Comboni Family – Page 74 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

The LOGBOOK of Simone Parimbelli, a CLM in Central Africa

7 June, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

May 15, 2017

88^th day, 1012 to go

The “AFRICAS” AROUND MY TABLE. I have moved to the Comboni parish of Our Lady of Fatima! Everything is new… new schedules, new food, new room, new COMMUNITY! Now I live with three African Comboni priests: Fr. Moises, Fr. Jean Michel and Fr. Romain! They are all African but from different types of Africa: Fr. Moises is Ugandan, had to learn French and Sango, has more experience than anyone else and he is charge of the parish. Fr. Jean Michel is from Togo, only recently arrived in the Republic of Central Africa, and is learning the reality, the life and the customs of the CAR. Fr. Romain is Central African, just ordained, speak fluent French and Sango, is learning to say Mass and will be sent to Guatemala on his first mission assignment. Uganda-Togo-CAR are so far off “AFRICAS” that it’s like living with a Russian, a Frenchman and a Portuguese. To say that they are Africans is a generalization, because they all have their own ways… it is not easy to be a COMMUNITY, but AROUND THE TABLE we joke, laugh, chat and speak of the problems of the various “AFRICAS”… There is a good rapport and brotherhood in this little corner of our “AFRICAS”!

May 22, 2017

95^th day, 1005 to go

MARTIAL, THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Martial is a young man of the parish, he is 28, a catechist of Confirmation, and moderator of the AITA KWE group. This week he has also been my GOOD SHEPHERD, who accompanied me to school by “paths tranquil and safe.” The parish is near the Muslim neighborhood called “Kilometer 5” where in the “troubled” days they had some “small” problems. Martial, like the GOOD SHEPHERD, ensures tranquility and safety along the short walk to school. In the afternoon the parish is full of young people studying, women praying, children having fun, people looking for the fathers, but often it is a rather silent life or without too much noise and at times I have had the feeling that everyone is waiting for something. I hope it will be a waiting filled with hope and peace.

May 28, 2017

101^st day, 999 to go

AITA KWE = “All brothers and sisters” is a parish group of adolescents and pre-adolescents. They wear a yellow shirt, green pants or skirts and a green scarf with a yellow border. Together with Fr. Moises and Martial I went to their retreat-formation day. When we arrived, they were reflecting on “my life project: my good points and my weaknesses.” After the reflection, they had some fun, a Mass celebrated by Fr. Moises and then a common meal of bread, fish, and manioc mush. All together like brothers and sisters!!! When it was time to leave, we loaded on Fr. Moises’ pick-up all the backpacks, the pots, the empty water drums, and a few tired little girls who had a hard time standing up, while the group line up by twos and, with drums beating, marched back to the parish (a two hour walk!!!). It was just like the days in my parish at the “oratorio” of Osio Sopra (or Basiano) with the catechism children and youngsters… also the pastoral life of the parish of Our Lady of Fatima is active and fervent with many people involved in the service of the community!!!

June 2, 2017

106^th day, 994 to go

IN A FLASH: Tomorrow from 8:30 to 10:30 I will have the final evaluation of my second French course… in a FLASH…Anna will pick me up at school, we will go to the parish to load my luggage which I already packed and we will leave…IN A FLASH… for Mongoumba…a journey of five to six hours. After only 20 days, this will be another move…up to now I have kept to my “navigation route”: to arrive quietly in the CAR, to take time to adapt, to study French…now I begin a new phase of my journey: to learn Sango and to adapt to Mongoumba!

I haven’t sent you news in a while, but in the parish there is no internet connection and it will be the same in Mongoumba, at times even at Comboni House I can’t connect to e-mail and it becomes difficult to communicate with you, but this is one of the objectives of the journey!

I have yet to have my first malaria attack and haven’t yet met unsurmountable problems, perhaps I lost some weight (Fr. Alex says that I lost my extra Western pounds), but my appetite is good and the fathers continue to encourage me to eat, because food helps us to keep healthy. Time is going by fast…in A FLASH…106 days have already passed since my arrival in the CAR!!!

Greetings and hugs, a kiss and a prayer and THANKS…

Simone CLM

20th Anniversary of the CLM in Brazil

5 June, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

It is with great joy that we, the CLM of Brazil, celebrate this year the 20 years of the CLM – the Association of the Comboni Lay Missionaries, a juridical not for profit organization founded on May 31, 1997.

