Africa – Page 82 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

First training meeting of the CLM in Mozambique in 2016

28 March, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

I had the opportunity to participate in the first meeting of permanent formation of CLM in Mozambique. I was invited as a candidate in training to dialogue with the coordinator and share my personal reality. During this meeting I had the grace to study about the Mercy of God as our Father; this topic helped me to reflect on my situation and shone in my mind the points that we will treat later on.

After this day of personal reflection, prayer and sharing, experiencing God’s mercy and a good rest, we continue the meeting with the evaluation of 2015. First we talk about projects, our community orchard, the school canteen, selling handicrafts and the next project in Cabaceira. Then we talked about the initial and ongoing preparation. Also on Missionary Animation, pastoral activities, Economy, departures and arrivals.

After listening to our assessment and new suggestions, brother Luis (MCCJ advisory for the CLM group in Mozambique) made us see the importance of our vocation as lay people, because our work is important in the mission without having to replace the task of the priest , brother or sister, as many people think. San Daniel Comboni also led laity to the mission.

We completed our meeting with lunch, where we experience green tomatoes (which is eaten in Mexico as chutney) which led to a nice conversation about traditional dishes from different parts of the world.

Arnaldo Inasio Sualehe

A bed is a bed if it is a bed to you

8 March, 20168 March, 2016 by Maggie and Mark Banga

The Borana people are a group of semi-nomadic pastoralists in the far south of Ethiopia whose lives revolve around tending their herds of livestock – cows, camels, goats and sheep – travelling with them in search of grass and water. Their pattern of life is very similar to what it would have been hundreds of years ago. Over the last years, I (Maggie) have visited the Borana area multiple times, including working there on short-term basis on health outreach programs with the Sisters of Charity (SCCG) congregation who serve among the Borana in the rural outpost of Dadim. I have found my time in Dadim both beautiful and powerful, and often I think of the Borana people I have met and the experience I have had there. There is something magical about the pastoralists, their lifestyle and the rugged terrain of their lands that really draws one in.

Perhaps it is witnessing moments like this:

Once when I was working in Dadim, I went with Sr. Annie Joseph (an Indian missionary sister) on a Friday evening to the clinic to see a mother and her 9 month old daughter, who were both admitted with pneumonia. When we entered the room, the mother was sitting holding her child awkwardly on the edge of the bed. Sr. Annie asked for my help to move the mattress to the floor, where the mother might be more comfortable. After moving the mattress, the mother sat on the edge of it just as awkwardly as before. It is likely she had never seen a ’bed’ (as we know them) before. A moment later two boys strolled in with animal skins tucked under their arms. Sr. Annie looked at them and then turned her face towards me and whispered ‘no problem, let them do it their way’. We watched silently, as the mother took the animal skins, spread them out on the floor next to the bed and then laid down on them with her child. In a moment they were both peacefully asleep.

Such a different way of life!

We can all adapt to many different places and people, but how much we find comfort in our own familiar things, foods, language and habits that will always fill our hearts with peace. I had shared this story with a friend and she commented what a gift it is if we can pause and step back – then we truly get to see the world from another’s view not ours. How easily we often jump in with eagerness to talk or share something of ourselves, our thoughts, our ideas but how much we may miss in doing that.

-Maggie & Mark Banga

Comboni Lay Missionaries serving in Awassa, Ethiopia

Pictures of the Borana people in Dadim:

News from Central África

2 March, 20162 March, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Hello everybody,

I hope you are well as your entire family.

I am in Bangui, I have arrived last night. All the apostolic community and I are well, thank God.

I pass today through the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Bangui. I was there on the opening day, but I could not get through, we went through one of the side doors. I really enjoyed going through it today.

In Central Africa was opened first the door of the Cathedral of Bangui, by the Pope, before the others! On December 20 the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Mbaiki, our diocese opened. Christmas Day opened the Holy Door of each parish. From January 17 until yesterday, the Holy doors opened in all the chapels that had door and the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in all of them for worship, in the custody that the Holy Father offered to our diocese and also offered to all other Central African´s. People were on pilgrimage on foot to the nearby chapels. We, on Sunday, went to delivered it to the parish of Safa. They came to procure us 6 km from the town and then went in procession to the church and remained in worship. The monstrance with the Blessed will visit all the parishes of the diocese until the end of “The Holy Year of Mercy”.

