The fourth weekend of each month, the CLM in Mozambique, have the habit of meeting for basic training and lifelong learning. These meetings are mainly for training but on certain occasions a parish is chosen for Missionary Animation. As it was done this March 28, in the Parish of the Holy Cross, in the city of Nampula, starting on Saturday afternoon, we presented ourselves at a group of this parish, consisting of singles and young couples.
We share the word of God and we talked about the movement of the CLM at the level of Mozambique and in the world. Deepening phrases of St. Daniel Comboni who says: “Save Africa with Africa”, “I die, but my work will not die”, “thousand lives for a mission,” “The works of God are born and grow at the foot of the Cross “; all this was cause for our reflection.
Once finished on Saturday, on Sunday 29, we were in the community of San Juan de Brito, which belongs to the same parish where our animation culminated with much joy and coinciding with Palm Sunday. Where is celebrated the day of youth. At the end of the celebration, we met to continue talking about our movement, particularly the activities in the parish of Carapira and the Industrial School.
Therefore, after the presentation of the phrases of St. Daniel Comboni, we mentioned above, people with the need to reflect, requested the translation in their local language (Macua). Among other translations, focused heavily on “Saving Africa with Africa” in macua “Wopola w’África nor Africa”. They gave various examples. Believers of this community were moved from this animation, having the need to be more informed. So, we left an opening dialogue through our contact.
Another important aspect that we talked about was the family that is rich because today has Priests, Brothers, Sisters Laity and secular.
By last, we appreciate the availability and receipt of the parish, and this community. At the end they still offered us some products of “machamba” (orchard).
Last Sunday we’ve started a very important time in catholic Church- Holy Week. Today is Holy Saturday and the great waiting .
We’re very excited and very happy that we can spend this beautiful time among Acoli people.
Here the way of celebration any Feast is incredible. Making a start on Palm Sunday. The church was full of people, each of them (from the youngest to the oldest) is keeping a sprig of palm and waving it. It was amazing, because you felt like during the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem. Incredible!
On Palm Sunday the priest asked all of us: what are you waiting for? What are expecting from this Holy Week? What are Acoli people waiting for? People here know how important the Resurrection is. They’re waiting for Him, who has risen from the death. They’re waiting for Him, who suffered to conquered our sins and give us a new lives. They’re waiting for Jesus, who brings joy and hope.
And we wish you all this things. We wish you to meet Jesus who is risen from the death, we wish you stop and think of this big Mistery, think of a great God’s love who gave His Son to die for us and our sins. Let Jesus give you strength on your mission ways, strength to follow Him every day, fill your hearts joy, peace and hope.
Our Lay Community has lived in St. Jude for few months. We work here, but we also live with mothers and children. In our orphanage live more than 130 children of different ages. Over 40 children are disabled to varying degrees, including deaf and blind children, children with cerebral palsy, children suffering from paraplegia and two young that have had various accidents. Also children with HIV and tuberculosis live here in St. Jude. Other children, although healthy in physically sense, they are sick in the spiritual sense- after the experience of rejection from family and experience of the war.
Despite all these diseases and difficult experiences our children are full of life, joy and smile. Every morning we hear their play, laughter and singing. Our children are simply made for inventing new games, especially for making toys out of nothing. They can find a piece of cardboard, a circle and a stick and a new “modern” racing car is rushing through our compound. The old tires are the best toys for them- turning them into racing gives them an extraordinary joy. However, girls really like to play in the imitation of mothers. They find a teddy bear, they quickly wear him on their back and pretend to have a child. It’s better when they find a piece of material to attach the bear to the back and keep their hands free, then it’s called “byelo”.
Older children help mothers in their homes. The girls learn how to take care of the house, cook typical Acoli dishes like “malakwan” or “boo”. The boys help in the store where we keep food- corn, rice and different varieties of beans. That’s all during the holiday. When the school stars most of them attend classes from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
The life of children with disabilities is more monotonous. We try to enliven it. During the day we take them for a short walk in the yard, they have rehabilitation, we play with them in a special room with toys to awake their imagination and change scenery. And despite that some of them have a high degree of disability they have learnt to recognise us. We also recognise their interest, for example Gerard likes tractor coming back from the farm. Then he touches the tires, watches how the cabin looks like. While Geoffrey likes when you stroke him on the cheeks. Bridget smiles when you tell her “good morning my beautiful Bridget”. Our children are full of joy and show it through smile, some even scream and in their eyes we can see friendship and trust which put in us.
