Last week I was able to spend a good amount of formation time with Carolina, David and Juan Eugenio in Granada. It was a time to get to know one another better, to pray together, converse, walk, cook, eat and to celebrate life and our missionary vocation, coinciding as it was with Comboni’s birthday.
During this week we also had time to delve more deeply in our history as CLM at the international level, to go over the agreements made in the African continental meetings and how could we avoid giving sufficient time to share on the conclusions of our recent general assembly in Rome. We always gave enough time to get to know the international situation of the CLM and especially of the continent where they will be going.
We also spent part of the afternoon looking at videos and pictures from Ethiopia and Mozambique, and from them we moved to discuss and find answers to the realities to be faced.
Then we gave quite some time to work on community life. Our community is always the base of our presence as CLM in mission and the fundamental point of reference in performing our missionary ministry, in feeding and living our faith. It is like the Cenacle of Apostles Comboni wanted in order to spread what we have within us. We spent time to unravel several practical aspects such, organization, community responsibilities, projects, the economy, and other deeper aspects like how to protect our spirituality, how to be a Comboni family, keeping contacts with those who support us and others. We did it calmly in order to really converse, exchange points of view and learn from each other. We ended this part studying the Charter of the international communities approved at the recent international assembly which is and will be the foundation of our presence in international communities.
We also had time to spend with the Comboni family of Granada: one evening with the men and another with the sisters. It was a good time to pray together and talk about mission. It was a good family time dreaming together of how Comboni dreamed of us.
We did not forget to give time to conflict resolution. We know that conflict is natural in our human situation and that conflicts arise in our communities as well. That is why we must be able to face them, resolve them and grow together as persons and as a community.
During these days, we picked an entire morning to go walking, to visit the beautiful surrounding of the Cahorros, with its vertical walls and the beautiful views of the Sierra Nevada. It was also an opportunity to tests our strength and to be aware that we have to be well prepared for the pilgrimage over the Camino de Santiago. We will have to take advantage of the remaining weeks to arrive to it in good shape. It is always nice to go out into nature and have time to converse in a relaxed fashion while walking and thank God for all his gifts.
We ended dealing with the theme of interculturality. It is wonderful to travel to another continent and share other cultures, but it is necessary to be properly prepared to know the people with whom we will live in the coming years, in order to respect their worldview, in order to share our faith making sure not to over stress our own worldview and try even unconsciously to impose it, but rather in a spirit of sharing and grow in our diversities.
We closed the week by spending the weekend with the CLM of the southern region of Spain. It gave us time to share, do some formation, revision of life, to analyze this time of preparation for those who will leave, recharge our energy for the daily grind, etc.
On Sunday we did mission promotion in a parish of Granada. David was able to give a short presentation of his leaving for the mission and we took the opportunity to chat with the parishioners and sell some trinkets to finance mission work.
Their time to leave for Africa is getting nearer. Let us pray that the Lord will be with them, guide them in this time of special formation, a time also of spirituality and prayer to prepare them for departure.
Thanks for this week together.
Greetings
Alberto, coordinator of the CLM Central Committee
