“Martyr to the earth and to God’s dream! Remember the 35 years of his martyrdom!”
On 24 July 2020 we will celebrate 35 years of remembrance of the martyrdom of the Servant of God, Fr. Ezekiel Ramin, a Comboni Missionary killed in Rondonia for defending the lives of the indigenous peoples and landless families.
This year it will not be possible to celebrate the pilgrimage of Fr. Ezequiel as we always do in Cacoal/RO and Rondolância/MT, with many people because of the COVID 19.
The COVID at the same time calls us to prudence and solidarity, especially with the most threatened territories, with our beloved Amazonia, the Indigenous Peoples and the native populations. Therefore, we will celebrate this pilgrimage in a different way, involving many more people throughout Brazil.
Throughout the days we will have a programme with various activities that will be transmitted live, always at 8 p.m. (from Brasilia) and through the Comboni-Brazil YouTube channel. There will also be daily videos with testimonies in memory of Fr Ezequiel.
We are together in this pilgrimage of Fr. Ezequiel which will extend throughout Brazil. Let us walk in defence of life! In defence of the Amazon!
Programming:
July 19th at 8 pm. – Missionary Vocation Vigil in memory of Fr. Ezequiel Ramin International Comboni Scholasticate /SP
20 July at 8 p.m. – Conversation round with Don Roque Paloschi, Archbishop of Porto Velho/RO and president of CIMI, with CPT/RO and with Fr. “35 years of the martyrdom of Fr. Ezequiel Ramin: a prophetic witness in defence of the indigenous peoples and landless families”.
TRÍDUO IN MEMORY of Fr. Ezequiel Ramin:
DAY 21/07 – 20h – 1st day of the Triduum (from the Community of Curitiba/PR)
Day 22/07 – 20h – 2nd Triduum day (from Contagem/MG Community)
Day 23/07 – 20h – 3rd day of the Triduum (from the Community of Piquiá/MA)
Day 24/07 – 20h – Eucharistic celebration of thanksgiving by Father Ezekiel Ramin and as a collective commitment in defense of Life. (from the SP Community).
This past weekend we had the opportunity to meet online at a European level.
The meeting organized by the European Committee for all the CLM from the different countries had as its central theme “The challenges of living our missionary vocation as lay people in Europe“.
We had the opportunity to expose each country’s reality. Many of the contributions helped us to enter into the reality of the Church in Europe, the difficulties we are finding in sharing our faith, the decline of religiosity and religious culture among young people and the lack of vocations.
The geographical component of the mission is something that we are gradually overcoming and together we are discovering the missionary needs that we find in Europe. The old continent needs our missionary presence, the hope of the Gospel and solidarity, which is an expression of our faith, among the most vulnerable groups.
We had the opportunity to expose each country’s reality. Many of the contributions helped us to enter into the reality of the Church in Europe, the difficulties we are finding in sharing our faith, the decline of religiosity and religious culture among young people and the lack of vocations.
The experiences of each of the five groups give us new ideas to be present in these moments where people need a hopeful presence.
To rediscover the video calls as a way to remain united, to pray together, to continue our formation and to carry out solidarity actions. We have rediscovered the domestic Church, responsible and protagonist of its faith.
The confinement that at first disconcerted us gave place to numerous initiatives that allowed us to remain united and in prayer and at the same time initiatives that we were opening up to others who were also seeking to share and continue to grow in those moments.
We also shared the difficulties of mobility at this time and how this has affected our companions who were already ready to leave the country to serve in America or Africa.
These are moments in which we must be in solidarity with all those who are having a hard time. The difficulties are becoming more acute for many, especially for those who were already on the lowest rung of the ladder, such as the immigrant population and other precarious sectors. On the other hand, we must remain attentive to the needs of our brothers and sisters in other continents. The pandemic is hitting almost every country and even those that do not suffer a large number of cases are being punished economically by the need to confine their population. Now more than ever we understand how small and needy our common house is and the need for solidarity among us all.
We must be part of a change of priorities in today’s world, continue to be committed to the education of the young so that they grow up knowing this need, but at the same time continue to fight for a more fair world from wherever we are.
Europe is a place of missionary presence, of a missionary presence which is close to the people and a sign of hope among the most needy of the continent (materially and spiritually because we cannot forget that to nourish this spirit and the values which make a more united society possible is fundamental). But at the same time a missionary presence that continues to open Europe to the world, motivating towards responsibility for a better, more human and more fraternal world. That it puts an end to the inequalities that the economic system imposes in so many countries, placing the person at the center and where the economy and the structures are put at the service of human beings.
The mission remains more necessary than ever. To announce that we are all brothers and sisters, that we must be in solidarity with one another, building a better world for all, caring for nature which is on loan from future generations and allowing a dignified life for all the peoples of the earth.
