Comboni Family – Page 85 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

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

With Mary, Pilgrims of Love

22 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Just like those who start a journey and leave the comforts of home, we, too, our bags on our shoulders and with hearts full of certainties and doubts, started on our journey… Pilgrims, on a road without beginning or end, through ways and byways and more that had never been tried. We advanced on open grounds, through places full of history, on roads paved with love, we walked with Him, full of Mary.

Within the soul the certainty that we are eternal pilgrims, we are in the fashion of Jesus, simple refugees in search of God, in search of fullness and freedom…

We started off and were born as community in the month of Mary, the month of the 100^th anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima. We feel sent by Mary. We are inspired by her, missionaries of yes. We try to follow her steps. To be missionaries means to feel like Mary, pregnant with Jesus, to be the living tabernacles of Jesus, to carry Jesus.

We are far, but we feel like pilgrims of Love and we feel on a journey with all those who gather in Fatima to celebrate the grace and the compassion of the apparitions of Our Lady together with the Pope. We feel that today, and many other days, Mary appears in our hearts and fills them with Grace, Love and Mercy. We are all called to follow her. We are all called to be missionaries, just like her.

Do not be afraid. For you have found grace before God – so said the angel to Mary. By creating us in his image, God looks at us constantly with boundless tenderness, and finds in each one of us a place where to stay. He calls us. Constantly, he sends angels to us to tell us not to be afraid, that God has found grace in us and calls us to be missionaries of love. And often we answer with, “me? But… Me, Lord?” We look left and right thinking he made a mistake. We, often entrapped by our internal wounds, by our anxieties and in our old ways, prisoners of our wounds and imperfections. We who often doubt about God’s call. Thus we make it impossible to receive the call. Let us have trust! Let us be like Mary, answering Yes, carrying it within us, wherever he wants us to go.

The mission needs us. The mission calls us. The mission is difficult, but if we walk together, hand in hand, we are with God, converted in instruments of God, allowing Him to love us and work through us.

Let us say with Mary: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

Community of “Lisanga”

Aitana, David, Neuza and Paula

New formation community in Granada, Spain (CLM of Portugal and Spain)

Easter among the Gumuz people

24 April, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

This year our community spent Holy Week and Easter at the Comboni missions among the Gumuz tribe. Madzia and I stayed in Gublak most of the time; Adela and Tobiasz stayed in GilgelBelez. However, we all visited both places. I would like to share with you something of this impressive experience.

The journey from Addis Abeba to GilgelBelez was very tiring. We spent 13 hours on a bus packed with people. At times, only the beautiful landscape gave us some relief. We arrived in the evening and, while we were having supper together, the fathers told us a lot of stories about the local people. Many of them sounded incredible. We were very happy to have the opportunity to meet those people and the missionaries during their daily activities.

We spent the next day in GilgelBelez, a town where many different tribes, including the Gumuz, live. The Gumuz face discrimination in their daily life because of the dark colour of their skin. They were even discriminated by the churches until the Catholic Church came. Today the parish community is made up entirely of Gumuz people. In the days before Easter we could observe them working together preparing for the feast. They all worked hard for the good of the community. We also visited a certain boy and his family, whom Madzia helped two years ago. She showed him and his parents some exercises and found crutches for him. Now he is able to walk on his own. It was nice to see the good results of Madzia’s work. We also visited the town and the kindergarten belonging to the parish.

After our short visit to GilgelBelez we moved on to visit Gublak, a mission founded five years ago. Before the Triduum we saw the daily work of the missionaries. They celebrate Mass in the morning and then each one goes about his work. The main job is visiting villages to teach the people about Christ and our faith. We went to some villages together with them. The first thing they do when they arrive in a village is to greet people. Only after the greetings can the meeting begin. The people pray and sing and, then the fathers, the sisters or the catechists give them some instruction. Some of the people are already baptized while others are still catechumens. The catechists act as translators from Amharic into the Gumuz language. There are very few texts in this language and the missionaries speak only Amharic. During a meeting with the women, Adela and Tobiasz gave them testimony about family life. They had prepared it for some days with their Amharic teacher and it was their first speech in Amharic (after a three-month course!). Congratulations to them!

