Spirituality – Page 48 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Thanksgiving Mass on the 20 years of the CLM in Congo.

14 December, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

We start our celebration in the Orphanage Marie of Passion at 10:00 am.

The celebration of the Eucharist was presided over by Fr Celestin Ngoré, whose homily was based on, the mission, the gift of self.

After the celebration the sister in charge of the orphanage, invites father Celestin to bless the newly built cave, so we all went to the cave for the blessing, It was a moment of grace for all.

There was a prayer organized by the CLM, we went into a circle, hands in hand praying and asking the intercession of the Holy Virgin Mary, St Daniel Comboni, Blessed Anuarite and Bakanja in union with all the Saints of Africa, to say thank you to God for the gift of CLM in Congo. We entrust our lives in the hands of the Lord, that he, who was kind enough to begin this project, may continue to be the protagonist of our mission, may He gives each one the grace necessary to carry out the mission He entrust us.

We have prayed for the international coordination of CLM’s (Central Committee), the African coordination and all of our brothers and sisters on mission. May the Lord lead us, strengthen our relationship and make us a strong family, filled with love, a way of peace and a channel of His grace for His people.

We have also prayed for the MCCJ, thanks for their total support and welcomed us into the Comboni family and for all the time they have accompanied us, like a child that they give birth, they taught us everything and despite our majority today, they do not abandon us. May God fill us with his grace and blessings.

Pray for the orphanage Mary of the Passion that receives us, may the Lord help them so that they never lack anything.

We follow with the animation and cocktail with children; followed by a guided tour of the place. We finished the event at 13:00.

CLM Congo

Jesús Ruiz Molina, Auxiliary Bishop of Bangassou

23 November, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

The Comboni Missionary from Burgos, Jesús Ruiz Molina, was ordained on November 12, 2017 auxiliary bishop of Bangassou in the Central African Republic (CAR). The celebration took place in Bngui, because his own place can only be reached by helicopter. In fact, the political authorities and other guests did not want to be taken to Bangassou, due to the state of insecurity prevailing in the region. After passing through Chad and for the CAR’s city of Mongoumba, Jesús Molina has accepted to be assigned to a place which is afflicted by an endless guerrilla in order to work with Bishop Juan José Aguirre Muñoz, another Spanish Comboni Missionary, in trying to find ways to peace and reconciliation and to serve the poor.

After 25 years in Africa, they make you a bishop…

It was a cold shower, practical icy, because I neither feel worthy nor find it humanly attractive. By the end of this year I was planning to return to Spain and work in vocation promotion and in Justice & Peace while, at the same time, be with my aging parents and rejuvenate myself in all fields. Trusting in God I said yes and this has completely changed my life, which is already tied to this people to the end in a sacramental way.

Is Bangassou the most complicated place in which you have been?

I spent 15 years in the savannah of Chad in a difficult environment with famines and wars. I spent my last nine years in the forest with the pygmies and with extremely poor people. Currently, Bangassou is one of the most conflicted areas of Africa. You can only get there by air. The 12 parishes we have there have been looted by the 14 armed groups who are fighting to dominate the country. Violence and massacres are a daily affair. The majority of the population is displaced. The majority of the priests and of the sisters have fled. In the cathedral we haven’t said Mass for four months because we have been housing 2,100 Muslim refugees that the anti-balaka want to kill. No State employee wants to come here. This is why we decided to celebrate my ordination in Bangui. My people of Bangassou will not be able to attend, but on December 8 we will celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving to celebrate the fact that God does not abandon us in our sorrow.

What do you think the mission of a bishop must be in a place like Bangassou and yours in particular?

