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.
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
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.
“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.
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
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