Then we started the Triduum. I went with Father Isayas to bring the catechumens to our compound on Thursday. Starting from the furthest village we brought some of them on the pick-up car. The catechumens who live close to the mission came on foot to the church in the evening. On Holy Thursday evening, I went with Fr. Isayas to a chapel where we celebrated the Last Supper Mass. There were around 50 people (most of them children or teenagers). During his homily the father described what happened at the Last Supper and explained, about the institution of the Eucharist. Then he washed feet of twelve chosen young people. After the Mass, we had a time of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I must say that the youth behaved properly.

After that we took some of them to our compound where they joined the 130 young people already there. From Thursday till Sunday the youth stayed in the compound. They had prayer, teaching, and group work and participated in the main program: the Stations of the Cross, the Friday Liturgy, the Passover Liturgy and, the Sunday Easter Mass. I was very impressed by the people. They participated very actively. The catechists who are also young boys served all this time, from the morning until night. They did it with joy, without complaining. They translated, they organized the prayers, the services, the meals and, they kept order and discipline. During the Passover Liturgy 102 catechumens were baptized, on Sunday there was a group of 24 adults who also received baptism. Even if the Mass lasted so long, it was great to see the people who became Christians. It was something very meaningful in their lives. Some of them were really moved.

Most of the new Christians are very young, children or teenagers. Most of the adults who received the baptism were the mothers of the children who were baptized in past years. It is amazing how the Catholic Church is growing where there were no Christians at all just a few years ago. Many of those people don’t know how to read or write and do not know Amharic. Nevertheless, they listened to the missionaries and believed. Of course they still need Christian formation and that’s why the missionaries’ work is so important. Saint Daniel Comboni must be very happy to see the fruits of their work.

CLM Ethiopia

Comboni Friends’ meeting in Awassa.

21 April, 201718 April, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

The Comboni Lay Missionary of Ethiopia is collaborating with the Comboni´s friends group.

Part of this collaboration is on organization and formation of this group of lay people.

We have celebrated a meeting in Awassa where we talked about Social Teaching of the Church, but also about how St. Daniel Comboni cared for slaves and the most abandoned people.

There was also time for meditation of Bible fragments on which STC is based and some sharing.

It was really good meeting.

Madzia Plekan. CLM Ethiopia

Missionary Exhibit and Meeting in Guatemala

9 April, 20176 April, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

“Saints and able, making common cause with the poor and the needy” (St. Daniel Comboni)

We, the CLM of the PCA in Guatemala want to let you know that on the Saturday, April 1, organized a mission exhibit and a meeting at Casa Comboni, Guatemala. We joined with the missionaries of the parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, with whom, since February 2016, we are cooperating in their missionary formation.

The parish is St. Catherine of Alexandria is in Santa Catarina Pinula, a municipality of the department of Guatemala City, located about 10 miles from the capital.

In some areas, this population is subjected to extreme poverty and crime because of the gangs, It is one of the “red Zones” of the city.

The objective of our activity was to invite the Comboni Missionaries living in Guatemala city so that their two communities, the CLM and the “missionaries of Catherine (as we call them with affection)would share with words and through visual aids, some of the experiences of 2016 and the missionary projects we have in store for 2017.

We enjoyed the presence of the Comboni Missionaries Fr. Pasquale Miniero, Fr. Carlos Rodríguez, Fr. Antonio Maria Bruyel, Fr. Vicente Clemente and, of course, our moderator Bro. Humberto Rua. The one who thought up this event was also present: Fr. Walter Santizo, a Guatemalan diocesan priest and the pastor of St. Catherine of Alexandria.

At the end we shared a delicious lunch.

The basic idea by which the CLM of the PCA in Guatemala started this year is” “Saints and able united in a common cause to help the poorest and most needed.” This is how St. Daniel Comboni wants his missionaries to be.

We trust in Providence and entrust ourselves to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, just as St. Daniel Comboni taught us to do. God always walks ahead of us, shedding light on the path leading to the most needy.

CLM Guatemala