I have no preconceived plans. I am going in order to stand with people who suffer. For me, to be a bishop is not a promotion, but rather trust in the One I love who is inviting me to follow him on the journey to Jerusalem: “Come, follow me.” I never studied to become bishop, so people will have to teach me. The bishop is the shepherd who, when the wolf comes, does not abandon his flock, but watches over all, both those who are outside and those who are inside, who denounces the death brought by injustice and proclaims salvation which is life in Jesus Christ. Today in Bangassou we need peace, a lot of peace in order to heal the many bodily wounds and, above all, those of the spirit. We need reconciliation and forgiveness. We need to build together a future for this traumatized population. We will keep it up for them making an effort to keep the schools going, to cure the sick, to care for the poorest and most abandoned, standing by the weakest, working for justice, the only way to true peace, and through it all we will continue to proclaim the Good News of Jesus, who came that we may have life and have it in abundance. Today, this life has been snatched from my people.

You have Juanjo Aguirre and Card. Nzapalainga as points of reference…

There is no doubt that we keep Aguirre and Card. Nzapalainga as points of reference who daily give flesh to the Gospel, they give me breath and stimulation, the novice that I am. But there are many other teachers as well who stimulate me, from the sisters working from morning to dusk surrounded by enormous amounts of violence, to the priests who risk their lives to save a few. The Christians who live by mercy on a daily basis… The people of God is the greatest source of stimulation for a shepherd, they teach us to be shepherds.

You have always been with the poor. Is this your preferential option?

This preferential option for the last, those who do not count, the discarded as the Pope says, comes from Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus showed us and impartial God who leans freely and lovingly towards those whom the world despises. Being the unsatisfied searcher that I am, curiously I discovered that it is in those who are despised by the world that we find the true face of God. The poor, the humble, the hungry, those who cry, the persecuted, those who cry for justice… they are the Bible in the flesh. I was given this great treasure of being able to serve them a little, and I am happy to be the one who greatly benefits from it, because it is the poor who give me God.

As a Comboni Missionary your ties to Africa are very strong. Is it still the forgotten continent in our time?

In the economic organism of the world Africa does not count. The terrible attack in Barcelona was world news, while the hundreds of people murdered in my diocese on that same day did not deserve one line in the press. An underhanded neocolonialism is taking over Africa today. The world’s powers unscrupulously fight over its riches causing wars, destroying cultures, exterminating entire populations… But Africa is life with capital L. The origin of humankind is in Africa and I dare to say that its future passes through Africa.

Bishops of the Central African Republic.

Logbook of Simone Mongoumba

7 November, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

November 4, 2017

Day 261 Remaining 839

Hi to one and all, how are you? … Here all is well. I left Bangui in a hurry on August 19 continuing to study Sango directly in the field in Mongoumba… these three months have passed in a flash… here’s another song to help me express the immensity I have lived…

… LIKE A RIVER by the Nomads…

Mongoumba…

IT SMELLS OF AFRICA, LIKE DREAMS MADE OF DIRT AND MUD, LIKE THE FEET OF A TIRED MAN WALKING, KNOWING THAT THIS LIFE IS BUT A JOURNEY, A ROAD OF WHICH YOU DON’T KNOW THE END, EVEN IF SOME DAY IT MAY LEAD YOU SOMEWHERE, IN THE VLAAGES OF STRANDED HOUSES, WHERE LIVING IS AN ALL OUT STRUGGLE.

Sunday, October 22. THE ROAD LED ME TO MOLABAYE, only seven miles from Mongoumba, like Emmaus to Jerusalem, in a two hour walk: 6:15-8:15 AM! It isn’t that the houses are built along the ROAD, but rather the ROAD meanders through the SCATTERED HOMES, made of DIRT AND MUD, WHERE LIVING IS AN ALL OUT STRUGGLE! It’s only 6:15, but everyone is awake and life begins. Some grind manioc to prepare a bit of food, others weave bamboo to be sold for some cash, others yet make bricks of DIRT AND MUD to build a house, some are bathing the children with a little bit of water in a pail, the barefooted children play with a ball made of woven leaves! The rhythm of the journey is slow… LIKE A RIVER, because everyone comes to greet me and from a distance, as soon as they see me, the children start jumping and yelling: “BWA, BWA, BWA (father)” or “MUNGIU, MUNGIU, MUNGIU,” which I think comes from “Bonjour, White man, and line up, shake hands, smiles aplenty, greetings left and right… There will be many JOURNEYS on this ROAD and in the LIFE of these people, because I have been given the pastoral care of the Southern sector of the parish… four chapels: Molabaye, Gouga, Ikoumba 1, and Ikoumba 2…

