Formation – Page 82 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

We cannot bury our missionary spirit!

5 April, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

On March 15, we met in the city of Curitiba to continue the meetings with people interested in the Comboni missionary lay vocation of this region. At this second meeting, continuing with the theme of vocation and mission, we had the opportunity and commitment to pray together on the birthday of St. Daniel Comboni. United with all the Comboni Family we dedicated to pray and reflect on his life and our commitment to the mission for humanity.

It is inspiring to see that Comboni did not measure efforts to meet Christ in the face of African brothers, traveled great distances, helped encourage the Church and make visible where life was threatened. His testimony managed to attract many, he was to meet the people, he put himself on the way, used all the resources available at the time and was not afraid of difficulties.

To reflect on the importance of the missionary call, we also saw the documentary “Mission and ecclesial communion” of the Missionary Campaign of 2010.

The Mission also nowadays requires an urgent and courageous response. Mission beyond our borders and Missionary Animation, two essential points of the vocation of all baptized. These moments are important to rekindle our missionary call and help to create missionary awareness in the Church, with the hope that more people awaken to this vocation

We also share how the organization of the CLM in Brazil was born, a brief overview of these almost 20 years of existence. It always good to remember what the Pope Francis recommended in the message of the missionary month “remains of the great urgency of the mission ad gentes, which are called all members of the Church, because this is, by nature missionary: the Church was born in “exit”.

Let us continue walking, being a small sign, sharing life and in the defense and promotion of Life for everyone.

CLM Brazil

First months in Ethiopia

7 April, 201523 March, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

In the beginning of January I came to Ethiopia, beginning my mission! I’ll work as a physiotherapist in Bushullo Health Center, near Awassa (in the south part of Ethiopia). Joining there Maggie & Mark with their children!

But now the first months I’m spending in Addis Abeba (in the community of MCCJ) on the language training – trying to learn Amharic. It is the second-most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. The graphs of the Amharic writing system are called fidel. Each character represents a consonant+vowel sequence and there are more than 230 of them! Now it’s such big joy for me to be able to read something (finally!). So wherever I go I try to decipher the texts around me – on the buses, on the buildings… 😉

After school usually I spend some time for voluntary service, using my physiotherapy skills and at the same time improving Amharic through communication with the patients 🙂 . People here are so friendly for me, helping a lot with everything, always smiling and greeting. I really enjoy it! And also they teach me their culture – like for example inviting for coffee ceremonies or for enjera. I also had the possibility to be here for Timkat – one of the biggest feasts of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which celebrates Epiphany and Baptism of Jesus. For me it’s so interesting to experience the variety of churches here – catholic is only 1%, the biggest is Orthodox church, then protestants and Muslims. But the religion seems to be very important part of live, even in the language all the most common expression include God – like for example the answer for greeting is “I’m fine, thanks be to God”.

So slowly I’m getting to know this place, these people, this culture, this language. And day by day I’m more and more happy that God sent me here!

Madzia Plekan. CLM in Ethiopia

Called to live and be community

19 March, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

During the weekend 21 and 22 of February, the Comboni Lay Missionaries gathered in Viseu for the sixth formation meeting on the theme: “Community: Challenges and Opportunities” oriented by the community-life of Oporto. The meeting was held at the Monastery of Santa Beatriz da Silva, who graciously welcomed us and we are very grateful for that.
During this meeting, we had the opportunity to reflect and understand in depth what is community life. The community appears at the beginning of the Bible, when God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2, 18). So, in fact, we are called throughout our life to live and be community. As Susana said: “The world is our structure. People are our home. Without this world we cannot have another, without people the human been does not live”. Thus, it must be with people and for people that the community exist.

“We have to be parts of one body”

IMAG0618 The community is everywhere, in every field of our life: school, work, family, friends, church, catechesis and mission. However, we can only speak fully of community if we accept Jesus Christ as a member of our community, as the brother who loves us so much to die on the cross with the weight of our sins. Jesus loves us and is part of our community and together with the Father and the Holy Spirit are the center, the heart of any community. Like them we must be one voice, be one soul, we must be parts of the same body. This is the real challenge of being community. This is because we are all different in our weaknesses and qualities. And God calls us individually by name. God calls different, sinners. God calls us. And we are, with all that characterizes us, who form community.

