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.
On July 23, 2023 we celebrated the sending of the Comboni Lay Missionary Cristina Paulek, in the community of Nossa Senhora Aparecida, in the Ipê Amarelo neighborhood, a Comboni parish in Contagem / Minas Gerais, where she was currently on mission.
It was an emotional moment of great joy and several reunions of the CLM family of Brazil.
Cristina is leaving for the Central African Republic after several years of missionary dedication in Brazilian lands. She began her work in 1998 in formation and then dedicated herself to the indigenous cause in Rondônia; since then she has developed various missionary works in the Association of Comboni Lay Missionaries, including as general coordinator and accompaniment of people in preparation to be CLM and to leave. Most of that time was spent in the Community of Ipê Amarelo, which now sends her on mission to other frontiers.
Present at this sending-off celebration were: Alejo Ramirez and his wife Terezinha Ramirez, Vanessa and Feliciano with their daughter Valentina, Adriana and Marcelo with their children Bernardo and Esther, Liliana and Flávio with their daughter Maria and also the founder of the Comboni Lay Missionaries in Brazil, Valdeci Ferreira, who on the occasion declared that he was surprised by Cristina’s decision, a joyful surprise. He also said that the dream of Africa has always been the missionary dream of the CLM project and that he thanks God for the gift of Cristina’s life and asks the whole community to be united with her in prayers.
After the Mass, we had a very special moment of farewell to Cristina, together with the community and all the lay people present at a lunch at the mission house, a moment of great joy and satisfaction. The lay couple Adriana and Marcelo declare that: “this was a very exciting moment that strengthens the bonds of the mission and gives a missionary sense to the life we live day by day, in our work in our base community, together with the education of our children Bernardo and Esther”.
The current coordinator of the laity in Brazil, Flávio Schmidt, who traveled 4 days from Maranhão to Ipê Amarelo with his family, highlights: “it is a moment of great joy for our group and for the movement as a whole. Cristina has already done a lot for the mission and now continues her missionary service in the lands of the heart of St. Daniel Comboni, together with the Comboni family present there. It is also inspiring that this sending out takes place on the day when the martyrdom of Fr. Ezequiel Ramín in Brazilian lands is remembered. Let us pray for her and for all the people who dedicate their lives to the construction of the Kingdom”.
We thank God for the gift of Cristina Paulek’s life and ask Him for His blessings so that this new missionary time in the heart of Africa may be a fruitful time of peace, joy and, above all, enthusiastic dissemination of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
On 22 May, the Forum of the Integral Ecology of the Comboni Family in America was held online on the theme “Towards a missionary ecological conversion”. More than 75 Comboni missionaries (brothers, priests, sisters and lay people) shared, for four hours, their pastoral activities in this field of integral ecology as part of the missionary call.
It was a day of sensitization and exchange of work, challenges, proposals and strategies to raise awareness of the planetary emergency and urgency of serious environmental degradation, as well as the great inequalities that affect the whole of humanity.
Encouraged by the Pact for the Common House made during the Synod of the Amazon 2019, the Comboni Family promotes the Comboni Pact for the Common House Común, which Father Dario Bossi (Comboni Missionary participant in the Amazon Synod) puts in context in this article. This pact invites us as missionaries to cultivate two complementary dimensions: reflection (study, prayer…) and concrete attitudes and gestures, and received a strong impetus during the Comboni Social Forum in Belém (Brazil) in 2022, which highlighted the resistance of indigenous people, women and youth to the harassment of the Common House in various forms.
During the meeting, Fr. Juan Armando Goicochea Calderón presented the work of the Laudato Si’ Center of Lima, as a center for formation, research and projects. A School of Formation in Integral Ecology is being organized for Comboni and diocesan pastoral workers. The publication of the book “This earth is in your hands” was an excellent initiative that has helped a lot, especially in the formation of young people. Two other sustainable production projects are underway: beekeeping (which protects biodiversity from industrial monoculture) and the export of organic coffee to Europe.
Mrs. Odile presented the Laudato Si’ Missionary Center of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which seeks to internalize the approaches of Laudato Si’ and to share initiatives to promote the Care of the Common Home. Among its activities are the annual meetings, which involve an exchange between civil institutions and the administration. Its members were present at the X Fospa (Pan-Amazonian Social Forum). In Brazil. Odile emphasized that this center is an opportunity to question the ecclesial pastoral and promote joint work between laity and religious, promoting critical ecological citizenship in defense of the common home. The Center is responsible for disseminating the contents of the encyclical in simple language, and for bringing ecological education to public and private educational centers.
Flávio Schmidt, a Brazilian Comboni layman who has worked in recent years in Piquiá de Baixo (Maranhão) together with the Spanish layman Xoan Carlos Sánchez, participated in the organizing committee of this event. This community of Piquiá continues to suffer from mining contamination and is a symbol of resistance and defense of the Common Home and Human Rights. . CLM Spain
It is with the words of the beginning of this song that I share the joyful news that the formation of the future CLM in Carapira, Northern Mozambique is happening within our possibilities and according to God’s will.
We asked and the Lord answered us, he sent us new workers for his harvest. It is up to us to do our part, to prepare them in the best way possible to take on the missionary work among the people, the mission of Jesus left to us and so well done by our founder Daniel Comboni. For it is God himself who says, “do your part and I will help you.”
Centered in Jesus Christ, following the Comboni charism, the example left by our founder, we LMC of Carapira have accompanied four young people who have felt the call to be lay missionaries and faithfully arrive every month for studies, reflections and sharing since last year (2022).
The long distance traveled on foot (3 to 4 hours, most of the time without drinking or eating anything), did not become an impediment to their participation. Moved by the strength of God’s Spirit and the desire to announce the Good News, they are faithful to the commitment of their preparation for missionary work. For me, this is nourishment on the journey.
Our meetings take place monthly, beginning at eight o’clock in the morning on Saturday and ending with lunch on Sunday.
The way they dedicate themselves, the effort they make to learn, the enthusiasm of each one at each meeting, seeing them overcome challenges that are not few is the best reward I receive.
In fact, working with the Macua people is a reason to thank God every day for his mercy and kindness in providing me with so much growth, maturity, and experience of faith.
From Carapira, a strong missionary hug to all and lots of axé.
A new video has been published where we can follow the current reality of the community of Piquiá de Baixo accompanied by our CLM in Brazil.
In it they show you how the exposure to pollution, gases and cement dust from the companies continues to make the inhabitants of the community sick.
The video is in Portuguese, but you can activate the subtitles and set the automatic translation to follow the news.
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