Comboni Family – Page 89 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Retreat of the Comboni Lay Missionaries of Bologna and Florence

24 June, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

Accompanied by Fr. Giorgio Padovan (standing in the photo), Comboni Missionary recently arrived from Brazil, about twenty Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) of Bologna and Florence met on 13 and 14 of June, in the house of Pax Christi in Florence, to pray and reflect together on the theme “Disciples, missionaries and Combonis in the path”. These days, according to some lay people, “encouraged some of us to share, to continue the missionary journey with more enthusiasm and joy, and to renew our heart, sometimes tired and wounded.”

The joy and beauty of being Christians and missionaries is the phrase that can summarize what has been lived in this two-day retreat in Florence. Guided by the motto “Disciples, missionaries and Combonis in the path”, the image of the path accompanied the laity in the reflections, sharing and prayer. A path that is not easy, they said, because sometimes it is uphill and very tired, but gives “sense and taste to our life and vocation.”

Fr. Giorgio Padovan, who returned a few months ago from the mission in Brazil, helped the group with simplicity, to deepen from the standpoint of the missionary, the path of laity, the baptismal vocation, personal decisions, the love to the mission and the Comboni charism.

“The thoughts and shared experiences – comment the laity – encouraged some of us to go forward, to continue the missionary journey with more enthusiasm and joy, and to renew our heart, sometimes tired and wounded. The seeds were sown for each CLM group to program with renewed creativity, the way to follow in the next year”.

How to be CLM where we live and work? How to be Christians and missionaries in the world of migration, among the excluded, through our commitment in the activities of justice and peace? in parishes and some missionary churches closed and afraid to go out? These are some of the questions that the Bologna and Florence CLM tried to answer, so they can return home enlightened and willing to make a “good missionary journey”.

Bologna and Florence CLM

In the footsteps of Jesus – spiritual retreat in the streets of Berlin

11 June, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

On May 13, three women of the small group of German CLM went to Berlin, to make a spiritual retreat in the streets. We were anxious, how will that be? Full of gratitude we can say that it was worth it! The Jesuit Christian Herwartz and the Comboni sister Margit Forster affectionately accompanied us. Each of us made her personal and profound experience, going to places that made possible an encounter with God in a special way: the jail, a drug sales point, a meeting place for the homeless, tourist places in the center… Like Moses, we take off our sandals (fears, prejudices, judgments) and in the holy places we find God in a new way. Unfortunately, we had to return home on May 17. It was a brief but very rich experience, especially together. THANK YOU!

Barbara Ludewig CLM Germany

Mgr. Romero, a life and mission model for the Comboni Missionaries of America

20 May, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

The delegates from America and Asia to the XVIII General Chapter, meeting in a continental assembly in Mexico City from 11 to 15 May, share their approach and reflection through an open letter addressed to those responsible for the Comboni Family on the occasion of the beatification of Mgr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, to be celebrated on Saturday, 23 May, in El Salvador. Below is the letter of the missionaries.

Open Letter
from the Comboni Missionaries of America/Asia
on the Occasion of the Beatification of Bishop Romero

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As the delegates from America and Asia to the XVIII General Chapter we greet you fraternally. We wish to express our closeness to you and to share with you our reflections on the Beatification of Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero (Saturday, May 23, 2015). Without doubt this is an historic event of great importance for our Church. For this reason we would like to share our reflections on some aspects of this event:

