Spirituality – Page 42 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Beyond Collaboration: Under Comboni’s Gaze

1 November, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

“The whole is greater than the part,

but it is also greater than the sum of its parts”

(EG 235).

Dear Confreres, Sisters and Comboni Lay Missionaries

The beauty and joy of the encounter encourages us to open new paths in the collaboration among the Institutes founded by Comboni or which he has inspired.

In a world where walls are built to separate and divide, a world loaded with preconceptions due to differences in races, languages, and nations, and which struggles to open the door to those who are different, we greatly feel Jesus’ invitation to unity and communion: “May they all be one, so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). This unity is an invitation not only to work with others (collaborate), but also to enter into deeper relationships and to seek new ways of encounter not based on affinities of character or interest, but on gospel values that call us to open the way to the acceptance of the other with his limits and weaknesses, but also with his richness and beauty, in view of a more fruitful and productive mission.

The last decades have led to profound socio-political changes which challenge us and call us to search for new structures to make our mission more timely and meaningful. Popular movements demand active participation in decision-making processes. This is true not only in civil society: such wave of democratic values has also been experienced in the Church. The lay people are becoming increasingly present in various ministerial domains that have long been the exclusive domain of priests or religious, and contribute to the mission by offering their own viewpoint that helps to give a deeper reading of reality. Along with the laity we can reach areas where the Comboni presence is desired.

As we gathered as Comboni Family on June 2, 2017, at the annual meeting of the General Councils, for a day of reflection, prayer and sharing, we felt challenged to confirm and renew our desire to embark on a path of deeper collaboration among us. A journey already begun a long time ago as a Comboni Family, but which always needs to be renewed and deepened.

We recalled the document “Collaboration for Mission” of March 17, 2002, on the occasion of Daniel Comboni’s anniversary of beatification. In this letter are developed in depth not only the journey made and the “operational indications”, but above all the evangelical and Comboni foundations of collaboration. In fact, the Spirit of Jesus is the spirit of unity that Comboni has desired from the beginning for his Family, “a little Cenacle of Apostles… bringing warmth as well as illumination” revealing the nature of the Centre from which the rays emanate, that is, the Heart of the Good Shepherd (W 2648).

During our reflection, we realised that a long process of collaboration has been and is still being made in many different ways and situations in the life of our Institutes: we can think about the sharing at the level of secretariats and general offices, but also at the level of provinces through participation in provincial assemblies, common retreats, Comboni celebrations, ongoing courses of formation. There are also good examples of joint reflection and pastoral action in places where members of our Institutes and CLM live together.

We intensely feel that the desire to revitalise our being and doing mission together is rooted in the nature of the human person – to be in relationship – in the Word of God and in the legacy left by our founder Daniel Comboni. He wanted the whole Church to engage as one body in the evangelisation of Africa: “All God’s works that, if separated from each other produce scarce and incomplete results, but if united together and focused on the single purpose of planting the faith firmly in the heart of Africa, would acquire greater vigour, develop more easily and become most effective in achieving the desired objective” (W 1100). Many are his appeals to this collaboration and, looking at his example, we feel more intensely rise again in us this spirit of collaboration.

We are aware that there are difficulties in this journey that can lead us to discouragement, such as inadequate human and emotional maturity, self-referentiality, protagonism, individualism, lack of identity, and sharing of wealth. However, these situations are at the same time a challenge to seek new forms of collaboration together and with creativity. We’d like to mention some of the benefits of a combined work among the Comboni Institutes: the beauty inherent in collaboration, complementarity, mutual enrichment, ministeriality, the testimony of living and working in communities – men and women – of different nationalities and cultures. In this way we not only witness the unity in diversity, but we are seed of new Christian communities of brothers and sisters who witness the Word they announce.

We have a good common charism that has grown and developed in various forms. Thus, Comboni’s inspiration goes in history to become an announcement of the Gospel to every generation where peoples are marginalised. The charism grows and is renewed when it is shared with others who recreate it in the peculiarities of every Christian way of life. Diversity is not a threat to the form of being Comboni Missionaries, but it strengthens the sense of belonging when it is lived with simplicity and gives space to the other.