MANY TIMES I MET HIM DOWN AT THE MARKET, WITH THE FIGHTING SPIRIT THAT POSSESSES HIM, WITH THE WARRING SPIRIT OF A SOLDIER, WHO GETS UP 100 TIMES WHEN HE FALLS, KNOWING HE WILL RISE WITH A HUNDRED MORE, WHOM IN THE FIELDS HE SAW BEING BORN AND DIE, JUST AS A GUST OF WIND IS BORN AND DIES, HOPE AND THE YEARNING TO TELL THE STORY.

Here it’s a STRUGGLE. Fr. Alex Zanotelli would say that it is the STRUGGLE between the God of life and the System of death oppressing the Republic of Central Africa! Our battlefields, where we experience our human limitations. There are five Health centers spread around the parish, small clinics and pharmacies we try to visit regularly. One of them is in Safa Tavares. Moms arrive with their undernourished babies, we weigh them, measure them, make the PB test (measuring the girth of the arm, give them an appetite test with a little bag of PumplyNut (looks like very nutritional peanut butter), prescribe medicines and evaluate whether the child is slowly and with all our efforts is getting better. On paper, these operations are easy and simple, but the babies squirm, scream, yell with all the FIGHTING SPIRIT THAT POSSESSES THEM, they show all their SOLDIER’S WARRING SPIRIT, as a sign that they are full of life, they want to fight and struggle!

Mongoumba

IT HAS THE LOOK… OF THE WIVES, OF THE MOTHERS WHO EVERY NIGHT AWAIT WORRYING THE MORNING, AND EACH MORNING AWAIT FOR THE EVENING AND NEVER KNOW WHETHER TO LAUGH OR TO PRAY TO SOME GOD WHO’S LOOKING THROUGH THE WINDOW, FOR AT TIMES GOD DOESN’T KNOW WHAT TO LISTEN TO, AND DECEITFULLY MOVES ITS HEAD.

THE MOTHERS’ LOOK speaks… even though our languages are different! Often the MOTHERS’ LOOK screams “my child is sick… do something, please!” By the MOTHERS’ LOOK we already know the result of our struggle! Here the cold statistics of infant mortality take flesh, have a name, a face! At times at night we hear the screams of inconsolable mothers echoing from the hospital… “A cry was heard, a great cry and lamentation: Rachel crying over her children and does not want to be consoled…” (Mt 2:18) What words can bring consolation to a helpless mother who sees her child die?

There are mothers praying from morning to night… the refrain of the song sounds like the cry of the women to God… “TO THE LORDS OF WAR WE GIVE BLOOD, BECAUSE IT IS A BLOOD THAT WILL FLOW FAR, LIKE A RIVER CROSSING A CONTINENT AND INVADING THE OTHERS EVER SO SLOWLY.”

OFTEN I HAVE MET IT IN THE SLUMS, IN THE ALLEYS IN BETWEEN PALACES,

LIKE A BEAM OF LIGHT TARGETING THE BAREFOOTED CHILDREN, AND THERE ONCE AGAIN IT TIGHTENS ITS FISTS AND AGAIN IT RUNS TO FIGHT,

IT HAS A HORSE FASTER THAN THE WIND, A WIND WHICH IS ABOUT TO CHANGE.

The children provide the rhythm of our day… they are our clock… after morning Mass you here their chattering in the yard, time to finish the tea and start school at 7:30… silence: everyone is at school… cries of joy: it’s recess at 10:30… silence: everyone is in school again… cries of joy: school is over at 12:30, time to eat! After a time of silence, tiny heads and inquiring eyes POP UP at the window, you raise your head and they are gone, FASTER THAN THE WIND, and you hear them RUNNING BAREFOOT down the verandah whispering “Augustaaa, Annaaa, Simoneee.” Then everything disappears and it is time for night prayers and the mothers’ prayer becomes our own… “TO THE LORDS OF WAR WE GIVE BLOOD, BECAUSE IT IS A BLOOD THAT WILL FLOW FAR, LIKE A RIVER CROSSING A CONTINENT AND INVADING THE OTHERS EVER SO SLOWLY.”

