Comboni Lay Missionaries

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11.09 – Happy New Year 2009!

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flor

For several days in the street everywhere you could see people with chickens! Walking, riding on motorcycles, in bajajs, mini-busses … Everywhere! And also topic about the price of chicken he was one of the most common ones (because the price is not small, 250 birr, which is about 10 euro!). All these things are the sign of the approaching New Year, which we celebrate today! Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar, according to which today began year 2009. For me, it is still quite strange, once the celebration of the New Year in mid-September, secondly that it is year 2009, and thirdly that the year has 13 months … 🙂 However, here it is the most natural thing and great joy! All the people are very grateful to God that he brought them through another year and they ask to bless them for the new one. Celebrating this day is completely different from ours in Europe; there are no big New Year’s Eve parties. However, in the New Year’s Day, in the morning the girls walk on the streets and visit homes singing a special song – blessing for the New Year. Then give flowers – September in Ethiopia is the time when bloom very typical for this time yellow flowers, beautiful! However, nowadays the most commonly they give a flower drawn on paper. They also expect a small gift. It is also a family holiday – all people prepare doro wat (a special dish from the chicken, mentioned above), and together with the loved ones gather for a lunch. This is very joyful time 🙂

So, Happy New Year!

And let’s pray that God will bless the Ethiopians and give them peace.

flores

Magda Plekan, CLM in Awassa (Ethiopia)

XX General Chapter of the Comboni Missionaries Sisters

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Comboni sistersFrom 05 to 30 September will take place in Verona (Italy) the XX General Chapter of the Comboni missionaries Sisters under the theme: “DARING THE MYSTERY OF ENCOUNTER IN ORDER TO LIVE COMBONIAN MISSION TODAY”.

“…Our missionary life consists of encounters: encounter with God, with people, with ourselves, with reality and with all that is created. But it consists also of clashes and, sometimes, also of indifference. In the context of a globalized and pluralistic world, we are challenged to cultivate and nurture the mystery of encounter, so that the other becomes a companion on the journey, a sister, a brother, and not a threat to be eliminated or from whom to flee. “Today, when the networks and means of human communication have made unprecedented advances, we sense the challenge of finding and sharing a “mystique” of living together, of mingling and encounter, of embracing and supporting one another, of stepping into this flood tide which, while chaotic, can become a genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of solidarity, a sacred pilgrimage”. (EG 87). Considering the challenges for our missionary life, yesterday and much more today, we realize that these focus on relationships, on the encounter with the great diversity in our world, through a pluralistic mission, through being mission more than doing mission”. (Taken from the letter of the General Council)

As Comboni family, we join in prayer with all the sisters and ask, through the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni, that this time become a time of grace and listening to discover the challenges that the mission poses to the world today.

Poland – Hawassa World Youth Day

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Magda LMC

In Krakow, Poland, over a million people celebrated World Youth Day from July 25 to 31. My own little dream had been to attend the event (in Krakow). However, following my greater dream – that of going on mission to Africa, I had to drop it. However, I still wanted to join with Poland and the whole world in celebrating World Youth Day in whatever way I could. Because of that I got the idea of trying to organize a festival for the youth in Awassa, coinciding with the visit of Pope Francis and the program in Poland. As things turned out, it wasn’t easy.

Cooperation was a big challenge: some would come late, others would not keep their promises; things were disorganized and not everybody was very committed. Before the festival, I tried to build a team, but the leaders who were supposed to have helped did not always come to our meetings.

Two people helped with most of the issues: Tesfa, a young man very involved in Church activities and Engida, a parish worker. I was rather disappointed with the first day of the festival. Some people who were supposed to prepare some items were either late or did not turn up at all. Sometimes I had to improvise. Later on, things improved quite a bit.

Despite the difficulties, we managed to keep to our original plan. During the festival, we sang the WYD hymn, said the official WYD prayer, got to know St John Paul II and St Faustina Kowalska and listened to sermons about mercy. We had adoration of the Blessed  Sacrament on Thursday. On Friday, we prepared the Stations of the Cross and a Reconciliation Service. Each day, we followed what was happening in Poland and we watched the news or even the live transmissions together.

On Saturday we went to Mother Theresa House – a centre for the sick – and we organized a short walk together. In the afternoon we had an artistic program including a theatre play, we had singing with various hymns, choreographies, poetry, a quiz about Poland and a conference. All parts of the celebration were associated with the Divine Mercy. I have to say that Saturday was wonderful.

We had some technical problems on Sunday, but we finally managed to watch part of the live transmission from Poland. We sang some hymns and evaluated the whole program. The participants seemed to be very happy. Even when some things went totally haywire, even with all the defects, the huge delays and different problems, I can say that, with the help of God, things worked out quite well. It was certainly a big lesson in humility. My lack of deep knowledge of the language created some difficulties and the lack of a well-organized team was also a huge drawback. Some people put great effort into the event, especially Tesfa who worked so hard on the program. I also got great help from people who just volunteered. In addition I have to say that local people were, as always, very kind, understanding and supportive when they saw I needed help. It was a great privilege to help organize the festival. It taught me a great deal about the place and the culture. I thank God for this wonderful experience; I thank everyone who helped make it a success. I have no regrets whatever!

Magda LMC

Magda Fiec, CLM Ethiopia