Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Formation

CLM meeting in Mexico

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Grupo Mexico

Hello dear Comboni missionary family,
Came the month of the homeland and with it our monthly Comboni missionary meeting. The CLM of Mexico, DF met at the headquarters of the continental novitiate. After settling, Brother Joel invited us to dinner. The kitchen was already moving with Bayro preparing water melon, José heating the soup, Roger setting the table and Delio organizing the food in the “shopping taste”. After sharing the bread, we turn to our holy hour to the candlelight, between psalms and prayers we discovered ourselves before the Lord needed his strength, and his love to continue in his service.
After a good rest, we set to start on Sunday with the prayer of Lauds, led by Juanita We had breakfast prepared by the sisters of the Oblate Congregation of St. Martha, and we share the Eucharistic celebration with the community; and a youth group that was conducting a retreat. Father Anastasio, MCCJ, during the homily reminded us that our encounter with Jesus should lead us to seek spiritual healing previous to our physical or economic well-being. He invited us out following the example of Jesus; to share with others, to show our enthusiasm and thus, by helping others, we will transform our life and testimony.
Sister Ma. Elena shared with us the theme of women in the plan of Comboni. And between reflections and writings together we discovered what St. Daniel thought of women, how he values, demands, protects, and treats women as an equal, considered a stronghold for the mission. One of the most moving text was a letter written to his mother, Domenica Pace, where he speaks with great tenderness. Finally, we could not leave without organizing the activities of October and giving thanks to God for this meeting, we live with joy in the midst of the Comboni Family.
Martha CLM coordinator of Mexico

Little by little, we are taking off

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Ghana

It was a great joy for me that slowly but with assurance we are moving forward in the response to our vocation. Things planned are being slowly implemented.

Before having our meeting this 12th September, some members came a day before for a discussion about a project. In the evening of Friday 11, we were gathered to meditate upon the Sorrowful Mysteries of our Lord Jesus. After this prayer, we read two letters from the Writings of Comboni, one written to Fr Nicola Mazza on the 4th Sep. 1857 and the second one written on the 20th Sep. 1857 from Egypt to Dr Benedetto Patuzzi (WC 19, 20-26). The main purpose is the knowledge of our Founder. After this, we took some time to reflect a little bit about how we are moving. This time of Community Prayer is to strengthen all the local groups which are formed  by members in the same area.  Before starting our monthly meeting this 12th September, we prayed the Lauds. For our meeting, we had first a mass presided by Rev. Fr Joseph Rabbiosi. At the meeting, we emphasized on the roles that the local groups have to play: the necessity to come together and pray, involvement in JPIC, the formation and preparation of some youth, the proclamation of the Good News in some villages and the mission promotion.

We planned for the coming meeting which falls on the 10th October to present the History of CLM.

Justin Nougnui, coordinator.

A dream come true!

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Sofia3Mission in Africa, a dream. Something that I have wanted to live and finally got. I was 17 when I started to dream about Africa when I started to want to learn more about the “world” of the mission. In August, I went as part of Faith and Mission group with another four young and two missionaries of the Comboni Family, we went to Mozambique, to the mission of Carapira. I always thought that the mission was to bring Jesus to others, but when I got to Carapira He was there with open arms to welcome me and tell me that He had chosen me and that was His people.

It was an indescribable experience, but I will try to share: I found a warm, generous, cheerful, full of smiles people. A people without hurry, where time is a detail.

People always have time to talk; they stop to greet each other. You do not feel the stress, if my neighbor is sick, I am not indifferent.

I found a great team of missionaries who does an excellent job, every day gives his body and soul to the people of Carapira.

SofiaBrothers, sisters, priests and Comboni lay missionaries, give their best as educators, trainers. They accompanied dozens of young, regardless of their beliefs. Accompanying communities, trying to be the presence of Christ among the people. I knew about the work of lay missionaries, who work to support the various activities in the Industrial School, where they have a very active role. They lay people involved as someone who educates, cares, as someone who loves, as the young people attending the Industrial School left their homes to study. The laity are a friend and even maternal presence. Lay also help in pastoral, help children and young people to discover Jesus.

With all the missionary community that I met and beside whom I worked and learned a lot, I met that a missionary gives a true love, is capable of love, is capable of unconditional love. I keep me every time I lived, I appreciate the confidence they have placed in my colleagues and me.

The biggest challenge we faced throughout this month was certainly living in community.

The whole experience was extraordinary, impossible to remain indifferent, I really liked all the work we did with young people of the Industrial School. On the Laudato Si, I loved being with the girls in the boarding school, I liked working with the youth of the community, “Save the Youth by the Youth”.. Sofia

It really touch me a conversation I had in the early days, when I arrived at boarding school to work to support the girls in the study and clarification of Portuguese and math. Nelson, a girl aged 13-14, who attends seventh grade, she didn´t get much closer, always watching me, but always a little distant, when I went to try to stop her reserves, she said “I don´t wanna be your friend, because you will be gone in a few days and I will never see you again”. This cut my heart, let me stop, I wanted to say something, but could not find words, I wanted to tell the girl that it would not be like that, but I would be lying because it was true, I had a scheduled trip. I accepted her choice and I decided not to insist. And during the 15 days worked in the boarding school, we talked little, we study together, we discover new and difficult words, we do our homework.

