Formation – Page 42 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13)

18 September, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

How beautiful is the wood sculpture of Africa at the feet of Christ. I allow the gaze of Comboni to penetrate me, to contemplate me. And how much of me fits into that gaze. I remember someone who once told me “it is impossible that it will not penetrate you, and question you.” And I agree every time I see this image of our tireless San Daniel Comboni.

This is the image I contemplate above the altar in the chapel of the MCCJ house in Madrid, where today I will wait until 4:00 PM, when the CLM David will come to get me to go together for the weekend at Arenas de San Pedro, about 100 miles from here. I can’t resist to enter and spend a moment with the Lord. I pray to him for the mission. Not only for my own, but for everyone’s. The mission of those who are about to go. The one of those who stay. Also in separation there is love. It means to leave what we have and earn something better: the freedom of giving ourselves to Christ. Separation is not something simply physical. It means to go out of ourselves on a daily basis. At each moment. It is what I continue to look for today, but that today is becoming more “doable.”

I leave my country looking for the wisdom and the grace I need so that, in the future, I will deposit my gifts in total surrender. So during the next few months I will be in Madrid, with the family I chose, the Comboni Family, for a missiology course. From the beginning, this program inflamed my heart and brightened my eyes, I must confess, just like it is with the anxious waiting of children the day before returning to school. This is what I am grateful for even today before this Africa at the feet of Christ: the opportunity to grow in wisdom and grace.

I know that I am fragile, but in a community that lives of and for love, I feel strong. Because “all I can in Him who comforts me” (Phil 4:13). “All I can in Him who comforts me,” I repeat. It resonates in me. Only in Him and through Him I could be able to go beyond myself, to go to meet love, to be free inasmuch as I trust in Him and in his hands, loving without measure. “God does not choose the able ones, but enables those he chooses.” Today I am understanding this quite well… and I pray to God that he may make me capable in the mission to which I have been assigned. This is for me and for those who are with me. Family. Boyfriend. Friends. People in general. Each in their own right, are part of this mission and I feel the need to bring them along.

“You become responsible forever, for those you have tamed.”

(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

And so it is… I pray for each of them, and for their mission. Pray for me as well, please. From the bottom of my heart, thanks for your trust… Not so much in me, but in God. Everything, including me, we are only possible in Him.

Take, Lord and receive

my freedom,

my memory,

my understanding

and my will,

all that I have and possess;

You gave it to me;

I return it to you, Lord.

Everything is yours,

dispose of it as you wish.

Give me your love and your grace,

and it will be sufficient.

(St. Ignatius of Loyola)

Keep in touch,

CLM Carolina Fiúza

Mission promotion… all the way to Brazil

7 September, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

Dear CLM the world over. With great enthusiasm we share the experiences that lately have filled our hearts with joy, fraternity, unity and energy.

We, the Guatemalan Comboni Lay Missionaries of the Province of Central America, are happy to be involved in the process of commissioning the first missionaries of our community, who are about to leave for a foreign land. They are, as perhaps you already know, our brothers Alejandro and Ana Cris Camey Figueroa who, with their four young children, will soon go to Brazil.

It has been a great adventure for our Guatemalan community, since it is our first experience of this kind. It means that we all feel like we are all going to be sent, and lately we have actively taken part in the search for benefactors, in mission promotion activities in communities and parishes, and above all, we have joined our creativity, talents and efforts to organize the sale of artifacts we made with our own hands, using recyclable material.

We have been producing baskets, bottle-holders, flower pots, dolls, jewelry boxes, candy jars, crucifixes and other things, by recycling paper, cardboard, cans and plastic bags.

As a community, we thank God for all these opportunities stemming from the mission journey of the Camey family, because it has motivated us to get together and become active, thus discovering that together we are a source of mutual support. We have become much more conscious also of the love we share for mission in the style of St. Daniel Comboni.

We wish to see Jesus proclaimed all over, especially in those places where no one wants to go!

Blessed be God!

St. Daniel Comboni, pray for us.

