America – Page 13 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

WYD Portugal 2023 and CONAJUM Morelia Mexico 2023

14 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

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.

AM15

AM252

AM192

AM122

AM26

AM10

AM6

AM5

AM2

AM9

AM3

AM4

AM14

AM242

AM11

AM13

AM18

Beatriz Maldonado Sanchez, CLM

Seminar “Trafficking in Persons and Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

13 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Guatemala City, Guatemala, August 18-20, 2023

The Comboni Lay Missionaries of Guatemala this year are committed to Formation and Awareness in our commitments for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. We are beginning this journey trusting in Our Lord Jesus Christ under the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni and Our Mother the Virgin Mary to enlighten us to be able to see, hear and feel the cry of the Living Christ in the streets, in the peripheries, at the borders, in the bus terminals, in the shelters, in our communities and in all those places where there is always a cry for help.

We share with you the Final Message of the Seminar on Human Trafficking and Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean “I have seen the oppression of my people, I have looked upon their suffering and I have come down to deliver them” (Ex 3:7-8). (Ex 3:7-8)”

Miriam Herrador, CLM Guatemala

Mensaje-Final-Seminario Download

Missionary sharing from the first month in the Central African Republic

11 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

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

Sowing on the African continent.

8 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Greetings.

Hello, I’m Tito, a Comboni Lay Missionary from Brazil, on mission in Carapira, northern Mozambique.

Here I work at the Carapira Industrial Technical Institute (ITIC), where I am responsible for agricultural production, producing vegetables so that the students can eat healthier.

I also work in the parish in the various pastoral and ministry roles.

In my spare time, when I’m at home, I grow a small vegetable garden to contribute to our diet.

As you can see, here in the mission I am sowing and reaping good fruit.

But God also calls us, through our Baptism, to be sowers of his word of the Gospel.

As missionaries, we must sow love, peace, justice, sharing, fraternity and hope, etc.

Wherever I go, I always try to sow, sow, sow. One day these seeds will germinate and bear good fruit.

Be a sower yourself, but sow with your neighbor in mind.

Tito, Comboni Lay Missionary.

6 years of Chispuditos

4 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

With God’s blessing, lots of joy, good cheer, smiles and anticipation, the CLM were contributing ideas, activities and snack suggestions to celebrate the children of Aldea La Salvadora I and II the anniversary…

VI ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHISPUDITOS PROGRAM.

On JUNE 3rd, the anniversary date, with a pleasantly sunny morning and with the attendance of the 50 children that month after month are given preventive monitoring for child malnutrition, we prepared a delicious and fresh fruit salad, which children and parents enjoyed together with a bread with chicken filling and a very cold and refreshing horchata.

There were fun games of rounds, songs and races around chairs; mimes and even races of moms with their babies, presenting each one with an attractive pastel-colored plastic cup. It was such a fun and entertaining atmosphere that children and adults alike had a morning of celebration and fun.

Of course, the grand finale of this celebration was the presentation of a fairy tale play, in which the CLM put all their soul and energy in their performance, leaving all the spectators surprised and amazed, it was the fable of Leo and the mouse. Curiously, several children did not know the fable and we were very impressed by the way in which adults and children were completely introduced in the story.

It was a very enjoyable moment, a moment in which we celebrated life and that, in the midst of suffering, there is light and hope for these villages.

Our deep desire as a community is to grow with this program, so that the word of God can reach more families and comfort them in their sorrows, so that more children can have the opportunity to improve their health and so that mothers can have the necessary tools for their children to grow with greater opportunity.

Sara Ramírez