In 1995, a group of people from all over Brazil began to dream of the project of the CLM in São José dos Campos, SP. Those were the days of the great event that took place in Brazil, the COMLA 5, that pushed the Church much beyond its borders. After that, other meetings took place and finally 1997 saw the beginning of the first missionary community of CLM involved in formation and in the sharing of missionary life in the city of Contagem, MG.

After 20 years of existence the Association of Comboni Lay Missionaries has reasons to celebrate, in the light of a history of challenges, a lot of dedication, daring and perseverance, its existence as lay missionaries in the style of St. Daniel Comboni.

We continue in the call to follow Jesus Christ and we are inserted in challenging missionary areas at the side of the poorest and most abandoned of our society, both here and much beyond our borders.

In June we will hold the Yearly Assembly of the ACLM in Curitiba, PR. It will be a privileged time of communion and of sharing our vocation. On the 22^nd, we will celebrate a Thanksgiving Mass for the 20 years of the ACLM in the parish of Santa Amelia. We wish to meet, reflect, evaluate, pray, make new plans and continue the “dream-challenge” of the Brazilian Church, totally missionary and open to the world.

Recently we have been living through some beautiful moments in our journey as CLM in Brazil, such as: the formation of groups of Comboni Spirituality and discernment in Curitiba and more recently in Balsas; our participation in the team of Coordination of the Comboni Family, with the various activities planned in common in missionary and vocation promotion; the strengthening in a short time of the CLM in Acailândia-Piquiá together with the Justice project of Raíles; the weddings and births that took place in this CLM Family; the special witness of some members at difficult times for the loss of dear ones and in the struggle to regain their health. In total, it is the commitment of each one on different fronts, persevering in the pro-life option.

There are also challenges and questions over how we must answer our vocation in these new times. What are the specific aspects of our identity? What do we need to change? How can we be more efficient in mission promotion and in promoting new vocations? Keeping in mind that mission is renewed by new missionaries, men and women willing to enter into the dynamics of a Church on the move.

We count on everyone’s prayers and wish to remain united to the great Comboni family spread around the world.

In the light of our reality, in the grace of the celebration of the 300^th anniversary of the Aparecida, inspired by St. Daniel Comboni in the sequel of Jesus and united in our missionary journey to the Church in Brazil and in the world, we are ready to protect and foster each day the missionary call of the Comboni vocation.

With every best wish and friendship,

The CLM of Brazil

With Gratitude and Hope

3 June, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Final Message of the 150 Anniversary of the MCCJ institute

We Comboni Missionaries coming from our different circumscriptions have gathered in Rome along with other members of the Comboni Family for the celebration of the 150 years of history of our Institute. For us all, to celebrate means first and foremost to recall our origins and the history God has been writing with us and with the peoples we have met on our journey. To remember is not an exercise in archaeology, but a living process of thanksgiving to God, entrusting our future into his hands. To remember is to set out again and afresh.

Our Heritage: From Gratitude to Faithfulness

The birth of our Institute did not happen in a laboratory. Rather, it is the fruit of a long process of life and mission. It was a painful birth at a time of major change in the world. We were born in a context of poverty, without any particular ecclesiastical, political and economic support. This event – in itself nearly unique in the history of the missionary movement of the XIX century – granted us greater freedom to respond to our special vocation. Even though the process of finding a juridical form for our mission was certainly not straightforward, it is clear that Comboni desired a family of missionaries with these distinguishing marks:

Ad vitam, namely missionaries not only available to offer their time, but also their very lives for the mission;
catholic, meaning not constrained by nationalistic mentalities;
in love with God and the peoples, making common cause with the poor.

Pope Francis tells us that “the joy of a missionary always shines against the backdrop of a grateful memory”. Gratitude means to know you are loved and then – moved by this love – to go out to share this experience with others. Gratitude is not static, but dynamic; gratitude is movement, inwards, outwards and forwards; it is a journey. In this perspective, the reunion of the Institute, the new Rule of Life, and the canonization of Saint Daniel Comboni become qualifying moments of our history and opportunities to set off again and continue his journey with creativity.

Gratitude means to recognise in our history God’s faithfulness, mirrored by the generous fidelity of countless confreres, both from the past and the present; faithfulness to the Gospel, to Comboni, to a challenging mission, to prayer, to evangelical poverty, to God’s people and to internationality.

Journeys of Regeneration

Today we have the tools for the study and a better knowledge of our Founder and our history, and this symposium contributed to this end. We are aware that whenever in history we have reconnected to Comboni and his charism we have taken a significant step forward.

