Missionary Experiences | Comboni Lay Missionaries

Our Arrival in Brazil

4 December, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

Our heart pulsating with love, fills up to overflowing with happiness!

On Thursday, November 22, we left Guatemala very enthused, with a lot of joy and hope. With a touch of homesickness we said good-bye to family and friends and started the much awaited journey to Brazil, exhausted by its length, but with the children happy to board the plane. Also with strong feelings over the blessing of being able to come.

Lourdes was happily waiting to receive us and we were just as happy to see her, amazed by the scenery and in a hurry to get home. We boarded a bus and then the MCCJ were waiting at the station to take us home. Quite an adventure, with 13 vehicles to take everybody. When we arrived we felt at home. I was thinking that, even had we left a lot behind in Guatemala, here we were getting twice as much. Simply put, the Lord is not stingy.

We rested some days after the journey and got ready for Sunday Mass. It was a beautiful celebration that filled our hearts with joy beyond description. This day, the Feast of Christ the King, reminded us of our short mission experience in San Luis Petén, where the Lord got hold of us in a deep way, and where we discovered that we wanted to be Comboni Lay Missionaries, because when we were there, we ended our mission experience on the feast of Christ the King. How joyful to know that the Lord spares no effort to win our hearts! This is how in the depth of our being the fire of love is born and generates a strength that cannot be silenced, a most pure love that gets into your very bones and makes you move out from where we are. During this beautiful Eucharist we were well received, the children did a dance representing Brazil, and we felt welcomed by the whole community where providence and the generosity of people certainly are not lacking.

After Mass we returned home for lunch, where Lourdes had prepared a banquet which we shared with Alejo, Tere and their family. With them we also shared many of our desires and aspirations of being missionaries out of our reality, as a family. We also met Neuza, a neighbor, laughed and started making acquaintances. How close one feels to Brazilians! The openness of the people here is quite impressive and especially in this little corner of Brazil.

We have been here a week and in truth it went by fast, between long trips to change money, to know the neighborhood and three-hour long shopping trips, it has been quite an experience. Many people approach us to talk to us, because the children draw a lot of attention and so does our poor Portuguese, which is improving by the day. Lourdes has been our strength and joy, takes us everywhere, teaching us, explaining and showing us everything, solving our doubts and loving our children. By now she is already officially our Brazilian grand-mother: Vovó! Even though we did not know her, she opened to us the doors of her house and of her heart. It is so comforting to know that as CLM we are one in Christ, one in love.

With a lot of anxiety we took the first round of formation with Alejo. Blessed are the eyes and ears that are attentive to the word of the Lord! It was an oasis in the midst of confusion, a pause that refreshed the soul. We sang missionary songs, and does the soul vibrates when you sing about the call God has given you! We scrutinized the words of Genesis 12:1-4, Leave your land, leave your father and your mother, your family, your country and go to the land I will show you… I will make of you a fount of blessing…

At different times the Lord makes himself known in small things, in greater things, in simple events, in something personal. This reading, that had been the main theme of a retreat given by the MCCJ provincial Fr. Victor Hugo Castillo, reminded us of the moment that defined our discernment about three years ago, when we decided to leave everything and join the CLM, the moment when we made ourselves available to mission as a family. And today, as we start in it the Lord repeats to us: “I know you, I love you and you are here because it is my will.”

How great is the love of God! There is no measure and our mind is so limited that we can only allow ourselves to be loved.

Today our hearts are full of love and want to share all these details of His dealing with us. You cannot say no to God. How could we be so blind as we face the sweetness of his love? Only by living it we can know it and by giving of ourselves we can feel it.

Our hope is based in our faith in Him and, because we feel so loved, we are here. We hope that our life may be a source of animation and hope in the face of desolation, of purification for our souls and of light for those who do not know true love.

Pray for us, that we may be useful instruments of God.

