Brazil – Page 3 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

How it all began

9 November, 20239 November, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

PODCAST 1 – Beginning with ciranda song.

This is the ciranda song, you dance in a circle, each member hugging his or her neighbors and moving in rhythm by banging their feet loudly. This song is a dance related to Brazilian folk tradition.

Hi, we are Anna and Gabriel, and this is Ciranda, the podcast about our mission experience in Brazil. In which we try to take you into the everyday life choices of people living in this part of the world.

We start with a question that we have been asked on several occasions over the past year: what does it mean to leave with the Comboni Lay Missionaries? Who are they? And why specifically in Brazil?

We got to know the reality of the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) after some word of mouth until we met this reality in the Venegono area. The LMCs were created following the charism of Saint Daniele Comboni. A priest, from the first half of the 1800s, who dedicated his life to the mission in ways that were new for the time and probably also for today, with the goal, as he said, of “saving Africa with Africa.”

Comboni Lay Missionaries carry on this spirit in the various missions around the world by accompanying the presence of Combonians on the ground.

To better understand this new way of doing and being mission, which is different from what we had known in the past, we did a 2-year journey of getting to know the CLM, at the end of which, together with our reference group, we were proposed to do a period of experience in an international reality. We had proposed ourselves for the mission areas of Latin America, and at the same time in the mission in Brazil the urgency had arisen to find a couple of volunteers who could carry on the presence of the Laity, already inserted for several years in the reality of Piquià. So, in May 2022, we left, leaving our little house in Cuneo in the direction of Brazil, in the state of Maranhão, municipality of Acailândia, specifically in the small neighborhood of Piquià. This 3-month experience allowed us to touch the Combonian way of life, to learn Portuguese, and to observe the reality of the various projects in which the Comboni family is involved. These are mainly 3 realities: the casa familiar rural (a school for children from rural areas), the reality of Piquià de Baixo (a community affected by pollution from steel industries), and the interior families living in the countryside, isolated and affected by the world of agribusiness (i.e., deforestation and monoculture of soy and eucalyptus).

The time spent in Piquià was a short time but enough to make us realize that this would be our home for the next 3 years.

The uniqueness of this experience is also the choice to do common life with the Combonis, who live in the house next to ours. Therefore, not only are we included in the parish and engaged in the various pastoral activities but we share with them prayer times, dinners and other moments of daily life, making choices in common. This is the Comboni family, where lay people and Comboni fathers do mission together.

Dialogue

WHAT IT MEANS TO SAVE AFRICA WITH AFRICA …

WHAT STRUCK US ABOUT THIS STYLE…

WHY THREE YEARS?…

Anna and Gabrielle, CLM in Brazil

Comboni feast

6 October, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

St. Daniel Comboni Parish, in Guriri, Diocese of São Mateus, in the state of Espírito Santo, began the feast of St. Daniel Comboni on Sunday, October 1. The celebration began with the blessing of the image of the patron saint containing the relic of St. Daniel Comboni, followed by a procession from the residence of Bishop Emeritus Aldo Gerna to the parish church. The image of St. Daniel Comboni was carved in wood especially for the first Comboni parish in the world by the sculptor Werner Thaler, from the city of Treze Tílias, in Santa Catarina.

Fr. Raimundo Rocha

Provincial of the Comboni Missionaries of Brazil

GEC IN ACTION: ‘burning hearts, feet on the way’

21 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Balsas, in Maranhão, hosted the 2nd Regional Meeting of the Comboni Spirituality Groups, also known as GECs. Representatives of the GECs from Piquiá, Timon, São Luís and Balsas took part in the meeting. Father Raimundo Rocha, provincial of the Comboni Missionaries of Brazil, was also present. The meeting took place at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Formation Center on September 16 and 17.

The Comboni Spirituality Groups, or GECs, are groups of lay men and women who identify with the charism and spirituality of St. Daniel Comboni and who, inspired by that same charism, seek to carry out pastoral, social and mission promotion activities and support the Comboni mission.

The two-day meeting in Balsas provided the GECs with moments of spirituality and missionary formation, togetherness and renewal of their missionary commitment. The participants also joined the parishes of Balsas to celebrate the triduum in memory of Bishop Franco Masserdotti, who died 17 years ago.

There are currently 14 Comboni Spirituality Groups throughout Brazil. In Maranhão, the GECs are present in Balsas, Pastos Bons, Timon, São Luís and Piquiá. Each group meets regularly in its territory and together they hold a regional meeting every two years. This time they met in Balsas. The next meeting will be in July 2025, in Piquiá, in the municipality of Açailândia.