A ‘reconfiguration’ of our Institute is necessary. We face the challenge of a type of mission that is always on the move, still far from fulfilment. The aging of the members of our Institute along with the decrease of vocations in many of our circumscriptions, the new paradigms of mission and our changed role within Local Churches are just a few of the challenges that add anxiety to our present situation. Today mission calls for a kind of witness that goes far beyond works and questions our life-style; it also demands of us a total self-giving.

We believe that the reconfiguration of our Institute unfolds along four paths: spirituality, humility, fraternity and ministeriality.

Spirituality. This is not only about rediscovering the beauty of prayer, but rather developing a spirituality of God’s presence in the history of peoples and lives of each person. The poor become our teachers with their faith and hope and they teach us this spirituality, without which we risk to become arid and lose the meaning of our missionary journey.
Humility. Aware of our limitations and fragilities, we are called to move from being protagonists to being witnesses. Today it is not just “doing mission” that counts, but first and foremost “being mission”. Words and works are no longer enough, as there are many who can talk and work – even better than we do. The challenge ahead of us is to bear witness with our lives to the treasure we hold in our hearts.
Fraternity. Many among us have expressed both in the conferences and in the group-work the desire that we love each other more, like brothers. We need to grow in the quality of our community relationships. This problem is all the more manifest in our poor community discernment and planning, as well as in the low quality of our brotherly sharing. Some among us do not feel at home in our communities. To be brothers means to give space to one another, even across cultures and ages, and oftentimes demands moments of reconciliation, also in a sacramental way. More fraternity would help us to link mission and consecration and would improve our community discernment.
Ministeriality. Today’s new social contexts urge us to review our ministeriality. We need to be better qualified in different fields of evangelization, and to improve our team-work with other members of the Comboni Family and of the Local Church. Mission is the reference point for any formation program. Ministeriality alone is not enough if it is not grounded in Christ’s passion for humanity.

From this anniversary we set off once again, as brothers, aware of challenges and difficulties, but also full of hope:

“The missionary never loses heart in face of difficulties. All crosses are meritorious, because we work only for Christ and the mission” (Saint Daniel Comboni)

“May the Spirit make hope overflow in you” (Pope Francis)

Mission News from the Central African Republic (CAR)

28 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

I hope you will all be happy with the bishop’s pastoral visit and that it will bear fruit.

Here Fr. Jesús is sick, but gratefully he is getting better… The other members of the apostolic community are in good shape and we thank God for his great love for us. Fr. Samuel will leave for Ethiopia to undergo medical tests and to rest. I pray the Lord that he may return well, full of good health and strength, to face anew the challenges of mission. Today his malaria came back. I hope he will be better tomorrow, because he is due to travel home.

This time I came to Bangui to open an account for the school. There is an organization that helps us and wants us to have an account to which to send the money.

We brought along a Pygmy couple and their baby, who was born with a nose deformation, to have surgery in the same pediatric hospital where they attended little Merveille. He was already operated on and it seems it was successful. May God allow it to be so! He will be discharged on Friday and will return to Mongoumba with us so that we can follow him as long as he needs care, because in the camp there are no hygienic conditions nor anyone who can do it. I hope Honoré (that’s his name) will do well…! The parents are very happy!

Next to Honoré there is a baby who was born without an anus and the waste spreads through the abdomen. He will undergo surgery tomorrow… May the Lord allow him to get well, so that in the future he will have a normal life.

By the grace of God Marveille is now growing normally.

Maria has already recovered a bit from malaria. Keep on praying for her.

Always united in prayer.

A great missionary hug to the all world.

María Augusta, CLM from Portugal in the CAR

New comers course in Ethiopia

25 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

In the first week of May all our community participated in the new comers’ course. It was organized by Comboni Family but participants were from different congregations. All together we were over 30 people.

First day we had lecture about Christianity in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the first Christian countries in the world, starting from IV century. Also in the Acts of Apostles we can read about converting the Ethiopian.

Second day we focused on the Catholic Church history, which was also very interesting, as e.g. how it happened that Ethiopia has two different rites – Ethiopian Ge’ez one (based very much on the orthodox tradition) and Latin.

Then the next day was about the liturgy, mostly about the one of the orthodox church, which also has a lot in common with the catholic one.

And then following day was about culture and some every-day life issues. These four days were common for all of us. But the last day was only for the Comboni family, we got a lot of information about history of the MCCJ’s missions in Ethiopia (starting from the time of Comboni himself) and CMS, and also some present issues of the Comboni Family’s presence.

It was very enriching time. We got many information, but also many new questions appeared, so we are motivate to continue discovering Ethiopia with its history & culture, to serve better here. Also it was beautiful time to be together and getting to know each other.

CLM Ethiopia