CLM Guatemala

Meeting of German CLM at the mission house in Nuremberg on August 3-5, 2018

15 August, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

As always, it was a great pleasure to feel welcome and “at home” in Nuremberg. Bro. Hans Eigner gave us and introduction to the socio-political situation of South Sudan. He helped us to better understand the way and the objectives behind the birth of the Peace Center of Juba and what is currently being done there to enable peace and reconciliation, as well as to help heal traumas.

We saw how we, CLM as a group, can concretely support the very important work of the center and of the schools connected with it. In the future this will be one of the principal points of our missionary activity.

We then concretized our reflections on our own contribution in Germany. It is clear that faith is not usually relevant and it is rarely a topic of conversation. How can we engage in conversations of faith and encourage people to speak about their faith? This, too, will be one of our main points.

During the weekend we had plenty of opportunities to pray and speak together. It was also a lot of fun to attend the open air classical music concert in Luitpoldhain.

Strengthened and with “homework” in our bags we returned to our “daily mission fields.”

Barbara, CLM Germany

Interview with Pedro Nascimento in ECCLESIA

31 July, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

We leave here the interview done to Pedro Nascimento (CLM of Portugal) in the program of the ECCLESIA Agency in Portugal.

Feast of the CLM, the joy of sharing as a family

30 July, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). A biblical phrase that stood out at the end of Saturday during the prayer closing the afternoon of the weekend we spent as CLM family in Viseu,

At the beginning of this Saturday I had that yearning to see the usual faces in the Comboni house of Viseu who had welcomed me so often during my formation. The journey. A journey proposed to all those who feel in their hearts the ardent passion of belonging to this CLM family.

Starting this day made me remember Marisa, Cristina, Paula, Neuza who are now in mission and who followed me closely in choosing my CLM commitment. I remembered Tiago Santos who could not continue with us, Flávio Soares whose life stays close to us, but whose journey is temporarily moving him elsewhere, Rufina who, as I understand, is very dedicated to the refugees, Patrícia Bernardino, whose whereabouts I do not know, but who followed a beautiful journey of vocational discernment. And lots more. Many who filled this house and who have turned this house into a record of my growth that God allows us to manage.

Starting this weekend allowed me to go beyond myself and get reacquainted with this family that has grown, and is still growing, with beautiful people with a missionary soul in their hearts moving them towards the hearts of the poorest and most abandoned. It is great to recognize this growing family to whom I proudly belong!

This is a family getting together to evaluate the year just past, in order to understand the journey just finished and talk about it. A family gathered to talk about important documents that will be the background of our International Assembly in Rome during this 2018. And discussions followed in favor of our movement, conversations giving birth to ideas for our future. And what pride we felt to see the commitment of the lay folks and of those in formation, expressing the will to improve, in the image God wants as the ideal of the CLM. It was a tiring Saturday that ended in a rhythm of prayer. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Together we prayed to be on this journey both individually and as a movement.

Sunday was the day to welcome our friends and relatives. A great day of animation when together we were even able to speak with Marisa and her community in Mozambique. And how exciting to find her happy in her mission, so adapted that she even mixes up the pronunciations of Portugal and Mozambique. We saw videos from Paula and Neuza who described clearly their mission in Arequipa, Peru and how important it is how to act before people, a mission that invites us to focus on the person, and on society in its details. A social, communitarian mission. We also saw a video from Flávio and Liliana in Piquiá, Brazil witnessing to their work with a people demanding better and dignified living conditions, and who get together to celebrate the harvest.

At the end of this time of witnessing, we heard from Fr. Joaquim Nogueira recently returned from Ethiopia. It was wonderful! How many difficulties, but also how brilliant were his eyes as he told us about what the Comboni Missionaries have achieved together with “these poorest and most abandoned, to whom nobody goes.”

The Eucharist and lunch followed and we ended the afternoon with a time to “laugh with God.” It was a session of laughter therapy animated by Fernando Batista, creator of the project laughing more who also has a great mission – proclaiming Christ in a funny, relaxed and faithful way.

Then we were sent out. And we left. One by one we returned to our homes, but with the certainty that we are walking together following “the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

CLM Carolina Fiúza