Greetings from Ipê Amarelo, Brazil

Ana Cris de Camey

Arrival in Brazil of the Comboni Lay Missionary family from Guatemala

28 November, 201828 November, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

Daring for faith and for mission

With great joy the community of Our Lady Aparecida, in the town of Ipê Amerelo, in Contagem, State of Minas Gerais, has received the family that covered miles and miles to reach Brazil and, together with the Brazilian people, proclaim the Gospel and witness to Jesus Christ who lives and reigns.

There was a lot of curiosity and everyone admired both the courage of the hosts and above all the courage of those who came with their four children.

How many questions on both sides! How beautiful! How did you discover Ipê Amarelo? Do you understand Portuguese? How long will you stay? The Comboni charism and the smiles of the kids and of their parents answered without needing a translator, the hearts and glances spoke, faith, courage, love translated part of this missionary mystery. Already at the airport, as tired as they were, their faces were radiant.

We took a very long bus ride up to Contagem, where the Comboni Fathers and a young member of the community were waiting for us. Then three cars, what a risk, raced along the way as in a carousel, all that was left was to honk like crazy on the road all the way to the mission house. The faces were heavy with exhaustion, but the smiles betrayed the joy of having arrived.

They have only been on Brazilian soil for two days, but it feels as if they had been here for years! The value of having dared embraces them and here they are. Already this week we will start classes of inculturation, Portuguese, and all that the mission requires, discovering a little at the time the customs of our mining people.

May they be welcome and together we will follow the footsteps of Jesus, missionary in the land of the Mines.

May St. Daniel Comboni intercede strongly for all.

Amen.

Lourdes, CLM Brazil

A Part of me is called Peru

26 November, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

I often think of the meaning of the lives that crisscross my journey. I often think of the conditions where we meet and how simplicity brings us closer.

I could list a countless number of situations I have already experienced here. Some were mastered, while others will keep on ripening until I will understand them.

Many lives are already part of me, and many are the smiles that belong to me, the hugs I do not avoid and renew my strength. With the intention of just dropping in, I spend hours to no end conversing on the doorsteps. For me, mission is timeless.

The doors of our house are open, doors that open to receive the greatest joys of passersby and welcome the sufferings of those who seek refuge from us. They ask of you the only thing you have to give, yourself.

When night falls, that is when I like revisit my day and, even though often I fall into tears, they are tears of contemplation of the marvels God is working in me and, through me, it’s impossible to ignore it, and not thank God for it all. Many a times I see, countless times, the little miracles and signs that have reached me through these people who are now part of me.

Mission is hard, and you would lie if you said otherwise. Mission is arid, here, where the landscape is covered with the roofs of what is left of homes close to be disintegrated by the strong wind.

In August, part of a year’s work falls apart, when nature blows so strongly that it is impossible to resist. Without fear, they roll up their sleeves, without giving up, and even though what they have is little, nothing is stronger than the will to move onward.

I am not lying, mission is hard. At time it becomes cruel, it hurts. You see the suffering in the eyes of these brothers of mine and the helplessness in the face of what they have to bear with.

Many are the times when I simply listen, give a hand, my shoulder. Many are the times when we smile together, as we share this love of God so concrete and free. Many are the hugs, the hands shaken. Many are the moments of silence and mutual commitment, in the simplicity of sitting on the ground and be one with them.

Yes, mission is hard. It is in this hardship that I met the deepest meaning of my presence on Peruvian land. It was in this arid land that I placed my dreams and my hopes. In this little corner of the world that I pray daily for the integrity and the rights of people similar to me, created by God. It is a constant state of being fragile and be integrated in the simplicity and humility of those who have nothing. Without expecting anything in return.

Mission is hard, but this is the mission I always dreamed of, this constant discovery of who
I am and of what I am doing here. It is to know that I am nothing and often see how miracles just happen, naturally. It is trust that makes us flesh of the same flesh.

A little at the time everything falls into place, a little at the time everything happens simply, not in human but in heavenly times.

