Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Spirituality

Assembly of the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) in Portugal

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LMC PortugalDuring the weekend of October 15-16, 2016 the CLM of Portugal gathered in Viseu for their National Assembly and for their second formation meeting on the topic of, “The Word as (with) Vocation,” moderated by the CLM Paula Clara.

During the Assembly, we as CLM had the opportunity to reflect over what was accomplished this year and see the many marvels the Lord has worked in us. We remembered the return of Marcia from Mozambique, and of Élia from the Central African Republic. We remembered the departure of María Augusta for the Central African Republic and of Marisa, who is studying the language in England. Many milestones were reached along the way right here. Above all we concentrated in organizing the European Assembly of the CLM to which we were all committed and for which we felt responsible, and in which we all worked a lot without leaving any detail to chance. We also spent time evaluating and then electing the various ministries of those who, as CLM, are responsible for the organization, such as the coordinating team, the formation team, the finances and many other things that are necessary for the future life of the CLM.

LMC PortugalAll this reflects what Pope Paul VI wrote in the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium (#7): “As all the members of the human body, though they are many, form one body, so also are the faithful in Christ. Also, in the building up of Christ’s Body various members and functions have their part to play. There is only one Spirit who, according to His own richness and the needs of the ministries, gives His different gifts for the welfare of the Church.” We are different people with different ministries and responsibilities. We journey together here at home and beyond our borders, praying and committing ourselves in the name of God according to the charism of Comboni.

LMC PortugalThe meeting on formation could not have been more connected with the Assembly. While some were reflecting on vocation, others were reflecting on what their vocation had produced. In such a journey there are moments when walking together is not enough, but we felt the need to abandon ourselves to divine providence through our commitment. For this reason, on Sunday, relatives and friends joined the CLM family to witness the promise of Neuza, Rufina and Paula.

The journey takes place by walking as a community whose nucleus is Christ. After a day of formation and discernment we wanted to pray with our lives what we daily pray in the Our Father, “May your will be done.” We choose to follow a path of happiness, knowing fully well in advance that we will suffer, laugh, cry, love, fall, get up, get lost and be found. Here we feel at home, the hugs get longer, the laughter echoes in the hall, and often we pray with tears and in silence, because words are not enough to express the love of God. Here we learn that there are no distances that can stand in the way of staying united. Here, like St. Augustine, we turn Love into a greater prayer. Together, we are the thousand lives for mission that St. Daniel Comboni dreamed of. We are the dream of Comboni and we dare to follow in his footsteps making it possible to have much more than a thousand lives for the mission.

LMC PortugalPaula Sousa, CLM Portugal

New CLM logo in Portugal

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Logo LMC PortugalOn January 25, 2016, the CLM of Portugal celebrated 18 years since its foundation. In this sense, and to commemorate this occasion, the Movement renews its image and will use a new logo.

This new logo incorporates key elements of Comboni lay spirituality:

  • The Cross
  • Jesus Christ

In first place, 4 figures forming a cross. “… The cross is the mark of all the redemptive acts of God, because all of them are born and grow at the foot of the cross.” (St. Daniel Comboni, W.4564). We are also aware that the mission constitutes acceptance of the inevitable difficulties and sufferings with the mark of the cross. However, we know that in the difficulties, in the feeling of failure or frustration, Jesus always generated and generates life for its people.

  • International and intercultural

The 4 figures forming the cross with the colors of the continents (Africa, Asia, America and Oceania), appear with open arms (which gives the idea of movement, going out), mean joy, availability and the call all Comboni Lay Missionary to proclaim Jesus Christ to those who still do not know Him. The white heart in the green figure represents the European continent.

A missionary characteristic is to live in provisionality, not “settling roots”, with all the precariousness and fragility that this may involve; feeling walkers toward God and pilgrim to the brother. As missionaries we are, we have a positive and real will to go towards other people, living the mission ad gentes among other cultures, creeds and races, which is constitutive of our specific vocation. “The Mission must be Catholic, not Spanish, French, German or Italian. All Catholics must help the poor Africans, because one nation alone can not help the whole black race.” (St. Daniel Comboni, W.944).

