Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Spirituality

WYD Portugal 2023 and CONAJUM Morelia Mexico 2023

by
LMC Beatriz

Two congresses with the same objective.

I am referring to the World Youth Day (WYD) Portugal 2023, an experience lived with members of my family and friends that I met along the way; as well as the National Missionary Congress in Morelia Mexico CONAJUM. There I had the opportunity to meet again with friends, bishops from different parts of the world and the country, lay missionaries from other institutes and young people eager to discover their vocation. Not to mention the sharing and teamwork with my Comboni Family where priests, sisters, seculars and lay people were able to listen to each other and support each other. That is why I thank Pope Francis and the Pontifical Mission Societies for inviting us to continue to be part of this project that Jesus Christ inherited from us, the building of his Kingdom.

These events are spaces where our Catholic Church allows young people to meet Jesus Christ through a number of activities where prayer helps them to have a personal encounter with Him; common themes for their growth, pilgrimages that create bonds of friendship, sharing to reach agreements, knowledge of other cultures, forums, concerts, marches, as well as being able to tour the City of Joy in the vocational fair where the encounter with the variety of missionary charisms of the church allow them to know different realities that sensitize them to the needs of others.

It is inexplicable the common experience of praying, listening to stories, laughing, suffering, singing, dancing, crying, struggling, communicating, sleeping, dreaming, admiring, breathing, in the same place embracing the LOVE OF GOD.

All this diminishes any problem or worry because we know that God loves us and protects us by giving us that time to heal any wound and choose what is good for our life, just as we are and where we are. These words fill us with hope to continue walking our path with the confidence that in the falls GOD will help us to get up and in the achievements he will teach us to share them, the communion that these encounters generate gives us the strength to return to our reality and look for the way to give life where there is death.

The central message of Pope Francis to the youth gives us as missionaries the courage to take the Gospel to all the realities that this world presents to us in communion with the bishops. These words that help us to know how to continue in our reality, are the key to make the Gospel come alive. To open our arms and welcome with Love our brothers and sisters who need us is the legacy that Jesus Christ has bequeathed to us. Let us leave indifference behind and act with coherence; because we can all do something to change our reality of death that haunts us today.

I invite you dear brothers and sisters to discover God’s plan in our lives so that leaving behind our fears we can embark on the journey of the mission betting on Justice Peace Integrity of Creation JPIC and the Values of the Kingdom of God.

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Beatriz Maldonado Sanchez, CLM

Missionary sharing from the first month in the Central African Republic

by
Cristina RCA

I am Cristina Paulek and I have belonged to the Comboni Lay Missionaries Association of Brazil since 1998. In this missionary journey, I want to highlight the importance of the LOCAL CHURCH: “Hearts burning, feet on the road!”

I was born in Curitiba/PR and grew up in Santa Amélia Parish, where the MCCJ are present. It was there that I took my first steps in the Church and in living the missionary spirit. It was in the parish that we received a solid formation to be laypeople and protagonists of history, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and in the experience of small basic ecclesial communities. It was in this reality that I worked pastorally in the parish and in the Archdiocese of Curitiba, in Prison Pastoral, in Missionary Animation in COMIDI, in CEBI, among others.

Above all, it was in the community that I discovered that the Church is missionary by nature, that every baptized person is a missionary. This is not the privilege of a few who go a little further away, we are all missionaries.

The motto of this year’s National Missionary Congress, inspired by the experience of the Disciples of Emmaus, helps us a lot, because it is in community, in the sharing of bread and life that we discover that Jesus walks with us. When we experience a burning heart, we set out on a journey.

Sending-off Mass in the Santa Amélia Community with the parents and the parish priest Fr Walter.

Cristina Paulek, CLM

Missionary sending of Cristina Paulek – from the mission of Ipê Amarelo to the mission in Central Africa

by
LMC Brasil

On July 23, 2023 we celebrated the sending of the Comboni Lay Missionary Cristina Paulek, in the community of Nossa Senhora Aparecida, in the Ipê Amarelo neighborhood, a Comboni parish in Contagem / Minas Gerais, where she was currently on mission.

It was an emotional moment of great joy and several reunions of the CLM family of Brazil.

Cristina is leaving for the Central African Republic after several years of missionary dedication in Brazilian lands. She began her work in 1998 in formation and then dedicated herself to the indigenous cause in Rondônia; since then she has developed various missionary works in the Association of Comboni Lay Missionaries, including as general coordinator and accompaniment of people in preparation to be CLM and to leave. Most of that time was spent in the Community of Ipê Amarelo, which now sends her on mission to other frontiers.

Present at this sending-off celebration were: Alejo Ramirez and his wife Terezinha Ramirez, Vanessa and Feliciano with their daughter Valentina, Adriana and Marcelo with their children Bernardo and Esther, Liliana and Flávio with their daughter Maria and also the founder of the Comboni Lay Missionaries in Brazil, Valdeci Ferreira, who on the occasion declared that he was surprised by Cristina’s decision, a joyful surprise. He also said that the dream of Africa has always been the missionary dream of the CLM project and that he thanks God for the gift of Cristina’s life and asks the whole community to be united with her in prayers.

After the Mass, we had a very special moment of farewell to Cristina, together with the community and all the lay people present at a lunch at the mission house, a moment of great joy and satisfaction. The lay couple Adriana and Marcelo declare that: “this was a very exciting moment that strengthens the bonds of the mission and gives a missionary sense to the life we live day by day, in our work in our base community, together with the education of our children Bernardo and Esther”.

The current coordinator of the laity in Brazil, Flávio Schmidt, who traveled 4 days from Maranhão to Ipê Amarelo with his family, highlights: “it is a moment of great joy for our group and for the movement as a whole. Cristina has already done a lot for the mission and now continues her missionary service in the lands of the heart of St. Daniel Comboni, together with the Comboni family present there. It is also inspiring that this sending out takes place on the day when the martyrdom of Fr. Ezequiel Ramín in Brazilian lands is remembered. Let us pray for her and for all the people who dedicate their lives to the construction of the Kingdom”.

We thank God for the gift of Cristina Paulek’s life and ask Him for His blessings so that this new missionary time in the heart of Africa may be a fruitful time of peace, joy and, above all, enthusiastic dissemination of the Gospel of the Kingdom.

We count on the prayers of all!

Adriana Moutinho, CLM Brazil