… because God KNOWS WHAT AND WHOM TO LISTEN TO!!!

Let’s hope the WIND WILL INDEED CHANGE!!!

Greetings, hugs, a kiss, a prayer and THANK YOU… I almost feel like wishing you Merry Christmas, because I don’t know when I will be able to get out of Mongoumba again!

Bye-bye

Simone CLM

On the way to Meet You

5 November, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

On August 17, my seven companions of the group Faith and Mission and I left Lisbon for a long journey to the airport of Nampula, Mozambique. It was not a vacation, but the beginning of a month-long missionary experience in the Comboni community of Carapira. Now that I am on my way back to Portugal, I can only say that it was an unforgettable month that has placed Mozambique in my heart forever.

The main focus of our mission was the Technical Industrial Institute of Carapira (ITIC), where we took part in many activities, each according to his or her own gift. In my case, being a Math student, I had the chance to help in the revision of the accounts, in teaching and in clarifying students’ doubts during the night sessions. Our mission, however, was not limited to the ITIC, because we were asked also to do some teaching to the girls at the Comboni Sisters’ boarding school and we were also able to take part in various pastoral activities, such as visits to the communities, to the sick and others. Despite the large number of activities, what made this month so significant was not the little I gave, but how much I received and learned in Carapira.

Welcoming and sharing are two words holding much of the magic of this mission month. It is incredible how the missionary community of Carapira – fathers, brothers, sisters, and lay people – opened its doors to receive us, to offer us a cup of coffee or to help whenever it was needed.

In my contacts with the people I perceived that such availability and willingness to share is what better describes the Makua with a rich culture very much at odds with ours… While in Europe life is full of stress and people get upset at the slightest delay, for example, waiting for a bus that is late, in Carapira I met people who do not live in a hurry, who know how to be and contemplate. The truth is that during my first weeks in Carapira I found it rather difficult to adapt to the culture and to its rhythm. But it was well worthwhile, because this slowing down brought me to rethink my style of life and to find this interior silence that helps us to listen to the will of God.

To be part of this community was another great challenge I had to face. During the month we were eight young people 100% joined in community. We ate together, we prayed together, we worked together… It was a routine far different to the one I am used to, because I left home when I entered the university and got used to a rather independent and solitary life… Adaptation was not easy, because in community living there are always situations leading to make mistakes – it is enough to be a little too tired and say the wrong word that will cause resentment. These situations are unavoidable and they did come up occasionally, but we were always able to get over them thanks to the power of prayer, which helped us to be more in tune with God, “to die daily in order to go against our will,” as a song we like a lot says, and to be able to forgive.

For anyone coming from a country like Portugal, it is sad to see how the majority of the population of Mozambique lives in a situation of great poverty. And it is even worse to realize that, for the most part, the mentality of the rich countries is responsible for this poverty. For instance, walking through the barrios I was often surprised to hear, “mucunha [white person], I need money.” In time, however, I realized that many “mucunha” help by giving money only to relieve their conscience, without trying to create the means people need to come out of poverty and stop begging. But I was happy to see right there the great and constant flow of charity and love for neighbor done by the Comboni family, faithful to Comboni’s slogan, “to save Africa with Africa.”

I could say a lot more about this “landing” in Carapira. I could speak of the fantastic beauty I found on our visits to the beaches of the Island of Mozambique, or of the great feast for our departure, or of many other good things. But what is most important is what I keep in my heart, and it cannot be put into words…

I thank God for having had the opportunity to experience all this.

Mozambique, let us keep united in friendship and in prayer.

Rúben Sousa (Portugal)

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