Our life here is focused on the children, the time passes very quickly, but sometimes it happens something what “freezes” us for some time. More than one month ago, Isaac died. Isaac was a little boy with disability. He loved when you carried him to exhibit his face to the wind to feel the brush. He had an unusual smile. When he was carried he clung and when you put it back to the wheelchair he clenched his small lips-like a warrior-so as not to cry. Today he is gone from us but this experience has stuck in our hearts.
Every new day begins the same way, full of energy we face new challenges. In the evening we thank God in our small house chapel for the strength and love that we received. Tired but happy, we look forward to a new day.
Commentary on a John 20, 1-10, Easter Sunday April the Fifth 2015
In this Easter Sunday, we read the first part of John’s chapter 20th. There we can meet a community formed by three disciples: Mary Magdalene, Peter and “the other disciple” (let us call him John, following a long tradition). They, apart from being themselves, represent us all, disciples who try to learn from our Teacher the new life that He is showing to us. I invite you to read carefully, meditate and contemplate this Gospel. Let us go a bit into detail:
Mary Magdalene: unconditional love
Mary was, doubtless, an extraordinary woman. We do not know much about her previous life, but we do know that she has found in Jesus her faithful Friend, her undisputed Teacher and the Master of her life… She went after Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, in good and bad moments, and she stayed by Him till death, more, beyond death.
In fact, according to John (and other evangelists), she went to the place where Jesus was buried out of pure faithfulness, even in spite of not knowing how to remove the big stone and presuming that Jesus was dead. That was not important for her, because her love was absolute and unconditioned. And this definitive, unbroken love was rewarded with the stone removed and the vision of Jesus as He really is now, in his most authentic reality, not as a dead man but as the ever living Son of the Father.
Contemplating this woman, we are inspired and moved to imitate her in this radical, total love, and to give ourselves up to Him, in good and bad moments, no matter what kind of stones are put to separate us from Him, knowing as she did that Jesus is worthy of our love and our trust; and that Jesus is revealing Himself alive and present in our life, in our Church, in our World. It is this experience of Jesus alive in us that makes us missionaries, witnesses to the world.
Peter, a sinner ready to learn
Peter was, somehow, the chief of that small group of disciples, but it does not seem to be the one, who believed most clearly, or the cleverest one, or the one to understand things quicker. He was not the first one to go to the tomb; neither was he the first to arrive… He rather was the latest one to arrive, to understand things, to catch God’s signs… But he was humble, he was able to acknowledge his errors and sins, he knew how to open himself to others and how to learn from them.
Contemplating Peter, many of us feel represented in him. We, also, have our own history of sins, errors and unfaithfulness; we too are quite often slow to understand God’s ways; we too find it difficult to see the presence of God in our today’s world, in our Church, in our community; we also lack confidence and are afraid to be deceived. But, as Peter did, we can open ourselves to the help of others, allow ourselves, once more, to be accompanied and to be conquered by Jesus, and then say humbly: “Lord, you know that I love you”.
The “other disciple” was able to see the sunrise in the first day of the new Creation.
“The other disciple”
Among the disciples there was one (let us call him John), who was quicker and readier to see the new action of God in the world, able to go over the superficialities of live. There are many things that only love knows how to see, and it seems that John had that type of love that was enabling him to see beyond superficialities.
Also among us today there are some who seem to be quicker and smarter than the others: they are able to discern the signs of the times; they feel where the “wind” of God is pushing humanity; they have the capacity to look further… These ones are a gift for the community with one condition: That they learn to be members of a community that they do not go on by themselves alone, that they accept and adapt to the rhythm of the others. Only in that way the community is built up, only in that way Jesus reveals himself alive, only in that way we become real missionaries, starting with Jesus the new “week” of regeneration for Humanity.
In fact, as God created the world in a symbolic “week”, according to the book of Genesis, in the same way in Jesus He is creating a new Humanity. As Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, we too believe in this new creation, this new sunrise, no matter how big are the stones on our way. God’s love is stronger than sin and death. In God everything is re-created, re-generated, re-“newed”. And we are part of this project.