We are counting on the prayers of all of you, through the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni.

Raimundo Rocha, mccj Brasil provincial and the regional meeting team

Comboni Family meets in assembly to plan missionary animation

19 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

From September 7 to 9, the Comboni Family in Brazil gathered at the provincial house of the Comboni Missionaries in São Paulo for an assembly on Missionary Animation and Vocation Promotion, attended by sisters, brothers, priests, Comboni Lay Missionaries and representatives of the Comboni Spirituality Groups (CSGs).

This meeting aims to share the work being carried out by each missionary presence and to review the Plan for Vocation Animation and Accompaniment of the Comboni Family drawn up in 2017, as a way of rearticulating joint action in this post-pandemic context.

The meeting included a formative moment led by Bishop Juarez Albino Destro, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Porto Alegre, who shared about Vocation Animation in today’s context, the map of vocations and where to focus energies and actions.

Based on the insights and inspirations from the training, we reread and revised our plan, followed by the planning of activities until 2024.

It was an important moment of building and reflection as a Comboni family, asking for the inspiration of the Spirit of mission and the intercession of Comboni, raising up new vocations for the Church.

We count on everyone’s prayers for missionary vocations.

Flavio, CLM

Missionary experience in the CAR

15 September, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

“Enlarge the space of your tent, extend the ropes, strengthen the stakes.” Is 52:2

I have completed my first month in the Central African Republic (CAR), which is located in the heart of Africa! So I can only share my first impressions!

I’m in the capital, Bangui, to improve my French and learn Sango, as these are the official languages of the country. The whole country has approximately 6 million inhabitants! It is facing serious economic problems, in education, health and especially a lack of work and prospects for young people. It’s a period of reconstruction and peace remains very fragile here.

In the first few days I had the opportunity to travel to Mongoumba, where the International CLM Community is located. It’s 160 km away from the capital and we traveled this stretch in about 6 hours due to the rain and the road conditions.

View of the CLM House in Mongoumba – RCA

It was a great gift to be able to take part in the ordination to the diaconate of Ezra, who made his perpetual vows in the Congregation of the Comboni Missionaries and was ordained as a deacon. It was a beautiful, joyful Mass with an offertory that I will never forget. When the community came in dancing and offering gifts to the newly ordained deacon, everything from a goat to a handful of peanuts or some bananas, it was very meaningful. I think it was my first four-hour Mass and I didn’t even notice the time passing.

We haven’t yet defined what we’re going to do, because the community has just come together with the arrival of Elia. The work of the CLM has been in health, as we are responsible for the Da ti Ndoye Center – House of Love, which is a small rehabilitation center and a dispensary; in the area of education, with the accompaniment and coordination of the parish schools, and in pastoral care and support for the Aká people.

Rehabilitation center and care for the Aka people

Cristina Sousa – Portuguese CLM with the Aká children in Mongoumba/RCA

While in Bangui, I would like to highlight two important experiences among many:

– The visit to the Comboni parish of Our Lady of Fatima, located in a very conflictive area. During the intense period of the war, many people were refugees and some died in a clash, including a diocesan priest. People suffered a lot and the consequences are still present. Today there is a Formation Center in Memory of the Martyrs and there is a lot of training in religious tolerance, non-violent communication, accompanying people with war traumas, … The chapel of Casa Comboni keeps a chalice that was in the sacristy at Fatima and was hit by a bullet.

Another highlight is the testimony of the life and donation of Fr Gianantonio Berti, an Italian who arrived here in 1967. It was a gift from God to spend these days with Father Berti – an 86-year-old MCCJ with 46 years of presence in the Central African Republic. He is a very generous person, whom people love and respect. He communicates very well with the people, knows the language very well and is very close to the people of the region.

Cristina and pe Berti who traveled to Italy,

It hasn’t been easy, at this point in my life, to learn another language, in this case two other languages, and the most important thing would be to learn the third, which is Aka. But I’m very inspired by Cristina Souza – CLM who is here and she manages to connect with people. I’m working hard to improve my communication skills and to be with these people who are so welcoming. Despite the difficulties, I’m very happy to be here.

May we have the grace of the disciples on the way to Emmaus to meet the Risen Lord in the sharing of life and bread! Hearts burning and feet on the road! United in prayer!

CLM Community with Monsignor Jesus – Bishop of M’Baiki – Diocese where we are present.

Cristina Paulek, CLM