Over the last few years, we as CLM Kenya have been undergoing formation to become full members of the Comboni Lay Missionaries movement. We are happy to say that very soon, four of us will become full-fledged CLM members. We are delighted to have this progress in our group.
This being the case, we understood the need to establish a mission for CLM in Kenya in which we and other international CLM members could use for missionary work. We are therefore excited to showcase our progress in the construction of a CLM residential house in Kitelakapel, in West Pokot County, here in Kenya. The mission will be within the Catholic Parish of Kacheliba. The construction is being overseen by the MCCJ since we, as CLM Kenya are still in our early stages of growth.
Major strides have been made with regards to the construction. Not only have the floor plans been developed and building bricks made, but also actual construction of the house has already began. Moreover, a borehole has been drilled to ensure continuous availability of water for the residence. We already have two members from Kenya who will be heading to Kitelakapel for missionary work once all works are completed. In addition to this, we have our first international CLM member, Linda, joining us from Italy. We are excited to welcome her and officially start missionary work as an international community. We hope to see this project come to completion and have our very first CLM Mission!
The Community of Comboni Lay Missionaries of Central America Province are happy and grateful to the Lord Jesus under the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni because on Sunday, November 7 at Casa Comboni in the Eucharist we prayed to God for the period of Formation and Mission of Mercedes and Maxi, who will live their Community Life Experience for 6 months in the Parish of Santo Domingo de Guzman in the Municipality of Santo Domingo Xenacoj.
An activity full of blessings and where the CLM shared why this Community Life Experience is important with the family, friends and CLM community of our sent ones.
To Mercedes and Maxi we accompany them with our prayers and may the Holy Spirit be their guide and teacher and may they keep in mind the Comboni Identity and Charism and always remember this beautiful writing of St. Daniel Comboni “My missionaries must always keep their eyes on Jesus Christ, loving him tenderly and trying to understand better and better what it means to have a God who died on the cross for the salvation of the world”.
On Saturday, the 23rd October, during the Mission Sunday Vigil prayer in the Cathedral of Bologna, Linda officially received the blessing and mandate as a Lay Comboni Missionary in Kenya from the Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna Matteo Zuppi, the director of the Diocesan Missionary Centre fr. Francesco Ondedei and the whole diocese of Bologna. With her, Katia, a missionary of the Immaculate-Father Kolbe, also received her mandate for Brasil.
With Linda and Katia, today, “we all receive a mandate”, said the cardinal, thanking them for their brave choice, which “encourages us, in turn, to take action, showing us that indeed it is possible, that we all can give our lives so that the Gospel may reach all corners of the earth, with no boundaries”.
It was a very intense moment, not only for Linda but for the whole group of Bologna, which has accompanied her during these months of preparation and discernment. Significantly, our friends the missionaries of Villaregia, the community where Linda lived for a few months this year, were also present and took an active part in organising the same Vigil Prayer. And the words of the cardinal well reflected our own feelings and visions, as he continued: “Mission is all about being concerned not with my own sake, but OUR sake, caring for others, even those I haven’t met yet (…) Mission starts when, full of His Love, I can feel the scandal of too much suffering and injustice, and I testify Jesus’s love by living it myself and talking about Him.”
And also: “At the heart of every missionary’s life is brotherhood”… the exact opposite of what we experience in our daily life: individualism, everybody thinking only for ourselves and their own needs and fears… However, continued Zuppi, “if we are waiting to find all the necessary reassurances, the most right, undeniable truths, the tools to understand ourselves and to understand each other, these will never be enough”…
The cardinal reminded us that our mission does not begin only after we have found all the answers, but when Jesus’s Love, which we have seen and experienced, does not let us remain silent or quiet in the face of all the suffering and injustice we see!
Linda, too, in front of the assembly, explained in a few words what motivated her to make her choice to become a Lay Comboni Missionary, in spite of the fears that often hindered her path towards discovering her missionary vocation. She recalled some significant moments in her journey of discernment, like when, in the capital of Sudan, Khartoum – where she was working as an English teacher – in her free time she used to give literacy lessons to a group of young refugees from South Sudan, as a volunteer in a parish that was run by the Comboni fathers. Seeing these adult students slowly becoming able to read and write, and getting better jobs as a result, was a source of great joy and satisfaction.
