Central America – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Memories of Holy Week in Metlatónoc

2 June, 2025 by Alberto de la Portilla

“After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” (Luke 10:1-9 Latin American Bible)

I cannot stop thinking about this biblical quote without remembering what it must have been like when Jesus sent out the 72, and imagining the experiences of those who were sent.

Last April, we, the group of Costa Rican Comboni Lay Missionaries, had the experience of living the Holy Week mission field as preparation for the Mission Ad gentes, in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, specifically in the municipality of Metlatónoc.

This experience undoubtedly left a mark on me culturally, spiritually, and personally, allowing me to appreciate the gift of the call to a vocation of service to others and, at the same time, to understand the essence of missionary life: the challenges faced by our missionaries in each of the countries to which they are sent.

In my case, I was assigned to the community of Valle Hermoso, made up of Mixtec indigenous people, in the company of José David Rojas (CLM) where we participated, accompanied, and lived Holy Week in a very special way, listening, observing, and contributing, always with respect for the community and its culture, our company, and suggestions for the celebrations.

As a health professional (nurse) and addiction therapist, this time I avoided any situation that would prevent me from getting involved in the spiritual and personal experience and I stripped myself of any expectations, to clear my mind and be able to receive, learn, and objectively accompany all these people who came to us many times with their concerns, customs, and culture. This led me to understand that sometimes, just being there and living the way we’ve been called to live speaks for itself.

I must confess that the experience was wonderful, the learning invaluable, and I was overcome with nostalgia when we said goodbye. Without a doubt, I learned that you can be happy with very little, and it also made me wonder if I would be prepared to live in such austere conditions for a long time among them.

I can say that I am still happy with my calling, sometimes with concerns, but also with many dreams. Feeling called and sent at the same time makes me recall the aforementioned quote from the Gospel of Luke and confirm that my vocation is the best gift the Lord has given me.

To the community of Metlatónoc, and to Valle Hermoso, its people, children, youth, and adults, thank you for your welcome.

I also extend my special thanks to our guide in Costa Rica, Brother Jesús Pérez, for his advice, and in a very special way to Fathers Miguel Navarrete and Wojciech Chwaliszewski. May God bless you!

Jorge Zamora, CLM Costa Rica

Mission with the CLM of Mexico in Metlatonoc

28 May, 2025 by Alberto de la Portilla

Missionary experience in Holy Week in Mexico (Tlapa – Metlatónoc), an indigenous people with customs, traditions, with another language (the Misteco), with its doctrine of Catholic Faith, with different rites but with the same God and His praise and glory for our Lord Jesus Christ.

A Mission with great blessing for us and the people of Metlatonoc. Living and sharing with children, teenagers, adults and seniors, seeing the smile, the joy, the happiness in every face of our brothers and sisters. I realize that bringing the Word, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, came to life in the different religious activities carried out: the Procession of the encounter, the Institution of the Eucharist live, with its customs, the surrender of Jesus and the crucifixion of Christ.

Living together in the different communities with all the members, from the children to the adults, was very beautiful; where we evangelized and enjoyed different dynamics, we sang and danced, we colored, we played and danced, we sang with the adults.

This missionary experience is an opportunity to get involved in the lives of others, share the gospel and serve those in need. It is an experience of solidarity where relationships are forged, we collaborate in community solutions and live in an intercultural community, seeking personal transformation and evangelization.

It involves helping, collaborating in solutions and being present in the daily life of the community where the mission takes place. It focuses on announcing the Good News, sharing the faith and making disciples of Jesus through the Word and testimony. The mission is lived in community, sharing the experience and learning together, both from others and from the situation being lived. It can represent a before and an after in the life of the missionary, strengthening faith and generating a positive change.

And I lived it in this way, especially in each activity throughout that week: from the first prayer in the morning, the going out to the houses, the sharing in the meetings with the children, celebrating the Eucharist, until the end of sharing in the evening with my brothers and sisters, no longer so unknown, companions of the community, I began to embrace this “Mission”.

That is where the mission began. That is when I began to try to look a little with the eyes of Christ: every entrance to a house was a reason for joy and gratitude, which I was allowed to feel by listening, by talking, by smiles, by tears of the most precious treasure of Jesus, which is the heart of each one of those faces we met. The meetings with the children were the engine of each day, a moment to forget the worries, the structures, the “big things” to enter into that simple and tender world of playing and laughing regardless of time or place, simply to become like children.

