Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Formation

Guatemala: News from El Salvador

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LMC Guatemala

LMC GuatemalaOn the weekend of September 14-16 three members of the CLM community of Guatemala, Mireya Soto, Miriam Herrador and Lily Portillo, together with our adviser, Bro. Humberto Rua, traveled to El Salvador, which is about a five hours drive from here.

 

The reason? …. Actually there were two and both very important!

First, Aljandro and Ana Cris Camey Figueroa and their four children are there to spend some time of community life, as a preparation for their upcoming departure for Brazil. The CLM community of El Salvador and the MCCJ community have welcomed them and guided them in activities of catechesis, visits, and have supported them in every possible way. They also had the opportunity to do some mission promotion in parishes and on radio. We saw their four children, Esteban, Isabel, Agustín and Lucia, quite enthused and busy in their mission with love and joy.

“EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR THE ADMIRABLE WILL OF GOD, LET US THEREFORE LOVE HIM WITH OUR WHOLE HEART AND PLACE ALL OUR TRUST IN HIM”

St. Daniel Comboni

LMC GuatemalaThe second reason was to visit the coordinators of the CLM-PCA of El Salvador, to give them our support. They are in their first year of formation, are well organized and, like in all beginnings, they experience joys and difficulties, doubts and fears. They are very committed people, full of faith and love. As they move forward, let our prayers and everyone’s prayers follow them.

“I FEEL SO TOTALLY FULL OF STRENGTH, COURAGE AND TRUST IN GOD AND IN THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, THAT IAM SURE I I WILL PREVAIL IN EVERYTHING AND BE READY FOR EVEN GREATER CROSSES IN THE FUTURE”

St. Daniel Comboni

We entrust ourselves to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, St. Daniel Comboni, pray for us.

A fraternal embrace from Guatemala

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

by
LMC

LMC

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.” LMC

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.

LMC“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

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LMC Guatemala

LMC Guatemala

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.

LMC GuatemalaIt 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.

LMC Guatemala

CLM Guatemala

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

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CLM Alemania

CLM Alemania

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