We humbly point out some aspects in which we feel we need a creative and bold effort to improve collaboration at the level of people, communities, provinces and the General Direction: “We constantly have to broaden our horizons and see the greater good which will benefit us all” (EG 235).

We commit ourselves:

to know more about the history of our Institutes, remembering with gratitude the wonders of God;
to know the people and the present life of our Institutes by communicating who we are and what we do by the means at our disposal for a greater sharing of our pastoral and missionary activities, by appreciating the efforts we are already making;
to reflect together on the Comboni mission today in the world: the new paradigms of mission, ministeriality (through specific pastoral commitments) and interculturality. More than providing answers to the problems, we need to halt and think so that we may offer visions to our Institutes;
to begin ministerial and inter-congregational (or inter-Comboni Family) communities, where we live in the sign of mutual trust. Looking to the future, to think about how to reconfigure the Comboni Family to better witness a work done together;
to work together at the level of formation at the initial stage of our candidates on the charism and Comboni spirituality, and sharing in the ongoing formation courses and meetings whenever possible (a letter on this topic has been written and distributed to all the mccj formators during the Formation Assembly in Maia, Portugal, in July 2017);
to deepen our Comboni spirituality and to encourage moments of discernment and prayer, in listening to the Word and the signs of the times, during special occasions in the life of our Institutes, promoting meetings on Comboni spirituality;
to respond together to emergency situations or other situations that imply a common effort.

On the occasion of the 150^th Foundation of the Comboni Missionaries’ Institutes and of the 25^th anniversary of the beginning of the setting up of the Comboni Lay Missionaries, we feel inspired by the Spirit to reiterate the effort of collaboration.

In the certainty that what has been said above represents some of the possible paths on the journey of collaboration, we invite you all to be creative and generous, to open up to the breath of the Holy Spirit who makes all things new and urges us to move forward with confidence: “The Spirit is the wind that drives us forward, keeps us on the journey, makes us feel pilgrims and strangers, and does not allow us to sit and become a ‘sedentary’ people” (Pope Francis’ General Audience, May 31, 2017).

Rome, 10 October 2017

Mother Luigia Coccia (Sup. Gen.)

Sr. Rosa Matilde Tellez Soto

Sr. Kudusan Debesai Tesfamicael

Sr. Eulalia Capdevila Enriquez

Sr. Ida Colombo

Dalessandro Isabella (Resp. Gen.)

Dal Zovo Maria Pia

Galli Mariella

Rodrigues Pascoal Adilia Maria

Ziliotto Lucia

Mr. Alberto de la Portilla (Coordinator CLM Central Committee)

Fr. Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie (Sup. Gen.)

Fr. Jeremias dos Santos Martins

Fr. Ciuciulla Pietro

Fr. Bustos Juárez Rogelio

Bro. Lamana Cónsola Alberto

German edition of the Writings (Schriften) of St. Daniel Comboni

31 October, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

It was a particularly difficult birth, but it was worth it. The last of the children of a family becomes, at times, the favorite son of all. Thus, on the occasion of the feast of St. Daniel Comboni, celebrated on October 10, 2017, his writings and letters were published in German. This book, published in two volumes, was presented to confreres and friends during the missionary symposium on 7 and 8 October 2017 in Ellwangen, Germany. Provincial Superiors or confreres desiring a copy of these Writings should contact with Fr. Anton Schneider, Vice-Provincial.
A special thanks to all who contributed and worked tirelessly to make this edition a reality and in particular the fathers Georg Klose and Alois Eder for the translation and Ms. Andrea Fuchs and Mr. Anton Schneider for the final edition.
We hope that this effort of the DSP will produce abundant fruits, that is, that by reading and meditating Comboni’s letters, his figure will become more alive and present in each one of us and among us, and thus strengthen our Comboni identity

Pictured from left: Fr. Georg Klose, Fr. Alois Eder and Fr. Karl Peinhopf, Provincial Superior of the German-speaking province (Deutschsprachige Provinz – DSP).

comboni.org

(Re) Living a Dream

27 October, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

“We are moved by a dream,” wrote Sebastián da Gama. Many times, a dream rules the soul of a person. It can take us to places we deeply desire, but we not always manage to reach in reality. Since 2015, Carapira had been a dream to me. To return to a place where I had been so happy, to see once more well-known faces, people who had touched me deeply, was something I did not think that could happen again.