Since 13 December, I do not come to Bangui, there is always plenty to do in the Mission…

Since early January, a teacher and I are giving some afternoon classes to students to see if they begin to read. There are many students in CE2 (4th grade and who do not read anything). Thank God, it seems that they begin to read a little, the first few letters. With the help of God, who gives us the strength and patience to work, and the desire of the students to learn, we will get to learn. This month I was with a class during three days, but it is very difficult because students do not understand French and I do not know Sango to translate what I say. In May I will become the school principal. Pray God to help me in this new occupation.

From December 2 it has not rain, only on February 17 occurred a downpour as usual here. There were 75 days without rain … We had dry bushes, some avocado too, we will see if they still bear fruit. There were many fires in the forest and many cassava fields were burned. Many trees were burned. The atmosphere was filled with smoke, everywhere smelled like that. It was so much that made you mourn! We hope that will not cause more hunger than there are already. Thank God, it came two downpours, all nature has changed… just 34 hours, and tiny herbs came out where it seemed that everything looked dry. Truly, the water is the blood of the earth! Here the rain it calls “ngu ti Nzapa” = water of God, and it is true. Here in Bangui, it has not rained and everything is very dry… very hot!

Elia continues to care for malnourished children and not only. In January, she started going to Batalimo and found very serious cases, very sick children. When mothers do what they are asked (to give children everything it is distributed) they can recover well. When it comes to more serious cases, they are hospitalized sometime in the hospital.

Pygmies are still helped with medication when sick. Fortunately, because many would die since they have no money to buy them.

In the mission we have a home for the pygmies students, so they can better leverage school. Here they eat, sleep, go to school in the morning and during the evening come to study for one hour at the library. They are a dozen students.

Last week doctor Omnimos and his wife spent four days at the mission, as always very friendly. They operated 16 persons (adults and children). Thank God everything went well. This week they are also operating here in Bangui. If there were more people like them, the world would be better!

I wish you well-lived Lent.

United in Prayer

Kisses

Maria Augusta CLM

Letter to the comboni family for the jubilee year of mercy

28 February, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

«Not for an instant did this adorable Heart…not beat with purest and most merciful love for men. From the sacred manger in Bethlehem he hastens to proclaim peace to the world for the first time: as a little boy in Egypt, alone in Nazareth, a preacher of the Good News in Palestine, he shares his lot with the poor, invites little ones to come to him, comforts the mournful, heals the sick and raises the dead to life; he calls the burdened and forgives the repentant; dying on the Cross he prays with great docility for his own torturers; risen in glory he sends out the Apostles to preach salvation to the whole world»

(W 3323).

Dearest Sisters and Brothers of the Comboni Family,

With this letter, fruit of a period of prayer, reflection and sharing that we lived together at the closing of the Year for Consecrated Life and the commencement of Jubilee Year of Mercy, we wish to offer all the members of the Comboni Family some of our reflections and we want especially to invite each one of you to live in depth the challenges and opportunities that the Jubilee Year offers us personally and as a Family. To this end we desire to propose to you a day of prayer in common, remembering what Comboni told us: “The omnipotence of prayer is our strength” (W 1969).

“Miserando atque eligendo”: loved and pardoned / called and pardoned

Called by the grace of God to follow Christ in the footsteps of St. Daniel Comboni “Before the world was made he chose, chose us in Christ to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence” (Eph 1:4), we have also received, as an integral part of our charismatic DNA, the call to contemplate the Pierced Heart of Christ on the Cross, the most eloquent expression of the infinite mercy of God for the whole of humanity, and to allow ourselves to be transformed, so that we, too, may become an embrace of love and mercy for all “to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of his grace”. (Eph 1:6-7)

Like all men and women disciples of Christ, we are aware that the Gospel we wish to proclaim is greater than us. We well know that the sequela Christi, which calls us to witness to Him with our lives and our words, is demanding but we are not always equal to the task of proclaiming the message He entrusts to us: at times we lack the necessary depth to live according to our calling.

