged, shared the Word of God with them and distributed the Holy Communion to those who were prepared. On the 28th October 2021, at the Feast of Sts. Jude and Simon, Rev. Fr. Avinu administered the Sacrament of Baptism to 22 faithfuls among which 10 received the First Communion. On the 8th October 2022, Bishop Gabriel Kumordji, SVD (Bishop of the diocese) during his annual pastoral visit to Parishes, paid a visit to our station. On the 9th October, ten (10) of our children were confirmed.
The station has its program of spirituality and liturgical celebrations: Wednesdays and Fridays at 6am, we have celebration of the Word. Second Fridays of the month at 5pm, we meditate on the Way of Cross. During Advent and Lenten seasons, we have recollection which many of the faithfuls attend. Vocational and missionary promotion is carried out sometimes during liturgical celebrations. Three of the catechists (we are five in all at the station), witnessed our promise as CLM on the 10th October last year. I was also selected at the Parish Council Meeting to be a member of Justice and Peace Commission.
Some months ago, the current Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Harry Barawusu asked me to start preparing some faithful at a new station of Fiave-Sanyi, villages located at some kilometers away from me. A catechist of Xevi, Catechist Linsford Atikpo accompanied me to the place to meet some members and plan for the start of the station. The first liturgical celebration took place on the 27th November, 2022 which was attended by about ten people, children and adults included. Catechist John Agbalekpor, collaborator of Catechist Linsford, replaced me at the station during the Assembly in Benin. Back from the Assembly, services on the two stations, St. Michael of Gborxoxome and Fiave -Sanyi, continued.
I must say, the service at Sanyi is a bit challenging. The faithful are currently either old or kids. Some are irregular at gatherings. I must take the readings and tune up the songs alone. I invited an active member of Xevi, Mad. Matilda to assist for a while. Soon, another one will help me, Sarah Gogo. But with all this challenge, the words of our Founder sound again in my ears: “Great works begin and grow at the foot of the Cross” so I will not stop. Also with the help of Catechist John, we are planning some pastoral activities to revive the station. Two faithfuls are mostly in my heart: Mary and Stephen, two blind persons who are always ready to attend gatherings. Sister Mary is even very good at singing. We must accompany them to our gatherings by carrying them on motor or walking with them. Acolyte David Tay went to the station for the Ceremony of the Imposition of ash and Rev. Fr. Harry for the sacramental celebration of Confession this year. Per the pastoral Program of the Parish, the Parish Priest should be at Sanyi on the 3rd September where he could baptize.
Slowly but surely, the two stations which I serve are growing with the help of each other. May the Lord “give us the clear vision of what we should do, the strength and the means to accomplish it“.
I am Cristina Paulek and I have belonged to the Comboni Lay Missionaries Association of Brazil since 1998. In this missionary journey, I want to highlight the importance of the LOCAL CHURCH: “Hearts burning, feet on the road!”
I was born in Curitiba/PR and grew up in Santa Amélia Parish, where the MCCJ are present. It was there that I took my first steps in the Church and in living the missionary spirit. It was in the parish that we received a solid formation to be laypeople and protagonists of history, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and in the experience of small basic ecclesial communities. It was in this reality that I worked pastorally in the parish and in the Archdiocese of Curitiba, in Prison Pastoral, in Missionary Animation in COMIDI, in CEBI, among others.
Above all, it was in the community that I discovered that the Church is missionary by nature, that every baptized person is a missionary. This is not the privilege of a few who go a little further away, we are all missionaries.
The motto of this year’s National Missionary Congress, inspired by the experience of the Disciples of Emmaus, helps us a lot, because it is in community, in the sharing of bread and life that we discover that Jesus walks with us. When we experience a burning heart, we set out on a journey.
Sending-off Mass in the Santa Amélia Community with the parents and the parish priest Fr Walter.
Hello, I’m Tito, a Comboni Lay Missionary from Brazil, on mission in Carapira, northern Mozambique.
Here I work at the Carapira Industrial Technical Institute (ITIC), where I am responsible for agricultural production, producing vegetables so that the students can eat healthier.
I also work in the parish in the various pastoral and ministry roles.
In my spare time, when I’m at home, I grow a small vegetable garden to contribute to our diet.
As you can see, here in the mission I am sowing and reaping good fruit.
But God also calls us, through our Baptism, to be sowers of his word of the Gospel.
As missionaries, we must sow love, peace, justice, sharing, fraternity and hope, etc.
Wherever I go, I always try to sow, sow, sow. One day these seeds will germinate and bear good fruit.
Be a sower yourself, but sow with your neighbor in mind.
After seven years in Portugal, five of which were spent supporting the family and working in elderly people’s homes (at the Missionary Sisters of Charity in Faro and at the Parish Center in Paderne) and another two years on mission in the parish of Camarate, I’m leaving to return to the CAR, where I’ve already been for five years.
It won’t be easy, but I know that this is the path God has for me.
The Central African Republic (CAR) is the place where I feel I have been called to serve God and people with joy, in the hope of bringing the message of the Gospel and helping to build a better and fairer world, together with the poorest and most abandoned according to Comboni’s missionary style.
I will face new challenges and difficulties, but I am confident that, with God’s help and the protection of Our Lady of Hope, I will be able to overcome them.
I thank my family and friends for supporting me in this decision.
I thank my parish of Paderne and the Parish Center for always welcoming me with affection despite my long absences.
I thank my community in Fetais and all those who helped me during my time in Camarate.
Finally, I thank the CLM Movement and the Comboni Family for transmitting to me the essence that inspires me to go.
“If I had a thousand lives, I would give a thousand lives for Africa”
Élia Gomes CLM – Portugal
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