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.
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.
We count on the prayers of all!
Adriana Moutinho, CLM Brazil
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