In our personal prayer, sacramental life, spiritual direction and in the encounter with our brothers and sisters we experience the mercy of God. We are grateful to the Holy Spirit who works in our hearts, granting us the spirit of repentance and purification. We thank God for the gift of joy in being pardoned that renews us and makes us ready to start afresh every day.

Misericordes sicut Pater: within our communities and families

God loves us and forgives us, and makes us experience this mystery through the personal encounter with Him and expresses his mercy through our brothers and sisters. In our communities and families, we are called, consequently, to accept one another, thanks to the Holy Spirit who unites us around Jesus and makes us ever more a cenacle of apostles.

In daily life, in the moments of fraternal correction and in our meetings and gatherings, we come to know how much we live in mutual mercy. If we all commit ourselves to living the Good News of the merciful love of God, we help one another to grow, to be purified and reconciled.

Our brothers and sisters, family members, make us understand that they forgive us when they wait patiently and move in step with us; they bring us into contact with love when they have confidence in us, despite our limits. When the communities and the family live in mercy, they become a place of grace, of healing and reconciliation in which communion and life are built up, without denying one’s own difficulties, weaknesses and limits, or those of others.

All of this qualifies the experience of mercy that we live among ourselves. “Mercy is not opposed to justice but rather expresses God’s way of reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to look at himself, convert, and believe.” (MV 21)

Misericordes sicut Pater: in the apostolic community

God our Father has called us to serve and work together as an apostolic community; in this place of collaboration, we are challenged to grow in our journey of going out of ourselves and configuring ourselves to Christ, the obedient servant. To us, who are called to live the new commandment of love, “Love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another” (Jn 13:34-35), the Lord gives all the graces necessary to share his mercy and makes us able to forgive one another.

The gift of mercy makes us able to go out of ourselves, to live gestures of tenderness and to be charitable among ourselves: that is, to accomplish works of spiritual and corporal charity in our midst.

It is often hard for us to ‘live in mercy’, assuming the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus. At times, we are more drawn to be charitable towards those outside our community and our family, forgetting those with whom we live daily as an evangelising community. God, who wants us to be merciful, desires that we practise mercy first of all among ourselves and those closest to us.

Misericordes sicut Pater: with the people of God

Our service invites us to entrust ourselves to the people of God who welcomes us in his name. Experience teaches us that, if we are humble and open, our brothers and sisters will be merciful to us. Attitudes of arrogance and superiority on our part evoke a different sort of response. The call to live in mercy, as Comboni did, obliges us to undertake a journey of conversion and healing in order to live our relationships in simplicity, humility and humanity.

Misericordes sicut Pater: towards our institutions

During our journey of belonging to our Institutes/groups/Comboni Family, our sentiments of love, healthy pride and gratitude ought to grow with the passing of years. However, at times we find sentiments of bitterness, destructive criticism and the ‘terrorism of gossip’, as Pope Francis calls it. We may say that this is part of our human condition, marked by sin and still in transformation. Our weaknesses should neither surprise nor scandalise us. They ought not diminish our sense of belonging, our happiness in being Combonians, or our desire and commitment to live, in a worthy fashion, the call to be Holy and Capable, in the footsteps of St. Daniel Comboni.

During this Year of Mercy, let us be reconciled with our discomforts and wounds and let us really “…be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience…” (Col 3:12) and so give new life to our love for our great Comboni Family.

Misericordes sicut Pater: instruments of mercy

The experience of mercy fills us with joy and the desire to proclaim that his mercy is without end (Ps 25:6).

Following the example of St. Daniel Comboni, the experience of divine mercy makes us widen our hearts and open our arms towards suffering humanity so that “... we can offer others, in their sorrow, the consolation that we have received from God ourselves” (2 Cor 1:4). Through our witness, service and presence among the people of God, by means of our being mission, we are called to participate in the saving work of the merciful God revealed in Jesus.