But I know that I interacted with Nelson, I’m sure, she smiled and even joked when I spoke something wrong in Macua, or when I said I was afraid of getting sick from malaria. And the day came when I had to say goodbye to her and all the other girls. And Nelson asked: “Teacher will you forget me now?”

She is an expert in letting me “locked”, is beautiful, has big, beautiful, bright eyes, and they were full of water and I thought how could I forget this, Lord? I will not do it. I hugged her and told her that “I will not forget you”.

What also impressed me a lot was the Eucharist, celebrated with much joy, sing, clap, they are strong, very beautiful. Mozambican women, I cannot stop talking about it, she is struggling, hardworking, always in charge of the most complicated tasks. It plays a fundamental role.

This is what I experienced; it was a good experience that I really want to repeat.

It was very important to me, every day had significant facts that I cannot forget.

And do not forget that dreams come true. We just have to make 5%, God does the rest.

Sofia Coelho

Youth Gymkhana

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Last Sunday the gymkhana was performed with the theme: “we are called to live young.” It was organized by the coordinators of youth of the parish of Santo Domingo and aimed to promote integration, encouraging youth engagement in the way of faith and building the Kingdom of God through the civilization of Love.
During the meeting and as a proposal for the month of vocations, some stalls were organized by the Comboni Missionaries, Salesian Sisters, Brothers of Saint Gabriel and Lay Comboni Missionaries.
The organization of the gymkhana began with the Mass in the community of San Judas, the offertory of the Mass has been donated to the settlement Rosa Leon as a concrete gesture of action: “I come to do, with pleasure, your will Lord.”

Reflection upon the new encyclical « Laudato Si » of the Pope

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CLM Ghana

Having meditated upon the relevance of the Social Teaching of the Church at our last meeting, we thought to start realizing the suggestions of the Scholastic Pierre Ngayo. One of his suggestions for us was to be fond with the Social Teaching of the Church. It’s for that matter that, this 8th August, we invited him to share with us about the concern of the Church about the Care for our Common Home which the Pope has shown through the Encyclical “Laudato si”. The Scholastic presented the topic into three parts.

  1. Overview of the problem of the environment.

In the Encyclical, he started, the Pope is calling the earth our common home, our mother (from the Canticle of Francis of Assisi). The name should arouse in us a relationship of love towards it. Instead, our mother, the earth is crying. We are destroying the earth, over-exploiting the resources. Everybody agrees that the earth is facing a serious degradation which has never occurred. This suffering of the earth is correlated to the suffering of the poor.

  1. Relation of the environmental degradation and poverty

The current situation of the earth is compared to the poor state of the vulnerable. We do not care for the earth likewise we do not care for the poor. And again, the degradation of the earth is also the degradation of the vulnerable. They are the ones suffering first of all of the overexploitation of the resources. The development, said the Pope, should consider the effect on the earth. It should arouse from a new ecological spirituality.

  1. The moral implication of the exploitation of resources

The Pope affirmed that the degradation of the earth is not at random. Human beings have then a role to play. A new ecological spirituality is necessary. Creatures are gift from God, and so by,  have a certain purpose.  They speak about the love of God and we should not prevent them of this. “For human beings,… to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation, … for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life -these are sins.”(L.S. 8) The Pope is calling us to think about the future generation. “The world we have received also belongs to those who will follow us… What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up? Leaving an inhabitable planet to future generation is first and foremost, up to us. Leaving debris, desolation and filth… “

The Scholastic left with us again three questions for our meditation.

  1. How does the issue of environmental degradation affect you and your family?
  2. How do you know about the relation between the environmental degradation and the issue of poverty?
  3. How can you contribute, as a Christian, to the improvement of the environment where you leave?

After this briefing about the Encyclical, he presented on a Power Point a concrete example of the negative effect of the plastic rubbers on our health, the farming lands, the danger the plastic rubbers  cause to  aquatic life and the threaten on birds.

 

After this theoretical aspect, we resolved to:

  1. Form local groups: Due to the distance between the members, we feel that forming local groups will be advantageous. They will have time for community prayer and their involvement in the life of the Christian Community close to them.
  2. JPIC Committee: At the local level again, members should collaborate with the Committee Justice and Peace if it exists. If not, they should try to create it. In some of the parishes, the apparent activity of this Committee is to resolve conflict. We, as CLM aspirants, will arouse the concern for the care of our Common Home and let people know about the Social teaching of the Church.
  3. Mission Animation: We have decided also to be engaged in the ventilation of the Magazine New People for the awareness upon Mission.
  4. We have planned few things for the month of October which we will unearth later.
  5. We formed a Committee of six (6) members to reflect on the creation of An Advanced Vocational School at Abor (IMFH).
  6. All the members should account of how far they have gone at the coming meeting as far as those decisions are concerned.

After all, we agreed to meet on the 12th September at 9 o’clock at Abor. We prayed and Rev. Fr  Rabbiosi blessed us. We had our community meal before we departed from the place.

Justin Nougnui, coordinator.