The solemn beatification by the universal Church confirms what our people already believe and celebrate: Romero is a martyr. In this beatification we also celebrate the gift of their lives offered by so many other martyrs whose struggles we have perhaps never known about. We admire the courage and fidelity of those who will be beatified in Peru this coming December: Fr. Zbigniew Strzalkowski, Fr. Michael Tomaszeck and Fr. Alexander Dordi, victims of terrorism, as well as of hundreds of committed lay persons, catechists, men and women who obstinately defended human rights; they were adults, the elderly, youth and innocent children, religious and priests martyred for the love of Christ, the Church and the people in societies that regard themselves as Christians. The Reign of God is proposed to all to become the commitment of all. Like them Bishop Romero was a victim of the forces of evil embodied in the alliance of the economic, political and military powers that hold on to their illegitimate privileges against the struggle of the oppressed for freedom.
In a time of rapid and great changes in which we are called to rediscover the prophetic dimension of our faith and consecration, we wish to reaffirm that Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero is a model prophet for our time. The suffering of our defenseless brothers and sisters, violence in all forms that is increasing everywhere, and criminalizing human rights defenders are challenges to our prophetic commitment today.
To be a martyr cannot be improvised. With this affirmation we mean to highlight the profound mystic quality of Bishop Romero that was forged in the daily prayer by which he lived out his being a Christian, priest and pastor. His priestly spirituality is manifested in his Episcopal motto: “Sentire cum Ecclesia”. However since all spirituality is a journey of growth and docility to the Spirit, the martyrdom of Fr. Rutilio Grande, SJ and the violence carried out by the military against the people, mark his process of conversion: from indifference/comfort to solidarity with the poorest and oppressed.
In Bishop Romero we discover the image of the Good Shepherd who fully identifies with his people and who suffers in his own flesh the abuses against the dignity of persons, who raises his voice to condemn injustice and preach peace, who prays for his brothers and sisters and loves them so much that he willingly gives up his life in the firm hope that his death will be a source of life for the Salvadoran people.
What meaning does this ecclesial event have for us today? The beatification of Bishop Romero presents him as a model of life and mission:

Interpreting reality in the light of faith should bring us to a personal and community conversion;
Evangelization includes commitment to the integral liberation of persons and peoples;
The evangelizer identifies in a radical way with the situation of the people in their sufferings and hopes;
The values of the Reign of God are always the utopia that enlightens the path of our missionary service;
Giving one’s life for the sheep gives tangible form to our vocation to follow the pierced Heart of the Good Shepherd who gave his life for his sheep.

Finding security as we trust in the words of the Gospel: “If the grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and die, it remains alone; but if it dies it produces much fruit” (John 1224), we want to invite you to create a new path of renewal and hope for ourselves and our peoples. In communion with all of you, in memory of Bishop Romero and of all the martyrs of America, and in particular Fr. Ezekiel Ramin, we firmly believe that the XVIII General Chapter that is now approaching offers us all an opportunity to renew ourselves in faithfulness to the charism of St. Daniel Comboni and in imitation of the martyrs of our church in America.
Mexico City, May 15, 2015

“Comboni: God, the Cross and the Mission”

6 May, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

From the 17 to 19 April we celebrate in Viseu the eighth meeting of the training program of CLM in Portugal. The training was dedicated to the theme “Comboni: God, the Cross and Mission”, presented with enthusiasm by our sister Carmo Ribeiro. Participating in this meeting, Carlos (CLM), Andreia, Carolina, Flavio, Marisa, Neusa, Patricia and Paula, CLM candidates.

We were welcomed generously (and comfortably) by the Community of Viseu of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, to whom we are very grateful for the hospitality.

The kick-off of our trip was the movie “The Mission” 1986, a historical drama directed by Rolland Joffe that presents the period in the history of the evangelization of the Guarani Indians of Brazil.

On Saturday and Sunday morning Sister Carmo guided us in finding Comboni, his life and mission, which transmits Christ: “Speak of Comboni, his life and mission, is to talk about his experience of God. This experience that molded, shaped, give meaning and direction to all his life. The life that became mission. The experience of God is the aliveness of God, let God live in us, and above all let us live in Him”.

In first person, we get to know Comboni through his writings read in parallel with quotes from the Bible that inspired it.

Our itinerary went through the discovery of the pillars of the life and mission of Comboni who are also the pillars of any Comboni vocation. Here I present these pillars citing the writings of Comboni.