And so … Let us celebrate Mercy

In this Jubilee Year, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy, we ask God the Father for the gift of acknowledging our need of His mercy and our desire to be reconciled: with ourselves, our brothers and sisters in our communities, our family members, our collaborators, the People we serve and our Comboni Institutes and groups.

We therefore invite all the members of the Comboni Family – SMC, ISMC, MCCJ, LMC – and other Groups/movements that take their inspiration from the Comboni charism, to celebrate, on 17 March, 2016, the XX anniversary of the beatification of St. Daniel with a day of prayer-contemplation on the Mercy of God in Comboni. This is an invitation to all of us, as his children, to let ourselves be transformed by the Mercy of the Heart of Jesus and to revive our compassion and commitment to proclaim, in word and in deed, the God of Mercy to our most abandoned and suffering brothers and sisters.

We greet you with deep affection.

The General Councils and Coordinator of the LMC Central Commission:

SMC – Comboni Missionary Sisters

ISMC – Secular Institute of Comboni Missionary Women,

MCCJ – Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus,

LMC – Comboni Lay Missionaries.

Rome, 28 February, 2016.

Something ends, something new begins…

26 February, 201626 February, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

“Our children have just finished their holiday season. This time it lasted unusually long – 3 months. The reason was the election of the new president of Uganda which took place on 18 February 2016. Fortunately everything went well and there were no big problems. In less than three weeks I will be back in Poland again. Well, something ends, something new begins. During the holiday season, I spent most of the time with the youngest children who have some problems at school. It was a kind of remedial classes. After the renovation work, the classes were held in the dining room that was turned into the class room. We spend a lot of time there, learning but also having fun. We painted, created things from plasticine, coloured and cut. In Poland it is something common but for my kids in Uganda it is always something special and new.”

Besides being the general administrator, here I am also someone between a baby sitter and a social worker. All this time I have been here, I have discovered that this is the best place for me. It is amazing and surprising at the same time, because it was not something I had intended to do. Mission teaches obedience and commitment in places where there is a need, not in places where one thinks he/she should be. Sometimes our imaginations are not real; our point of view differs from the real and true needs of the world. Because we think that our needs are: time for prayer and, above all, openness to the Holy Spirit. We also need all of these to discover what God really wants from us, in this particular place. I can’t say I know it already, but I search for it, all the time. I am starting to understand why I have been sent here. Now, as I am actually finishing my two years mission experience, I know I will return here, to my children, to St. Jude.

St. Jude is not just children, but also people who work there. Baby sitters, people who look after the children – I spent lots of time with them. At the beginning of my mission, I was dedicated to managing all the employees, which was really hard, as I was the youngest person here and I was preparing to become their supervisor. I was supposed to check and assess. It was not a very comfortable situation, because I came here to help, not to control. However, as I mentioned before – mission teaches humility, but also verifies our vision about ourselves, our knowledge and behaviours. I have to admit that sometimes even the easiest things ended with some misunderstanding. The way of being, talking, gesturing were interpreted wrongly. Fortunately, we have learnt from one another eventually.

Mission is also a community, very extraordinary in my case. We were sent to a totally new place and created a new community in Gulu – before it had been only in Matany – where Danusia (another CLM) was. There were four of us, young and inexperienced girls: three Polish and one Spanish. Even the time we spent in prayer, talking, resting but also arguing and causing misunderstandings, was beautiful and intense. What always united us, though, was the mission, the people and, most of all, prayer. Each one of us is a different picture of God, but with the same faith and big open heart.

On behalf of my community and myself, I would like to thank all of you, for every little gesture, holiday cards, emails. On behalf of my children, I would like to thank for all the financial support: thanks to it our children now have new uniforms, better food, the possibility of better health control and … we coloured their world. But most of all, I would like to thank you for every prayer, every sigh about us: without you, we would not be here

Ewa Maziarz, CLM