But, by God’s grace, the dream became reality and the joy of living the mission God had entrusted to me on Mozambique’s soil filled again my heart with deep gratitude to God and to all those who prayed and worked to turn the dream into reality and make me live it again.

Unlike 2015, my first time in Mozambique, this year the task God entrusted to me consisted in being responsible for seven young people of the group Faith and Mission: Ana, Felipe, Inés, Jorge, Monica, Ruben and Sophia. My main mission was to ensure that these young people would spend a month filled with rich and deep experiences of God, with the people God had us know, within themselves and with the missionaries who, by their example, would teach us about mission.

This year, my greatest joy was to experience the fullness of these young people’s hearts, to see them happily giving of themselves without reserve to all the people who crossed our paths and to all the tasks entrusted to us. Once more, I am grateful to God for the young people he sent to Carapira, for their generosity and goodness, for their cheerfulness and enthusiasm, for all that I learned with them and for all they gave in such a short time.

Despite te fact that we only reached Carapira on August 19, I believe that the long journey was very important, because it allowed us to create greater empathy among ourselves and reflect a bit on mission. So, during the trip we held a catechesis on volunteering and mission, the sacred ground that Mozambique was for us, the other as “sacred” and “a mystery,” and the joy of meeting.

Many thanks to all the missionaries who with open hearts welcomed and accepted us into their homes, who took precious time out in their mission to to stop and be with us, to share marvelous personal stories and took us to see marvelous places.

For me, the best places were the village of Carapira, the communities we visited and all the other places where we were able to be with people. It is for the sake of people that God invites to move. Mission is made of faces: First of all, the face of Christ, filled of love for all and, in a special way, for the most abandoned; then, the face of each person we met and shared of our own selves. At times we only shared our presence, our being there, as it was the case with the sick. Truthfully, this simple sharing brought some people to say to the young people that they had been a blessing from God for the sick. And the young folks allowed themselves to be moved by that. I had the grace to be with some who were attempting to describe what was going on in their soul, on the interior journey they were on, and I can tell you that at times my heart was full of what had been shared, with the marvelous deeds God was working in each one’s heart. Only a loving God can bring about the marvels that our God worked in these young people of “Faith and Mission.”

At the end I said my good-bye to Carapira. Parting was serene, because in my heart I felt the joy of one who does not really say “Good-bye,” but rather “until we meet again.” It could very well be “good-bye” to Carapira, but a “see you again” to mission well beyond our borders. May God make it so!

I end with a little personal Magnificat which I wrote between Carapira and the airport of Nampula:

My soul magnifies the Lord,

I praise and bless God for all the marvels I relived in Mozambique.

The little I had and gave, the Lord multiplied in graces and gifts

transformed in simple gestures of giving and sharing.

Praise be to God!

For our entire group of “Faith and Mission,” the Lord filled our hearts with wonders

translated into a simple “ehali,” into a smile or just a look.

Praise be to God!

Contemplating the natural beauty of this beautiful garden which is Mozambique,

I give glory to God for all of Creation,

for so much love!

Faced with the many signs of God’s presence that we experienced and contemplated

I can only say: God is great!

And God’s greatness shows in all and in everything,

Including myself and my frailty!

Praise be to God!

Pedro Nacimiento, Portugal

Mission on the other side of the Atlantic

26 October, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

To have faith is to sign a blank page and le God write on it what he wants (St. Augustine).

The same way, mission means to allow us to be guided by the Holy Spirit who accompanies us and waits for us. We came to this journey with all that we are and this way we left. We carried in our hearts all those we love and are part of us. They sent us here and they will accompany for the rest of our lives, for this is what love demands. We left at dawn and we reached Peru also at dawn. Aware of the length of our journey we found strength in the tight embraces we immediately received. We reached the land that, for the next several year we will call home.

They were waiting for us at the entrance to the airport and received us with joy. We shared our names and our charism.

Outside, we were received by a fine and penetrating rain, and in this whirlwind of sensations we stepped on Peruvian soil for the first time.

It was a time of primary knowledge, stripped of our own selves, we took the first steps with these people who welcomed so lovingly. It’s us, from the other side of the Atlantic, living the mission in the style of St. Daniel Comboni.

