Formation – Page 20 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Speak, for your servant listens…

27 June, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Last June 16 we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a very special day for all of us Catholics, and for the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, also from now on for this humble servant, who, with a heart full of great joy, under the protection of the Virgin Mary of Nazareth and the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni, makes his Commitment as a Comboni Lay Missionary.

It has been a dream since this whole journey began, knowing that it is a commitment with much meaning, being the first Lay Committed under the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni in Costa Rica, knowing all that this represents in all aspects, but with great joy and hope knowing that God will not abandon me and always ready to listen to the voice of our Lord.

It was a very special day, to be able to celebrate this feast together with the whole Comboni Family, Priests, Brothers, Sisters and Seculars, also part of my family, my father, brother, aunts, some friends including 5 people who are making their first contacts to make the decision to join the CLM, let us pray to God that they can sharpen their hearing and listen to the voice of God, to realize what he wants for their lives too, full of signs that will help me always keep in mind this step, the covenant with God, the cross; As St. Daniel Comboni would say, “The works of God are born and grow at the foot of the cross”, the Rosary to keep in mind my prayer.

In this same Eucharist we were accompanied by 12 sisters and brothers who took their commitment as Coordinators of the Comboni Cenacles, who also begin to be part of the Comboni Family in Costa Rica.

In total we were more than 50 people who celebrated this Solemnity in the Comboni Seminary Martyrs of Uganda, as a family and we were witnesses of the mercy of God, personally with much joy and hope to respond as the Creator wants and putting myself at the disposal of the entire Comboni Family for wherever it is necessary and to be able to serve.

I thank God for taking notice of this servant, who, although he is very full of weaknesses, knows that Mother Mary, St. Daniel Comboni and the prayers of all, will struggle to bring the word of God in the best way to wherever God wants it.

Jose David, CLM Costa Rica

A world unknown to many

14 June, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation.

On May 23, 2023, the Community of the CLM in Guatemala, shared with Sister Lidia, a Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul; who with a masterful talk exposes us her experiences lived in Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. Her experiences in a marginal area of the Garbage Dump of Zone 3 in Guatemala City and her words so full of the Love of God makes us reflect that as CLM we are immersed in this journey and that we are part of this society so disadvantaged and that day by day there are more and few who are called to this service.

She invites us: “not to see anyone as a stranger, but as a true child of God; to see trafficking in persons where, as CLM, I can contribute from my context, to change our vocabulary, since it is not the same “A woman prostitute” to “A woman in prostitution”, to think that “They are families in transit” and that we must welcome them for what they are, always thinking that they bring many burdens and that for organized crime, it is easier to sell a person than a weapon and that the money from the weapon is over, but the person can be sold several times“.

This meeting marks the commitment that we as CLM Guatemala have and we can be a grain of sand in the change that we want to see the world from our realities.

Miriam Herrador de Orrego

CLM Guatemala

Entrepreneurship and sharing CLM projects

29 May, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Good morning and good week.

This past Saturday we had a new training at the level of the CLM of America. In this case, the theme was about economic sustainability and entrepreneurship.

It is clear that the economic funds are a fundamental tool to carry out a good missionary service.

We have to properly prepare our CLM to be able to send them to our missionary communities and from there to accompany the many needs of the people and to propose together with them projects that make possible a more dignified life.

To maintain these projects and our missionary communities that accompany them is something we do through prayer, formation and covering the basic needs. And for the latter and to be able to undertake, resources are needed.

This training is about all of this and about how to unite all people of good will to form a broad network to support the needs of the many peoples we try to accompany. The mission is not only the responsibility of the one who departs but also of the rest of the Christian community who are called to collaborate within their possibilities. To make this close collaboration grow is part of the keys that we discussed this past Saturday.

We leave you with the video (in Spanish) of this talk. We hope it will be very useful.

Best regards

Alberto de la Portilla. Coordinator of the CLM Central Committee.