  • Sacred Heart of Jesus

The heart represented in the green figure intended to mean the great devotion of St. Daniel Comboni to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In one of his letters, Comboni reveals that his Plan for the Regeneration of Africa was written in the Vatican at the time of the beatification of Margaret Mary. Coincidence or not, Comboni asks for her help, because she also loved much the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (St. Daniel Comboni, W.1736).

Is true that Comboni throughout his life always placed utmost confidence and devotion to the cross and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the point to devote all his Vicariate of Central Africa. “So I set the third Sunday of September, the 14th, dedicated to the Feast of the Cross, the day to solemnly consecrate the whole Vicariate of Central Africa to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” (St. Daniel Comboni, W.3202).

  • Love Africa and the poor

It is no coincidence that, this heart in the logo, is on the chest of the green figure, representing the African continent. Daniel Comboni gave his life to the heart of Africa, with Africa in his heart. Present in the death in Africa of one of his missionary companions, Comboni rather than discouraged feel inside confirmed the decision to continue its mission. “The last words of my brothers and myself will always be ‘Nigrizia or death.” (St. Daniel Comboni, W.3004).

  • The importance of community life

The point of attachment of the 4 figures that make up the cross means our community life.

Our path has a Community dimension. It is important that the Movement seek structures that help strengthen the bond, the welcoming of those returning from mission, the group life, sharing life and faith, etc. This community life does not necessarily mean living “under the same roof” for the lay community life, it has its own characteristics and wealth. However, we believe that within this diversity of forms, it is essential to live in communion from the exchange of goods and faith. “Everything was bearable for these worthy ministers of Jesus Christ, who seek only the glory of God and the salvation of the most abandoned souls. In the small community of Khartoum was peace, order and the spirit of Jesus Christ.” (St. Daniel Comboni, W.2042).

CLM Portugal

Do you still not understand?

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Abundance – this is what God always offers us.   Scarcity – this is how we usually view the world.

On Tuesday, the Gospel reading in Mark 8:14-21 told of a boat trip of Jesus and his disciples across the lake.  Here’s the context: Jesus had just performed one of his most awe-inspiring miracles of feeding four thousand with a few loaves of bread.  The Pharisees then ask him for a “sign from heaven to test him” (Mk 8:11) as if all his previous healings and feeding the four thousand a few hours earlier was not sign enough.  Jumping into the boat, Jesus makes a comment to his disciples to beware of the philosophies and mentalities of the Pharisees, their “leaven” as he describes it.  The disciples, having forgotten to bring bread for the journey (they only had one loaf among them), assumed that Jesus made this comment because they had no bread. How superficial the disciples’ and our thoughts can sometimes be.  Jesus knows exactly what they are thinking and essentially cries out: This has nothing to do with bread! Jesus goes on to say it is like you have eyes but do not see, have ears but do not hear.  He then reminds them of his miraculous multiplication of loaves to feed the five thousand some time before and the four thousand just hours before.  He asks them how many baskets of fragments were left over, the pieces of bread these very same disciples had gathered up. Probably with the disciples’ eyes sheepishly staring at the bottom of the boat, they answer “twelve” and “seven”.  Jesus then brings to a climax the whole moment with the simplest of questions: “Do you still not understand?”

It is like Jesus is saying: I give you everything, I offer you the most plentiful of lives basking in my love.  I will fill all your worries, depressions, limitations and failures. All you need to do is believe in me and trust in my proposal of abundance.  All you need to do is have faith in my faithfulness.  We can become so closed in on ourselves, foolishly relying on our own tiny resources – counting the inventory of our few loaves of bread – when God is willing to dump a mountain of bread onto our laps. Do you still not understand? I will not only give you what you need according to your limited horizons (feeding the four thousand men), but I will give you even more than you can possibly dream of (seven baskets left over).