With love and gratitude

CLM, Neuza Francisco in Peru

The beauty of the Imperfect Mission

29 October, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

“The greatness of the mission does not belong to us, but rather to the One who sends us,” Fr. Ivo.

A year in mission. How much time fits in this lapse? How many lives have been held in our own? How many arms were linked with our arms? How many lives have we given? And how many have we received?

We stopped planning our lives to allow life to direct us, to allow God to touch us and the people to meet us. We allowed ourselves to be met just as we are, with our wounds, scars and imperfections.

This is who we are, and this is how we embraced our mission, together and imperfect. We walked in the certainty that “we are all wounded and through these wounds light comes in.” We never wanted to be perfect. Instead we allowed God to touch our imperfections and through them lead us to our brothers, who are now our friends and neighbors. Today they are our family.

The beauty of an imperfect mission is in us, resides within us. Beauty is not in the moment you realize that you and your life are the mission, but rather in the ability to walk on your own little by little without fear letting your wounds, scars and frailties be part of what makes you who you are, an essential part.

Then mission become a solitary journey, with yourself, a journey of two, because you know that you were chosen for a greater love, a journey of three, you, God, your neighbor, in the certainty that the other exists to walk with you.

It allows you to be, to know yourself a little better to let yourself be discovered a little at the time, and join to your neighbor always ready to proceed together. And together, hand in hand with God, we reach the other and the other deliver you in an imperfect, complete fashion.

It is this journey of three that we meet our neighbors, our brothers. They become our home and journey together. They are the people who, in imperfect ways, complete us, make us grow. It is in being imperfect that we keep on meeting others, moving on and growing with each person we meet. This way, mission is not only teaching or learning, but rather growing together, knowing that the union of our imperfections results in the perfection of the whole.

This is the logic of God who made us in such a way that we need others in order to love, be, live and be happy.

Paula y Neuza. CLM Peru

Bread, Beans and Lemonade

16 October, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

During this year 2018, we, the CLM community of Guatemala, have been spending mission days in the village of La Salvadora, in Santa Catarina Pinula, located about 15 Km from Guatemala City.

One Saturday a month, we visit the higher part of the village, the one called “La Salvadora 2.”

The program is always the same. We arrive at 8:00 AM, early enough to prepare with care some bread with “something” in it and a drink, to share it with all the villagers who show up. At 9:00 AM we start the program of evangelization, manual work, play, activities and then we leave around 4:00/4:30 PM.

On September 22 we had something special… something that made me feel alive, grateful and happy… a detail that revived in me the joy of being there, of sharing God through simple gestures of friendship, fraternity and generosity. These gifts that no money can buy are a sharing from God.

It turned out that, when we arrived, the children helped us unload the car. As we organized, some of us to start on the bread, which on that day held strained beans, several children offered to prepare it themselves for the first time in the whole year! Others immediately asked for the drink and offered to prepare the lemonade themselves. It was great to see them cooperate, enjoy and, in the end, be happy and satisfied. It was a gift! Just seeing their satisfied smiles for having helped to put together bread, beans and lemonade.

Mission does not consist in accomplishing great feats, but rather it is built from detail to detail, from stroke to stroke, from joy to joy.

So great, lasting, persevering and delicate is the love of God, the love we share with those who suffer discrimination, who are marginalized, those who have no opportunity to receive education and health care, those who need to receive the proclamation of the good news of Jesus who died and rose again.

It is not important if over the years these children will have forgotten these Saturdays… when some missionaries were coming to visit, and perhaps they will forget the day when they, themselves, prepared the bread, the beans and the lemonade.

I trust that in their hearts there remain a trace of each sign of love and closeness, and that in due time this memory will be transformed into a true encounter with Jesus, and they will be adults who will love him deeply throughout life. Only in this fashion will the world be transformed in a better place for all.

St. Daniel Comboni, pray for us.

Lily Portillo