A commentary on Mk 11, 1-11 and Mk 14-15. Palm Sunday, 29th Mark 2015
Today’s Liturgy offers us two readings from the Gospel of Mark: the first one, to be read before the blessing of the palms, tells us the well-known story of Jesus entering Jerusalem sitting on a young donkey (Mk 11, 1-11); the second one, during the Mass, is the reading of the “Passion” (Jesus’ last hours in Jerusalem), this time narrated in chapters 14th and 15th of Mark.
With this, we enter into the Great Week in the Christian year. In this week we celebrate, renew and make ours the extraordinary experience of our Master and Friend, our Brother and Redeemer Jesus, who with clear mind and courageous will, in spite of the anguish and pain that He was suffering as any human being, went to Jerusalem, knowing that He would have to give up his life out of an immense love for the Father and for all of us.
For us, all this week must be a time of special intensity, with more Bible reading, meditation, silence and contemplation of our Lord, noting His presence among us and in our own experiences of life and suffering, grace and sin, anguish and hope.
On my side, I reflect on these three points:
1) The King sitting on a young donkey
Some year ago I was blessed with the grace of a visit to the Holy Land and I was able to spend ten days in Jerusalem. One of those days, I walked from Betfagé to the mountain of the Olives, from which you can see the Holy City. According to Mark, Jesus did this same way, but sitting on a donkey. We may think of that almost as a folkloric scene, risking to miss its real meaning. To understand it properly, I do not find anything better than quoting a test from the book of Zechariah, to which probably refers Mark himself. Please, read and compare:
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River[bto the ends of the earth. (Zech 9, 9-10).
Just a brief comment on my part: How much we do need nowadays, in this time full of arrogance and violence, the kingship of this humble and peaceful king, that rules, not by the force of horses and weapons, but by the consistency of his liberating truth and his unconditional love!
2) The “wasted” ointment
The Passion, narrated by Mark, begins with the story of an anonymous woman who comes to Jesus and breaks a flak containing an expensive oil and spreading that precious oil over Jesus head. Those present at the scene started grumbling and rebuking the lady for that “exaggerated and absurd” expenditure that could have had a better use. But Jesus defends her saying that she is anticipating de anointing of his dead body.
In fact, meditating on this “broken flask” of precious oil, we cannot but think of the body of Christ, totally broken and given out to us as a marvellous “perfume” of grace and sanctity, of God’s redeeming love. The “Passion” we read today talks of Jesus being betrayed by his friends, Jesus in anguish before the suffering that is awaiting Him, Jesus going trough a terrible martyrdom, Jesus abandoned on the cross… An yet Jesus that gives himself up willingly and lovingly: “Let it be, not as I wish, but as you, Father, wish”.
Jesus’ death may appear too many as an absurd “waste”; the same may happen to the lives of so many missionaries spent in risky places: Why risk our life in places torn out in wars, unhealthy situations, lack of human rights… ? The answer is at the same time simple and marvellous: Love has no limits or “reasons of convenience”; the one who loves is ready to break the flask of his love, so that it spreads the good “scent” in a world that quite often does not smell so well.
The same can be said of so many mothers and fathers, nurses and teachers, religious and lay alike that are able to give themselves up entirely for the good of children, elders, sick, and people in need in general…
Each one of us today is called to break his or her own life in favour of others, especially those in need.
To contemplate Christ on the Cross leads us to identify ourselves with him and to determine ourselves to follow on His steps, sure that love is greater than death. Some will laugh at us, but God will smile and lead us to resurrection and fulfilment.
Fr. Antonio Villarino
Roma
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We share the word of God and we talked about the movement of the CLM at the level of Mozambique and in the world. Deepening phrases of St. Daniel Comboni who says: “Save Africa with Africa”, “I die, but my work will not die”, “thousand lives for a mission,” “The works of God are born and grow at the foot of the Cross “; all this was cause for our reflection.
Once finished on Saturday, on Sunday 29, we were in the community of San Juan de Brito, which belongs to the same parish where our animation culminated with much joy and coinciding with Palm Sunday. Where is celebrated the day of youth. At the end of the celebration, we met to continue talking about our movement, particularly the activities in the parish of Carapira and the Industrial School.
