America
Piquiá da Conquista: work on the new neighborhood continues at a good pace
We leave you a video published by Justiça nos Trilhos where we can see the progress of the struggle of a simple community against a large extractive company.
A struggle that the Comboni family has been accompanying for years.
You can also read and watch a video subtitled in Spanish in “El País”.
MCCJ General Council: “Our best wishes of peace and hope for the feast of Christmas 2022”
«Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy to be shared by all the people. Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. (Lk 2. 10,11)
Dear confreres,
We wish to send all of you and your communities our best wishes of peace and hope for the approaching feast of Christmas.
We invite each of you to make the angel’s announcement to the shepherds resound once more in our lives and in those of our communities (“Peace on earth to people whom God loves” – Lk 2:14b), certain that the announcement, as it was for the shepherds, should also be such for us as to make us “contempo-raries of the event”. An event that makes us «find the crux of our redeemed existence, the celebration of living, the taste for the essential, the flavour of simple things, the fountain of peace, the joy of dialogue, the pleasure of collaboration, the desire for historic commitment, the wonder of true freedom and the ten-derness of prayer» (Don Tonino Bello).
The angel’s ′′do not be afraid′′ encourages us too, today not to back away from the challenges we encounter in our daily lives. Daily life is often afflicted by worries, discouragement and violence – caused by various factors – which corrode our trust in life and hope for the future. However, “the believer has something in his heart that urges him, moves him, mobilizes all his energies: it is the «” joy of the gospel”, its incomparable newness. Anyone who believes, even in relationships with those who are very far away, cannot give up wanting to communicate the formidable difference and excess, the “more” and the “beyond”, which are constitutive of the Gospel» (Card. Carlo Maria Martini). For this reason, the angel’s announcement of joy becomes pardon, a halt to pessimism, a truce in the sufferings and disap-pointments that harden our hearts and is transformed into a rampant force of trust in the future which is regenerated in the “patience of the present”, a patience capable of revitalizing the most authentic gaze on history and of interpreting events, grasping their true meaning or, at least, the possible horizon.
This patience drives us to decline the three essential dimensions of Christmas: listening and dia-logue, grasping the groans of the territories and the people who live in them, and committing ourselves to promote safe relationships and environments in the present and in the future; acceptance, as the result of closeness, service and care, touching the multiple wounds of suffering people (young people, mi-grants, the disabled, families, war victims); and prophecy, to initiate processes and anticipate, with sig-nificant and incisive proposals, the transformation of our life and that of the people we serve, as the result of the courage to give our lives for others and, above all, because we ourselves are in love with the life.
In a few days’ time, the mandate of the new Provincial Councils will begin in all the circum-scriptions. We send our sincere best wishes to all of them, entrusting their service to Mary, Mother of the Prince of Peace and Mother of all the peoples of the earth, to accompany them, supporting their ability to interpret the trust they have received with availability and gratuity by the confreres of the circumscriptions.
We wish all of you and all the members of the entire Comboni Family, a Happy Christmas and a prosperous 2023, so that the rediscovery may continue of our Family as the “cradle of life and faith”, a place of welcome, and a source of hope and of peace for all humanity.
Finally, we urge everyone to fervently implore the Prince of Peace to bring consolation to all wounded hearts, as well as to the nations tried by wars and crises of all kinds, so that every man and woman may enjoy a dignified and peaceful life.
Happy Christmas everyone!
The General Council
Our last quarter activity in the CLMs of Ecuador
At the end of November 2022, we received the visit of our National Advisor, Fr. Enzo Balasso, MCCJ, who was in Guayaquil to promote the Calendar 2023 of the Comboni Family in some parishes of the Archdiocese, in the month of August 2023, which is dedicated to the Laity and there is a general invitation to participate in the CLM.
It was a very pleasant opportunity for our lay community to accompany Fr. Enzo in these visits of parish groups from the periphery and priests from the north of Guayaquil, Fr. San Lucas Evangelista, from Mucho Lote; Fr. Jesús El Buen Pastor, from Vergeles; and, Fr. Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Chiquinquirá, from Vergeles, in which we took the opportunity to give small talks and reminders of the various missionary animations carried out in previous years.
In the same way, since this year we have maintained a space for living together as Comboni Family among the priests, confreres and lay people who are in Guayaquil, through a monthly Mass and sharing, which is held on the last Tuesday of each month; and this time we did it with our National Advisor.
Among the pastoral activities that the CLM develop is the accompaniment and participation in the parish Immaculate Conception of Guayaquil, as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, which during this year we went to the preparation and formation for the renewal of the ministry at the Archdiocesan level, being so on Saturday, December 10, 2022, the ceremony was held in the Cathedral of Guayaquil celebrated by Bishop Gustavo Rosales, Auxiliary Bishop of Guayaquil.
We have had space for vocational promotion and awareness of our CLM movement, such as, on December 17, 2022, the participation with the group “Roots of Hope” in the Christmas sharing for children and families of the “Valdivia” sector; and, on December 18, 2022, we will celebrate the mass of thanksgiving for the CLM International Day in the Verbo Divino Parish, currently Comboni parish, both areas known as periphery of southern Guayaquil where families of low economic resources live.
In addition, on Friday, December 30, we will be sharing with the different missionary and pastoral groups that meet at the Afro-Ecuadorian Cultural Center of Guayaquil, in order to meet as a family and with other lay people who share our Comboni charism.
Happy Holidays to all!
Abg. Susana Ortega Delgado, CLM