1^st Trust in God

“May the Lord dispose as best it pleases Him. We are in his hands and we are only too well supported. Thus may it be done according to God’s will”. E 457

2^nd charismatic moment: pierced Christ’s love, of Christ the Good Shepherd

“The Catholic, who is used to judging things in a supernatural light, looked upon Africa not through the pitiable lens of human interest, but in the pure light of faith; there he saw an infinite multitude of brothers who belonged to the same family as himself with one common Father in heaven. They were bent low and groaning beneath the yoke of Satan, and they were placed on the threshold of a most terrible precipice. Then he was carried away under the impetus of that love set alight by the divine flame on Calvary hill, when it came forth from the side of the Crucified One to embrace the whole human family; he felt his heart beat faster, and a divine power seemed to drive him towards those unknown lands. There he would enclose in his arms in an embrace of peace and of love those unfortunate brothers of his, upon whom it seemed that the fearful curse of Canaan still bore down “. E 2742

3^rd The Love of the Cross

“I find myself right on top of Golgotha, in the same place where He was crucified the only Son of God, here I was redeemed.” E 39-43

“The cross has the power to transform Central African in a land of blessing and salvation”

4^th Cenacle of the Apostles

” This Institute, then, becomes like a little Cenacle of Apostles for Africa, a centre of light sending to the centre of Africa as many rays as are the Missionaries who go out from it. These rays of light, bringing warmth as well as illumination, cannot but reveal the nature of the Centre from which they spread out “. E 2648

5^th Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of Africa

“To you I owe, O Mary, not died yet … Oh Mary show yourself also queen and mother of the poor Africans, because they are also your people… Show yourself Mother!” E 1639-644

6^th Saint Joseph

“St. Joseph is always young, always has a good heart and honest intentions and always love Jesus and the interests of his glory.”

“We are the happiest in the world, because we are in the hands of God, Mary and good San Joseph.” E 5082

7^th Prayer

” Since the work I have in my hands belongs completely to God, for it is with God above all that we must deal with every important and lesser matter of the Mission: therefore it is very important that piety and a spirit of prayer should prevail among its members”. E 3615

8^th Sense of Church, belonging

“I refuse to convert the entire world, if by the grace of God it were possible, if not mediate the mandate and approval of the Holy See and its representatives.”

In addition to the richness of these days, yet there was time for two meetings. We visited and were visited. On Saturday afternoon we visited the Community of Sisters Conceptionist of Santa Beatriz da Silva, who shared the joy and the mission of a life totally dedicated to God in a fruitful silence and inhabited (as someone said, it’s beautiful!). On Saturday night, we received a visit from two Comboni Missionary Sisters, Sister Lourdes Ramos and Sister Augustine Guida. Sister Lourdes Ramos shared her missionary experience among the indigenous of Amazon and later on the island of Lampedusa. Following the example of Comboni, a life made mission, forgetting herself, wounds to serve and love the brothers.

By unfortunate coincidence, that night of April 18, shipwrecked at sea an immigrant ship in route to Lampedusa, we know the tragedy that followed … that night the sister made memory of those who leave their houses and risk their lives to live and when arriving to land has nothing to live with. “We are all people,” I think that even today, in our prayer these brothers are not indifferent… “He felt his heart beat faster, and a divine force seemed to push him to these barbarian lands, to squeeze in his arms and give a kiss of peace and love to those unfortunate brothers “…

Finally, we finished our meeting celebrating Easter, the glory of the Risen Christ; LIFE that flows from the pierced heart. “My God is a God wounded”, recognized by Thomas in the marks of his love for us: “My Lord and my God!”

Patricia

II Comboni Family Meeting in Spain

5 May, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

On the 18th and April 19th took place in Madrid the II National Meeting of the Comboni Family present in Spain.

Under the theme “Comboni Family: sharing the joy of the mission“, we had the opportunity to reflect and deepen together how we can share our mission from the diversity and joy of faith.

This time, we have the presence of Fr. Pascual Piles, Brother of St. John of God, who encouraged us to continue working in the line of the shared mission that was already started by Comboni. The mission can only be built if we work together as community.

One of the richest moments was working in groups where emerged ideas and initiatives that will certainly be giving shape from now to realize the dream of Comboni: “Save Africa with Africa“.

CLM Spain