Forum on Integral Ecology of the Comboni Family in America

29 May, 202326 May, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

On 22 May, the Forum of the Integral Ecology of the Comboni Family in America was held online on the theme “Towards a missionary ecological conversion”. More than 75 Comboni missionaries (brothers, priests, sisters and lay people) shared, for four hours, their pastoral activities in this field of integral ecology as part of the missionary call.

It was a day of sensitization and exchange of work, challenges, proposals and strategies to raise awareness of the planetary emergency and urgency of serious environmental degradation, as well as the great inequalities that affect the whole of humanity.

Encouraged by the Pact for the Common House made during the Synod of the Amazon 2019, the Comboni Family promotes the Comboni Pact for the Common House Común, which Father Dario Bossi (Comboni Missionary participant in the Amazon Synod) puts in context in this article. This pact invites us as missionaries to cultivate two complementary dimensions: reflection (study, prayer…) and concrete attitudes and gestures, and received a strong impetus during the Comboni Social Forum in Belém (Brazil) in 2022, which highlighted the resistance of indigenous people, women and youth to the harassment of the Common House in various forms.

During the meeting, Fr. Juan Armando Goicochea Calderón presented the work of the Laudato Si’ Center of Lima, as a center for formation, research and projects. A School of Formation in Integral Ecology is being organized for Comboni and diocesan pastoral workers. The publication of the book “This earth is in your hands” was an excellent initiative that has helped a lot, especially in the formation of young people. Two other sustainable production projects are underway: beekeeping (which protects biodiversity from industrial monoculture) and the export of organic coffee to Europe.

Mrs. Odile presented the Laudato Si’ Missionary Center of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which seeks to internalize the approaches of Laudato Si’ and to share initiatives to promote the Care of the Common Home. Among its activities are the annual meetings, which involve an exchange between civil institutions and the administration. Its members were present at the X Fospa (Pan-Amazonian Social Forum). In Brazil. Odile emphasized that this center is an opportunity to question the ecclesial pastoral and promote joint work between laity and religious, promoting critical ecological citizenship in defense of the common home. The Center is responsible for disseminating the contents of the encyclical in simple language, and for bringing ecological education to public and private educational centers.

Flávio Schmidt, a Brazilian Comboni layman who has worked in recent years in Piquiá de Baixo (Maranhão) together with the Spanish layman Xoan Carlos Sánchez, participated in the organizing committee of this event. This community of Piquiá continues to suffer from mining contamination and is a symbol of resistance and defense of the Common Home and Human Rights. .
CLM Spain

Send, send Lord, workers to the harvest. Listen, listen to this prayer…

25 May, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

It is with the words of the beginning of this song that I share the joyful news that the formation of the future CLM in Carapira, Northern Mozambique is happening within our possibilities and according to God’s will.

We asked and the Lord answered us, he sent us new workers for his harvest. It is up to us to do our part, to prepare them in the best way possible to take on the missionary work among the people, the mission of Jesus left to us and so well done by our founder Daniel Comboni. For it is God himself who says, “do your part and I will help you.”

Centered in Jesus Christ, following the Comboni charism, the example left by our founder, we LMC of Carapira have accompanied four young people who have felt the call to be lay missionaries and faithfully arrive every month for studies, reflections and sharing since last year (2022).

The long distance traveled on foot (3 to 4 hours, most of the time without drinking or eating anything), did not become an impediment to their participation. Moved by the strength of God’s Spirit and the desire to announce the Good News, they are faithful to the commitment of their preparation for missionary work. For me, this is nourishment on the journey.

Our meetings take place monthly, beginning at eight o’clock in the morning on Saturday and ending with lunch on Sunday.

The way they dedicate themselves, the effort they make to learn, the enthusiasm of each one at each meeting, seeing them overcome challenges that are not few is the best reward I receive.

In fact, working with the Macua people is a reason to thank God every day for his mercy and kindness in providing me with so much growth, maturity, and experience of faith.

From Carapira, a strong missionary hug to all and lots of axé.

Regimar Costa

CLM Brazil – Mozambique