Our meeting ended with a prayer where each one, in their own language, could share hopes, petitions and give thanks by placing everything in the hands of the Father who takes care of us and accompanies us.
Comboni said that if he had a thousand lives he would give them all for the mission. We want to offer ours and we want to encourage all of you who share these concerns to join us in this great work which is so necessary.
July – That the CLM, in their forthcoming continental meetings, may allow themselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit and so respond generously to the needs of the people they meet in the various countries. Lord hear us.
To be formed is to be configured to the Heart of Jesus the Good Shepherd
“What is your name?… Go to your home and family and announce to them what the Lord has done for you and the mercy he has shown you”. (Mark 5,9 ff)
“In the mystery of the Heart of Christ, the missionary contemplates, in their fullest expression, Christ’s innermost attitudes and makes them his own: his unconditional giving of himself to the Father, his all-embracing love for the world and his involvement in human suffering and poverty” (RV 3.2)
“Formation must, as a priority, concern itself with interior motivations and educate towards facing, with creativity, competence and flexibility, the challenges emerging from new situations” (Ratio Fundamentalis 113)
Dear Confreres,
In communion with all humanity, this year we are celebrating the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the extraordinary context of the COVID-19 pandemic that is still causing so much that is tragic and sorrowful all over the world. With confidence in God, we address an invitation to the whole Institute to contemplate the Heart of Jesus while opening our hearts to the mystery of his love so that this mystery may touch us deeply, free us from all the forces that keep us imprisoned and isolated and may help us to be faithful to our consecration and our mission.
As missionary disciples we enter the school of the Heart of Jesus who, in his humanity, reveals to us the Heart of God – the Heart of the Good Shepherd who goes out, approaches the poor, the suffering and the marginalised, inviting them to emerge from their isolation and their incommunicability, prepared for communication and a quality encounter with God, with others and creation. It is about participating in that love that always communicates itself, and that, if it is received by the beloved, always gives life, brings about growth and educates in the sense of the Latin word educere, which means bringing out what is best in the human being.
It’s important to remember that this encounter with Christ sets in motion a process of conversion, of formation and transformation, or better still, of “Christification” that lasts a lifetime and must touch the heart. The content of our initial and ongoing formation consists of the holiness and transformation of the person into Jesus Christ according to the dual complementary orientation of the sequela and imitatio Christi. Therefore, to be converted into another Christ is for us a privilege granted us by God’s mercy and grace and, at the same time, a responsibility that commits us to the coherence of life with the pressing and incessant question: “What would Christ and Comboni have done in this same historical situation of mine?“.
It is Christ who, with his merciful heart, takes the initiative of asking each one of us “What is your name?”,as he did of the possessed man referred to in the passage above.Toknow a person’s name, according to the Hebrew mind, means entering into the depths of his personal life. This question shows his interest in us as people loved by God and helps us, on the one hand, to reinterpret what is within and around us so as to discover where our hearts lie, who we really are and, on the other, shows us the Heart of Christ full of love, compassion acceptance and tenderness.
As Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, both in our initial and ongoing formation, it remains the commitment of the person and of the Institute to cultivate, deepen and contextualise our spirituality of the Heart of Jesus so that our whole life may increasingly adhere to the “programme” contained in our name.
It is Christ who, with his welcoming heart, shows his full trust in others, no matter what their situation, values them and restores them to their communities, to their homes, symbols of places of hope, of cordiality and human warmth. Life is made up of quality communications and relations. Saint Daniel Comboni speaks of the Institute “as a Cenacle of Apostles, a centre of light sending out so many rays that shine, giving warmth and revealing together the nature of the Centre from whom they emanate” (cf. Writings: 2648). Our hope is that the Heart of Jesus may truly be a Centre of communication among all the confreres and that we may make of fraternal communication an instrument for building bridges, to unite us and share the beauty of being brothers in mission, in an epoch marked by contrasts, division and indifference.
Lastly, as we reflect this year on the theme of ministeriality in the Institute, let us pray that the contemplation of the Heart of Christ may help us to live the mission, not superficially as a role to be filled but as a service to the Kingdom of God and an expression of a process of kenosis and decentralization. We wish you all a Happy Feast of the Sacred Heart!
The General Secretary of Formation and the MCCJ General Council.
The General Mission Secretariat (GMS) has proposed for the Circumscriptions a programme of community reflection on the theme of ministeriality. The General Council is fully aware of the times we are living in, so marked by COVID-19 which conditions us psychologically and spiritually. Since our pastoral activities may have been suspended out of civil responsibilities, this may now provide us with an opportunity to dedicate our time to the suggested process. For this reason we invite all Circumscriptions to make an effort to adapt the material and try to relate the proposed themes to the situation each country is going through. [Workbook]
SCHEDA 6.4 EN = Worksheet 4, sharing and community discernment.
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