To know the CLM meant to get to know our Peruvian CLM family. Each one of them shared with us a little about themselves, their witness of life and of faith. While talking, eating, drinking and laughing we received part of themselves and shared part of ourselves, joyfully, certain that all these lives converge in God.

With the certainty of what has been and that God is calling us to this mission. Let us walk together sure that we will reach where they are waiting for us.

Neuza and Paula, CLM Peru

Missiology Course – a gift from God

23 October, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

It was a gift from God that allowed us to expand and improve our view of the work of God from the point of you of grace! This missiology course which I was able to attend in Fatima on August 21-26 was a gift of God to me. It was an initiative of the people in charge of the Missionary Institutes ad Gentes (IMAG) with the support of the Pontifical Missionary Societies (PMS). During this time of formation I could see the oceans meat and unite in one single point: from the chair on which I was sitting I could enrich myself and deepen my love for this belonging to Christ. The participants numbered about 60, from four continents – Portugal, Italy, the Philippines, Colombia, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Angola, Mozambique, and Congo, plus other countries. It was a week where color mixed and blended as we learned and shared this “Being Missionaries” today. Mario Breda, Ana Raposo, María José Martins and Luis made community with me. It was a rich experience of community as well as of sharing with the other participants.

The course was rich in contents. We started on Monday, August 21, by tackling Mission in Matthew’s Gospel, with the help of Bishop Antonio Couto of Lamego. Bishop Couto presented the first book of the New Testament through and its connections to the Old Testament. It shows a Gospel of Forgiveness where Matthew, a tax collector, is converted to Christ thanks to the forgiveness he offers to all. Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, five discoursed stand out (an analogy with the Pentateuch of the OT): The Sermon on the Mount, the Mission, the Parables, the Church, and Eschatology.

I want to highlight the Missionary theme (Mt 10:6-10): “What you have freely received, give it freely” (Mt 10:8). It is grace – the biblical maternal example, the maternal gaze we can share with one another. Bishop Antonio stressed that, as missionaries, we must keep this “pause and wellbeing in the music of our life in order to let the Holy Spirit speak.” He underlined the importance of being missionaries who “are always open to be surprised and sensitive.”

Christians have a vital mission. Yes, we are called to serve today’s humankind trusting fully in Jesus and allowing ourselves to be enlightened by his word: “You did not choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit and that your fruit will remain.” How much time have we wasted! How much useless work have we done because we did not understand this point! Everything is defined as based on Christ, as it concerns the origin and usefulness of mission: we always receive our mission from Christ (…) (from a homily by Benedict XVI, Oporto, May 14, 2010)

On the 22 we cruised through the History of Christianity across the centuries with Dr. José Eduardo Franco as our guide – Christianity and Globalization: the State, the Church and Mission in the modern age and today. We came to understand that history is not in the past, but in the present. It creates the present. And in this journey we understood the role of the Portuguese through their discoveries across seas never crossed before for the Mission and the Evangelization of the Christian Church. And even more, how this mission was, in the course of time, the basis of the globalization which is now reaching its peak. In the course of this journey we looked at the images of God and of the Church starting from the 1^st century – the territorial God of Isaac and Jacob, where the person acts individually through God’s will – following through the spreading of Christianity by its disciples and by the missionaries who went along on the journeys of discovery and reaching, finally, the reality of today. We actually came to understand that the Gospel requires a mission which is inculturated: becoming Greek with the Greeks, Roman with the Romans (St. Paul), enriching Christianity with the best each culture has to offer. The Gospel must lead to humanization and, in this way, the missionary is the builder of a new humanity that reaches all not by imposition, but by its credibility.

On the 23^rd we continued with the theme of Missionary Spirituality with the help of Dr. Teresas Messias. But what is this Spirituality? It not limited to Christian living, but it is a dynamic of the entire being. We all have it inasmuch as we all are moved by a desire to be auto-transcendent, to be fulfilled, to be happy. We spoke of this Christian Spirituality as having to be always missionary. It is a spirituality that sets me free and has an eschatological dimension, namely, that never ends. We came to see the Trinity as the source of mission, in the relation of Myself-Christ-Others.