Through Linda’s words and enthusiasm, we could almost feel that very joy that she said she experienced when she came to realise, at some point, how immense Jesus’s love for her was. And this joy was so extreme and overwhelming that it slowly melted all fears and finally gave her the courage to decide that she wanted to donate all her time and serve the Lord totally. This, and the strength she finds in the Lay Comboni Missionaries as well as the whole diocesan community, through the mandate she was given today, is what will keep motivating her in this vocation.
As we rejoice for Linda’s decision to leave her home and family for a greater good, we hope that, through her, new common projects may develop, projects that may unite our community in Bologna and her community in Kenya, building new bridges of hope.
In the words of Saint Daniel Comboni: “Courage for the present, and especially for the future!”
Last weekend we had the opportunity to hold an online African meeting.
Technical difficulties were not lacking, as we all know how difficult it is sometimes for the internet connection to reach correctly to many places of our beloved continent. Sometimes we even had to make up for this difficulty with imagination, there were those who made themselves present through WhatsApp audios that we were later able to share.
We also had the challenge of overcoming the language barriers, but with patience and collaboration from all of us we were able to understand each other.
But the effort on the part of all had its reward.
We were able to dedicate the afternoon to listen to how each of the groups is living at this time, the dreams, hopes and difficulties of these times.
More and more African CLM groups are present, where there are still some CLM coming from Europe or America.
With the Dream of Saving Africa with Africa, more and more Africans are taking the missionary path, not only to help their closest brothers and sisters, but also with the will to open themselves to serve other countries, to collaborate all together in God’s mission for the world.
We ask the Lord to send African missionaries to his harvest, that with their good work they may help us to understand the Lord from their own culture and particularities. Likewise, may He help us as CLM movement to know how to accompany and support these vocations and that as a family we learn to collaborate together for the good of our sisters and brothers most in need.
During the weekend of the World Mission Sunday we were fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with some people who have approached the CLM group in Spain to get to know each other and to make a vocational discernment.
It is always a good opportunity to share our vocation and, to the extent of our possibilities, to serve as a help in the vocational journey of new missionaries.
We believe that in this time of Pandemic many things stopped, but not so the Spirit that is always present and does not rest. If the Lord continues calling new workers to his harvest, we want to be open to accompany this journey in the measure of our possibilities.
Last year we had several online meetings with the group but finally this year, and given that the levels of contagion of the pandemic have decreased, we were encouraged to hold a face-to-face meeting where we could all meet. Always maintaining the necessary prevention measures in these times.
It was a nice weekend where we moved from all parts of the country to share our time, to share what has brought us and to start walking together.
At the beginning of the year it seems important to us to establish the proposed path, the calendar of meetings and the themes we offer. We know that it is an effort for everyone to travel, to prepare the topics, to free the different weekends of the meetings to be able to participate, but we believe that it must be a serious path. It requires an effort on the part of all, but if the Lord calls us, our response must also be serious and committed.
The weekend is dedicated to getting to know ourselves better, to begin to work on our life line, our life history with the Lord and the events that have brought us to this particular moment in our lives. Also to understand our relationship with God, for that is what discerning a vocation is all about.
We hope to have established the basis of the path to follow. This path will be made with face-to-face and online meetings, but also with the personalized accompaniment of each candidate and the possibility of participating in local meetings as well as in national meetings with the rest of the CLM in Spain.
As it was on the day of the World Mission Sunday, we could not but share our joy with the parish of St. Angela de la Cruz in Madrid that hosted us for this event. We were able to help animate the celebration, bringing something of our life in Africa and Latin America, bringing closer the reality of some of these countries and our life experiences.
We prepared the celebration between candidates and CLM together with the choir (who gave us a nice surprise gift) and the catechists of the parish. I think it was a nice and participative moment where the children as well as the rest of the community could approach in a different way to this World Mission Sunday.
We continue to pray that the Lord will continue to call new missionaries and that we will know how to accompany them in their vocational journey.
There is still a great need for missionaries, so we encourage anyone who feels this call to approach one of our groups and make a vocational journey. Let us know how to say Yes like Mary.
Greetings to all of you.
Alberto, CLM Spain
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