From June 4–8, a meeting of CLM Kenya members took place in Kitelakapel. It was a special time of reflection, prayer, and planning for the future of our community.
During the meeting, we reviewed the development of CLM over the past six months and reflected on the direction we should take moving forward. Together, we discussed our strengths, challenges, and opportunities for further growth and service. Each day began with Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Joseph, during which we entrusted our plans, activities, and intentions to God. The gathering was also an excellent opportunity to strengthen our relationships, share experiences, and build community.
A particularly important event during our stay was the celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi on June 7. CLM members participated in the solemn Eucharistic procession in Kitelakapel. The Holy Mass was celebrated by Fr. Joseph, who reminded us in his homily of the importance of the Eucharist as a source of unity, love, and strength for every Christian. It was a special time of prayer and a public witness to our faith.
After Holy Mass, the faithful took part in the procession with the Blessed Sacrament, honoring Christ truly present in the Eucharist. CLM members actively assisted in the preparation and organization of the celebration and helped throughout the entire event.
This beautiful feast brought together many parishioners, children, and young people, demonstrating the living faith of our community. It was also a special moment of unity, joy, and gratitude for the gift of Jesus’ presence among us.
On Monday, after Holy Mass and breakfast, we departed for our homes, taking with us new inspiration, spiritual encouragement, and renewed motivation to continue serving others.
We thank everyone for their presence, commitment, and the time we shared together. May Christ present in the Eucharist continue to guide and strengthen us in our daily lives and in our mission as
We’re happy to share a brief account of our departure from Guatemala and arrival in Brazil.
We started last year with the confirmation of our departure, and with that came the documents from Brazil to process our visa—and then the complications began: our vehicles broke down, many of our household appliances failed, work piled up, and our parents fell ill. Amidst a storm, we reached January without knowing the exact departure date. We bought the tickets and had to change them for a month later because the visa hadn’t come through. While we waited, the visa arrived, and a day later we traveled to Brazil.
How comforting it is to know there is a community waiting for you; the prayers of our community and those who welcome us help sustain us. Without a doubt, the first impression is a shock—even though we know the culture, language, and customs, it always hits you head-on, and stepping out of your comfort zone stirs your very core. You remember the beautiful things, the glorious moments, the joys, but in that instant you remember the difficulties, the lack, what you leave behind, and you turn back to God because only He can sustain you.
We arrived to work… getting off the plane and preparing a topic to share at a parish women’s gathering. We found the roof broken and in need of repair, because it rains more inside the house than outside—dampness and other issues—and thank God, Cristina had already cleaned the house, which had been empty for seven months. The car broke down three times, and we’ve only just begun!
With great effort and joy, we cleaned and repaired the two houses to welcome the laypeople who are going through their discernment process to become CLM of Brazil during Holy Week, and amidst these trials, we managed to get our children started on their studies.
Today, after settling in, establishing a routine, and beginning to work on parish activities, we feel more at peace and have a clearer sense of purpose.
We have resumed activities at the Comboni House, a small group of us, a house that carries out social and human development work in the region. We started with the women’s crafts group and are in the process of integrating other educational and community service activities into the house, as it has been closed for a long time.
We are accompanying two communities that are somewhat struggling and short-staffed; we have begun working with the neighborhood association and we are waiting for their issues to be resolved so we can start Spanish and English classes. Meanwhile, we have already begun premarital catechesis, meetings with the family ministry, and accompanying the Comboni spirituality group.
We are getting to know the place again, reconnecting with the people. It brings us joy and strength when they greet us warmly, and above all, it presents us with a great challenge: to do our work well for the glory of God. The provincial came to visit us, which undoubtedly gave us even more encouragement to move forward and organize together the work to be done as a Comboni family.
We celebrated these three months with the Feast of Corpus Christi and the parish festival of Los Centinelas, a time for fellowship, sharing, and encouraging the community.
There are many emotions, sorrows, longings, and reunions; every missionary needs time to calm the spirit, to settle into the mission field, to find clarity of mind and heart. We love to work and be with people, to accompany them and evangelize them, but above all to be witnesses to God’s love.
May St. Daniel Comboni continue to intercede for each of us, for all his missionaries, and may the upcoming celebration, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, be a time of unity for the entire Comboni family, which struggles with daily challenges, precariousness, and so many other problems that Comboni himself endured.
Last Saturday, June 6, we, the Comboni Lay Missionaries of Guatemala, had the joy of once again sharing a day of mission in the community of Manzanillo.