Mission does not consist only in doing things, but in being a person, in the possibility of being life and of giving life to others cross humankind. It means to empty oneself, the kenosis mentioned by St. Paul. (Dr. Teresa Messias)

We saw this Missionary God, who also empties himself when he gives us the Son, a Parental God, who is not only Father, but also Mother, and only thus becomes fruitful. A God who not only gives, but also accepts the Son, and receives. This is translated in my being a missionary: those who only know how to give, do not know how to love. The ability to receive is necessary.

Thus, Missionary Spirituality requires stepping down, emptying oneself, “being rich he became poor for you, that you may be enriched by his poverty” (2Cor8:9). It is trust in divine providence that can only be obtained through prayer, listening, and reading of the signs of God, “aspiring to things from on high and the rest will be given to you besides.” (Col 3:1-4). It is Inculturation, namely, to immerse ourselves in each culture in order to meet the novelty of Christ.

We reflected on the Christian Mission, its potentials and difficulties. We discovered the need for a constant exodus, a decentralization of the Church from itself – the Church does not preach itself, does not serve itself, is not fixated on itself, but is oriented on Christ. Mission is not an end in itself, and a Church which is self-absorbed is not the Church of Christ. We ended the day reflecting over our own mission, in its personal, unique, charismatic dimension of the following of Jesus. The answer is a progressive journey requiring prayer and a listening attitude as the only way to find out what God wants of me each day.

On the 24^th we received the gift of the wisdom and serenity of Fr. Adelino Ascenso with an artistic focus on literature and theology: the writings of Shūsaku Endó. I could listen to this for days – wise words, the result of an unimaginable experience in Japan, of the contact with the people and the deep silence of Tibet, where the only sound was the chattering of his own teeth, such was the cold he experienced. He started by introducing Japanese literature and traditions, a culture of hiding places, of silence and harmony, of the triple insensitivity towards death, for example. We moved through an historical perspective of the arrival of Christianity in Japan. This is where Shūsaku Endó entered the picture with his novels, “Silence” among them. Endó struggled through his entire life over questions related to his faith, especially on being both Japanese and Christian. This struggle is very evident in his works with themes that could contribute to elaborate a new image of Christ and of Christianity in Japan. In this fashion, in the course of the day, Fr. Adelino established a bridge between the state of Christianity in Japan and the novel “Silence” (a film we saw at the end of the day), speaking of apostasy, of the silence of God in various life situations, and of the salvation of the fallen (and of all human beings, independently of what they believe). Being gifted with a very artistic knack for expressing himself, Fr. Adelino concluded with some words that ended up in my diary:

“The Church does not possess Christ. His presence is not limited to the Church, even though it is in it that we learn of his presence outside of it.”

“We can only know God through his wounds” (a quote from the works of Thomas Halik, My God is a Wounded God)

“Silence is not the absence of words, but rather a murmur of God well beyond silence.”

Almost at the end of the course, on the 26^th, we had with us Friar José Nunes who introduced us to Interreligious Dialogue. We studied the evolution of communications between religions over time. We saw how, today, the Church proposes a fruitful dialogue with other religions, based on appreciation and respect. We saw also how religions are “ways of salvation,” not because of their creed, but because they give each human being a meaning for life. Religions have a lot in common.

“[The religious traditions of humankind] deserve the attention and respect of all Christians, and their spiritual patrimony is an effective invitation to dialogue, not only on what we agree upon, but especially on where we differ.” (Cocument on Dialogue and Mission)

Together with these times of reflection, the historical vision of Christianity, the revision of on being Christian Missionaries, we also had time for group sharing on the various themes. They were enriching times of sharing each culture, of personal growth and Christian togetherness.

It was also a week sprinkled with the beauty of multicultural celebrations of the Eucharist, where the skin tones mixed to paint the picture of the Feast of the Lord, with music in various languages and dances crowded the altar.

These various days of inspiration, of great attachment to the missionary vocation, touched me and filled my heart seeing the journey that humankind has traveled as a pilgrim in this divine Work, the World, the Universe. Proudly missionary with all the participants, I felt sent with this flame that only God can kindle. God sends us. Quoting Fr. Adelino Ascenso in his final address: More than “go and teach,” God tells this missionary Church, “Go and listen!”

CLM Carolina Fiúza