Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation

“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel” (Mk 16, 15)

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LMC Ghana

It is driven by this call that six of our members left their houses and gathered at Immaculate Center in the Sacred Heart Parish of Bakpa-Avedo in the Volta Region, Ghana.

The gathering started this Thursday evening. Justin Nougnui, Benjamin Amekor and Gifty Aziedu joined Christian Wotormenyo at the Center. They were joined the following day by Frank Amenyo and Valentine Sewovi.

During the Eucharistic Celebration Thursday evening, commemorating the feast of the Apostle Matthew, our group was welcomed by the church and Father Senyo the parish priest. Father Senyo met us later to guide us for our evangelizing activity. The experience was in three folds.

  • Community life

We were six for this experience. It was an opportunity to live together. We prayed together, ate at the same table, participated in the Eucharistic Celebration with other faithful of the parish, thought and planned together. Living together as brothers and sister was really “sweet” (Ps. 133,1). The sweetness and happiness were enhanced with some funny stories from our elderly members Christian and mostly Benjamin and also by recalling some past experience from Cape Coast, Esse-Ana and Cotonou. Each one of us contributed in various ways for the success of our presence.

  • Formation

We gathered also to form ourselves. “Mission of CLM in the church and the society” was shared by the coordinator. After explaining the concept of “Lay person” in general and “CLM” in particular, he laid emphasis on our responsibilities as CLM. The main aspects of our mission are Evangelization, Mission Animation, Vocation promotion and Justice, Peace and Integrity of the Creation (JPIC). The JPIC supposes also our knowledge of the Social Teaching of the Church. This aspect, though part of Evangelization, is a great horizon for us CLM to explore and develop as living in the society. The Encyclical Letter, Laudato si of the Holy Father Francis will be of great help.

The second topic was shared by Christian who is the Principal of Immaculate Vocational and Technical Institute, a place we are dreaming to own one day. He shared with us on the Center, what work and training are done and the challenges the Center was facing.

  • Pastoral activities

At Avedo itself, we moved from house to house indiscriminately. We greeted our brothers and sisters, wished them well and invited those that are not Christians to join us. We met healthy and sick people, prayed for the sick and recommended in our report to the parish priest a continual visitation to all but especially to the sick.

We also did house visitation at Agortakpo an outstation. But, contrary to how it was done at Avedo, we went purposely to those that have stopped coming to church. Some promised us to re-start.

In the outstation, we interacted with the faithful. It is an old station but full of young people. With a zealous leadership of the catechist Julius Kotoku, the head-christian Foster Agbanyo and the choir leader Veronica, the station is doing well. We encouraged them to meet often not only on Sundays. We also showed them a film “Jesus of Nazareth” in Ewe (local language).

We couldn’t reach two other stations assigned to us by the parish priest for the bad state of the road during this rainy season. We tried one but return on the way.

We are grateful to the Master of the Vineyard whose call we are trying to respond generously. May He strengthen us in our CLM journey. We are also grateful to each and every one who in one way or the other facilitated this experience of ours.

Justin Nougnui, CLM.

Seminar “Trafficking in Persons and Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

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LMC Guatemala

Guatemala City, Guatemala, August 18-20, 2023

The Comboni Lay Missionaries of Guatemala this year are committed to Formation and Awareness in our commitments for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. We are beginning this journey trusting in Our Lord Jesus Christ under the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni and Our Mother the Virgin Mary to enlighten us to be able to see, hear and feel the cry of the Living Christ in the streets, in the peripheries, at the borders, in the bus terminals, in the shelters, in our communities and in all those places where there is always a cry for help.

We share with you the Final Message of the Seminar on Human Trafficking and Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean “I have seen the oppression of my people, I have looked upon their suffering and I have come down to deliver them” (Ex 3:7-8). (Ex 3:7-8)”

Miriam Herrador, CLM Guatemala

Mensaje-Final-SeminarioDownload

6 years of Chispuditos

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Lmc Guatemala

With God’s blessing, lots of joy, good cheer, smiles and anticipation, the CLM were contributing ideas, activities and snack suggestions to celebrate the children of Aldea La Salvadora I and II the anniversary…

VI ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHISPUDITOS PROGRAM.

On JUNE 3rd, the anniversary date, with a pleasantly sunny morning and with the attendance of the 50 children that month after month are given preventive monitoring for child malnutrition, we prepared a delicious and fresh fruit salad, which children and parents enjoyed together with a bread with chicken filling and a very cold and refreshing horchata.

There were fun games of rounds, songs and races around chairs; mimes and even races of moms with their babies, presenting each one with an attractive pastel-colored plastic cup. It was such a fun and entertaining atmosphere that children and adults alike had a morning of celebration and fun.

Of course, the grand finale of this celebration was the presentation of a fairy tale play, in which the CLM put all their soul and energy in their performance, leaving all the spectators surprised and amazed, it was the fable of Leo and the mouse. Curiously, several children did not know the fable and we were very impressed by the way in which adults and children were completely introduced in the story.

It was a very enjoyable moment, a moment in which we celebrated life and that, in the midst of suffering, there is light and hope for these villages.

Our deep desire as a community is to grow with this program, so that the word of God can reach more families and comfort them in their sorrows, so that more children can have the opportunity to improve their health and so that mothers can have the necessary tools for their children to grow with greater opportunity.

Sara Ramírez

A world unknown to many

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LMC Guatemala

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

The Pygmy people, guardians of the Common Home

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Laudato Si
Laudato

Jesús Ruíz, Bishop of Mbaïki (Central African Republic) tells us how his communities of the Aka (Pygmies) people celebrated Laudato Si’ Week. Jesus, who inspired the CLM movement in Spain, is visiting Spain these days and we had the joy of sharing an afternoon with him, in which his love for his communities shines through.

The Congo Basin is the second lung of the planet, and sadly the scene of similar environmental crimes to those we usually hear about in the Amazon. Only fewer voices tell us about this scenario of massive destruction of the equatorial rainforest. Jesús Ruíz promotes the integral evangelization of the peoples, in which the Easter of the Lord translates into the Aka people standing up against centuries of discrimination not only from the colonizers but also from the rest of the majority peoples of Central Africa.

The Aka are used to taking blows and bowing their heads. That is why leading a march with the slogan We are the guardians of the forest is of great value. It is a clear sign of the Comboni charisma. Like the rest of the native peoples in America, Asia, Oceania… the Aka are aware that they have guarded the Common House for centuries, in invisibility, and now their testimony shines because their environment is at serious risk of disappearing. We are indebted to all these communities.

Comboni Sisters Lucia Font (Spanish) and Lucia Premoli (Brazilian) are currently working with Bishop Ruiz and the Aka peoples, the latter as the Episcopal leader of the Laudato Si’ Commission. The experience in Amazonia has prompted the latter to concretize in Africa all the work that has been developed in Latin America. In nearby Mongoumba, the CLM community has been accompanying this people for more than 20 years. Our CLM Tere Monzón, who participated in this mission for 10 years, returns to Spain on the 9th.

Laudato SI

The momentum of the encyclical Laudato Si’ is mobilizing around the world for a change of system, because the current development model respects neither people nor the rest of Creation. “We need organizations to help us document everything that is happening in our territory, so that it becomes known.” The level of mercury pollution in the rivers, the loss of native species, the savage enrichment of a few minorities thanks to the national resources of this “poor country”. This is the direct request that Monsignor Ruiz makes to us.

CLM Spain