In the morning, we held activities with the children of the community, exploring the theme of the Angel’s Annunciation to Mary. Through games, songs, dances, moments of prayer, and times of reflection, the children were able to better understand Mary’s generous response to God’s call and discover how they too can say “yes” to Jesus in their daily lives.
It was a morning filled with enthusiasm, smiles, and active participation, where each activity became an opportunity to sow Christian values and strengthen the faith of the little ones.
In the afternoon, the gathering continued with the adults of the community. On this occasion, we reflected on the theme “God dwelt among us,” delving into the immense love of God who drew near to humanity through Jesus Christ. Dialogue and reflection allowed us to share experiences of faith and strengthen our sense of community.
As part of the day’s activities, a practical workshop on making traditional sweets was also held, with the aim of providing an additional tool that can contribute to the economic development of families in the community. This initiative seeks to foster new entrepreneurial opportunities and strengthen local capacities to improve the living conditions of the community’s residents.
We give thanks to God for this beautiful mission experience, for every child, young person, and adult who participated, and for all the people who made this activity possible. We continue walking alongside the communities, sharing the faith, promoting human dignity, and proclaiming the Gospel with joy, following the example of St. Daniel Comboni.
“Save Africa with Africa,” said St. Daniel Comboni. Today we continue to believe that true development arises when communities discover and strengthen the gifts that God has sown within them.
We are writing to you from northern Mozambique to share the joys and challenges of our missionary work, made possible by your prayers and your ongoing, invaluable support. We are focusing our efforts on development projects in various fields: literacy, training for mothers and young people, self-sufficiency, and economic development. Maria Augusta leads the work with elementary school students who have serious difficulties with reading and writing. Twice a day, she works primarily with young girls who, for a couple of hours, learn and reinforce what they cannot manage to do in three hours of school in a class of one hundred students. Ilaria focuses on economic education, an important aspect in a cultural context that does not know the concept of saving and where the tradition is to spend immediately what one earns; a work of patience, knowing that the hoped-for results cannot be achieved in the short term. Federica focuses on the education of young people because they are the future of this country. While until recently they were the ones setting fires in the savanna and blocking roads due to political dissatisfaction, today we work with them to instill values such as peace, environmental stewardship, and the ability to think creatively and plan for a better future.
The challenges we face are quite daunting: poverty and the destruction caused by a cyclone, as happened recently, cannot be wiped away with a quick sweep of a sponge, but we believe that building on people and with people can yield positive results. That is why we strive every day to work toward transforming people’s lives through practical training and education. At the Carapira secondary school, we also offer intensive formation in human and Gospel values; the curriculum includes both theoretical and hands-on components. Furthermore, we strive to ensure that these 250 students, who live far from their respective communities, do not miss out on catechetical formation.
We do this every Friday, walking with them on an annual journey enriched by retreats and outings that bring them into contact with real-life experiences. We are also happy to participate in the dynamic life of Carapira’s 99 communities; the parish includes, in addition to the center, five regions and 21 pastoral zones. Our goal is to help people become as self-reliant as possible in managing their own lives. We are firmly convinced that simply giving things or money does not solve problems. Of course, practical help is also needed, but if it is not supported by training and a journey of awareness, it makes people dependent. With all our hearts, we try not to create injustices in a country that has already seen so many, and to share our daily lives with them. The context is difficult: corruption and discrimination of every kind, and few job opportunities.
All this stands in contrast to the country’s abundant natural resources, which, instead of being a source of wealth for Mozambique, become the focus of interest for foreign countries, including Italy. In Nampula, an hour away from us, there are still refugee camps housing those who have fled the Islamist terrorism still ongoing in Cabo Delgado. This violence is driven not so much by religious motives as by the desire to control the territory. We engage in our local context based on communal discernment. And the resilience of our people encourages us to continue doing so. We are currently supporting a project to combat malnutrition by helping 40 mothers care for their young children, who would otherwise risk dying from lack of food. We have also planned to renovate the kitchen at the secondary school, which is in a state of great disrepair, largely due to years of smoke damage. This deterioration has an impact on the health of the students and school staff. We are grateful to all those who contribute to our work, both morally and materially. In this way, you share in the work of witness and love that helps us transform our lives and those of the people who have welcomed us. Muito obrigada (thank you in Portuguese)!
Koxukhuru vanjene (thank you very much, in the Macua language)!
Federica and Ilaria – LMC in Mozambique
[Nigrizia Magazine, April 2026]
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