“We have to be parts of one body”

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And the question we ask many times is: Does the community work despite the differences between people? Yes, it is not easy but it is definitely possible. It works if we know our center, if we are honest with each other, if we use the gifts of each to serve in things where we’re good. It works if we have the humility to share tasks. But not to divide but to unite. Thus, the community goes through faith in the other. The community is a matter of love in which there is only one heart, one mind and one voice. Stop being “me” to be “us”. Where everything is put together.

“The community is love”

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The community is undoubtedly love. The love that comes from God, born of Him who loves us first in an overwhelming way. It is this love that moves the world we are called to be for our brothers. And as S John Paul II said: “Love is an act of will.”

So depend on us to forgive, excuse, want to love the others, choose to love despite all its faults and errors, which I also have, and love with our differences and our weaknesses.
By: Paula Sousa

Gathering in Trujillo 2015 (CLM-Peru national meeting)

2 March, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

On 20, 21 and 22 in the city of Trujillo (northern Peru) was conducted the national 2105 CLM meeting. This meeting is held once a year and is nationwide.

It is a time where all CLM in Peru, including foreigners, share experiences on our missionary work: ad-gentes, mission fields, pastoral and missionary animation.

Thanks to the host’s MCCJ Community in Trujillo, the CLM could happily share part of our lives with our CLM brothers of Trujillo and his advisor Fr. José Chinguel. We have no lack of opportunities for prayer, reflection, discussion and sharing on the daily work of the missionary lay life.

On this occasion, we work under the framework of “the conclusions of Guatemala” from which we could make our proposals integrating them within our priorities for this year and the next one. We went to the meeting CLM from Lay Lima 8 and 7 from Trujillo. Unfortunately, some brothers could not attend due to various circumstances. We also have the presence of Anna, a young German missionary who serves in Arequipa. At this meeting we reach specific conclusions for this year aimed to achieve our objectives and goals together as one community of Comboni Lay Missionaries of Peru.

Why this gathering?

It is my third national meeting as CLM and once again reaffirms my missionary vocation. It is a joy to know I am not alone but with me there are others who feel the same call to serve in the periphery. Each testimony has been for me a conviction that we are on track. And the best is that the Lord was present, inspiring and directing our work.

This experience, in which we have gathered to share our life, our joys and why not also our difficulties, is the experience with the Brother, hear and be pleasant host, but with Jesus who calls us to share as a community that has one heart.

This space where everyone comes as he (she) is, with dreams, encouragement, but also weak and with fears, have made us been able to see ourselves reflected in the other. It was an appropriate time to deepen and reflect our missionary being.

Rocio Gamarra CLM – Lima

Aspirants CLM meeting in Ghana

25 February, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

We held our meeting this 14th Feb. We first have a talk on Comboni Spirituality which was presented by our Spiritual Director Fr Godwin Kornu. First of all, he showed us the books that can help us in our journey: The Writings of Comboni, The passion of a life of Don Lozano, We the Heirs of Francesco Pierli. He then explained the word Spirituality by the way a person experiences God, him or herself and the world he/she is part of. The spirituality must be shaped by Christ but it is influenced by the time and our environment. And talking about the spirituality of a person demands to pass through the life, the history of the person, the way he experiences God. And this experience of an individual is unique. Father led us to discover that the “loving heart is a suffering heart” and “what is good is not relative” which means what is good cannot be determined by a tradition or a culture. What is good is good by itself. The relativism is one of the points that the Pope Emeritus Benedict condemned lots. (The theme is very broad so for now it is just an introduction).

After the presentation, we moved on for some discussions. The minutes of the last meeting was read and few corrections made. From the matters arisen, we agreed to levy ourselves with an amount which can be paid from now up to the next second meeting. At last, we decided to have a recollection on the 14^th March to redo ourselves in the Lenten Season. The meeting was then moved to closure with prayer and benediction. After this, we had an agape.

Justin Nougnui, coordinator.