During these last months I have been struggling with sickness and how easily I have found myself dejected.  I have caught myself feeling as if I am battling this all alone. But hearing and wrestling over that potent question at the end of Tuesday’s reading knocked me forcefully out of my doubt.

Sometimes we can be like the disciples, where we have a sincere intention to love God, but out of fear, we are not willing to make the leap of faith to truly abandon ourselves into God’s hands trusting that he will bring all things to good for those who love him.  Sometimes we can also be like the Pharisees, where we observe the workings of God’s love first hand, yet still remain unmoved, continuing down our own self-centered paths, isolated and lost.  In both cases, we remain in a mindset of scarcity, with the anxiety that goes with it.   Jesus’ message is clear: My kingdom is one of abundance, where your life is full to the degree that you have faith in my Love.  If you ask for one loaf with child-like faith, I will give it to you…and thousands more.

– Mark & Maggie Banga

Comboni Lay Missionaries serving in Awassa, Ethiopia

The synonymous of “today” is “present”

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What is the force that sustains us? Where comes the hope to continue dreaming?, to resist and seek a more human and happy society, fraternal for all? What moves us are the dreams of the reality we want, a reality that does not include situations of injustice imposed by social and economic inequalities. A reality that becomes what we want if we transform it, through our efforts, with our senses, with our choices. We can and must be builders of our personal and collective destiny, our creative freedom. Our passion and our faith gain strength when they are in direct contact with the victims of violence and injustice against the sacred and fundamental rights called human rights. Signs and resurrections are born from ourselves, from the union and strength of social movements that come from below, from civil and organized society… us! We can rain Justice, fertilize the soil and get the fruits to be born. It is possible, because we want to, we believe, we fight, we build. Fatigue, disappointment, discouragement, fear becomes a giant shadow if we allow it, but becomes small and insignificant if we stick together, if one fight is the fight of all. Among the strongest evils is the absolute indifference, is the one that dominates our daily life, a kind of blindness in the world that causes people to live in a bubble, blind and sterile, unable to hear the heartbeat of the world, forgetting in this beating is also ours. We are the world, history is ours, no one feels excluded, in the words of a song by De Gregori, We are writing history! We are part of an alphabet that is able to write wonderful things, if we choose it. Courage, dreams, hopes, dignity, freedom, justice, respect, imagination, fraternity … so many feathers with which to start writing, where we are the blank paper where start doing it.

Emma. CLM

Love is a rope that leads you to the top…

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CuerdaBeautiful, is truly beautiful the catechesis I am doing with the prisoners. It has just started, but it is doing well and every time I go deeply in love, in fact, we are all passionate. It is a time of sharing, searching the depths of the soul.

This desire to be on the way to understand … to understand each other … to meet God.

We walked with stones in the heart, hard, heavy; we gradually try to scratch them, to make them small as pebbles, which can be removed from the shoe. Up to now, there are six prisoners who are part of the group and that is good, because the smaller group the easiest is to speak because of the intimacy that is created to say the important and difficult things in life. I am also very happy to have the opportunity to be among them without iron bars or divisions, sitting in a circle, in a space that helps to have proximity. It is important to be close, eye contact, listen carefully, take their hand to pray and finally embrace to say THANK YOU. It takes an hour and a half or so. I forget being in a prison, I don´t remember the red uniform they wear. I forget the noise of the other prisoners. We are so immersed in the depth of what is shared which could apparently be the title of a book by Virginia Woolf: “our own room” and it is in fact a space just for them, a space for us. I like a path that works human recovery and self-discovery, leading to a personal growth inside and this applies not only for them but also to me. It is an exchange, a give and take as the dear old but still relevant Paulo Freire said: “no one teaches anyone, everyone learns from everybody”. We can learn from every person, also from prisoners and their stories, and I am grateful.

Emma, ​​CLM.