Karol Chacón, CLM Candidate, Costa Rica

A Tico missionary in Sahuayo

4 March, 2025 by Alberto de la Portilla

On January 21 I started a trip that I was looking forward to, in which I began to live an experience of community life and specific formation, and then put myself at the disposition of the mission Ad Gentes, within the experience we have had the opportunity to go to some states to visit and live experiences for individuals, one of these was in Sahuayo.

On Saturday, February 1, we left Xochimilco, Mexico, on our way to Sahuayo, after approximately 7 hours of travel with my sisters of the community and Father Filomeno Ceja, MCCJ, we arrived at the Minor Seminary of the Comboni Missionaries, where we stayed and shared some Spiritual Exercises that were directed by Father Juan de Dios, which ended on Friday with the Holy Eucharist at noon, they were very useful to reaffirm my spirituality and the call to the mission.

That same Friday at 5 pm, other CLM arrived from various parts of Mexico, to participate in the National Retreat, this meeting helped us to integrate as a family, seek and understand our ideals, working with and for the same goal, thanks to the support of the Parish Priest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Sunday we did missionary animation, this in order to raise funds for the mission to be opened in Metlatonoc, Guerrero. During the retreat we lived moments to get to know ourselves, Eucharistic adoration, reflection, sharing and commitment to the mission.

In life, all experiences help us to grow and develop as integral persons, I tell you that personally, what we lived in addition to the retreat, between Friday, Saturday and Sunday surpassed my imagination, because they do tell you, but to live it is something very different.

Here in Mexico within its abundant history, the famous “Cristeros War” is told, where the people were forced to repudiate or rather to deny God, in this city and others died many people killed by the government of Mexico, ordered the closure to the worship of the Catholic Faith, today they are Martyrs in our Church.

In the “Calzada de los Mártires”, where on both sides of the street is full of trees, where they hung people who were discovered professing their faith to die in front of the people, that is one of the forms of martyrdom that received all those soldiers of Christ who bravely decided to give their lives before denying Christ, among the many martyrs that exist is one, very young, but brave, his phrase “it was never so easy, to win heaven…”. José Sánchez del Río or San Joselito as he is affectionately known today, who as a boy of only 14 years old joined the Cristeros to defend the faith, being an assistant to General Gorostieta, carrying the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the Cristeros’ flag. He was captured in the city of Cotija by the government after he was left without a horse because he put it at the service of his General.

He was transferred to the city of Sahuayo where his prison was the Parish of Santiago Apostle, where the military had their barracks, they had it full of animals, in the main altar were the roosters, this made Joselito angry and at night he killed them saying … “The temple is God’s house and no place for these animals” … this was the cause that made advance his execution, infuriating the Captain. The political leader of his town, who was his Godfather of First Communion, was the one who gave the order to kill him, under pressure from the Captain, for not risking his life or public position, proceeding with the tortures from blows, stab wounds, to cutting the skin of the soles of his feet, making him walk about a kilometer, until he reached the cemetery, and in every step he took he shouted loudly “VIVA CRISTO REY Y SANTA MARIA DE GUADALUPE” (LONG LIVE CHRIST THE KING AND SAINT MARY OF GUADALUPE!), this cry I dare say was the motto of all the martyrs who died in that war, and for Joselito was his direct insurance to reach the altars, because in addition to martyr, Pope Francis canonized him on October 16, 2016, and his feast is celebrated every February 10.

For the Sahuayenses it is a reason for joy and celebration, different activities are organized and carried out: “Los Tapetes” from the hill of Cristo Rey to the birthplace of Joselito with much love they make tapetes with artistic designs of painted sawdust that form colorful religious images; “La Molienda” takes place in the Calzada de los Mártires where the pilgrimage that leaves the Cemetery arrives to live the Eucharist in memory of the murdered people, all the neighbors that live in this street organize themselves placing altars presenting scenes of what was lived, as well as typical dishes of the place to give to all those visitors who want to, I was particularly struck by the fact that in that same place, which was once an avenue where a lot of blood was shed, today it has become a symbol of fraternal love, solidarity and mercy; “La Cabalgata” and ‘La Caminata’. The celebration and the remembrance is great, thousands of people come from surrounding towns on horseback or on foot leaving early Saturday from Cotija where Joselito was captured and arriving in Sahuayo where he was martyred, they arrive at the Sanctuary of Joselito, which is currently under construction, but is undoubtedly a place of pilgrimage and devotion, upon arrival they participate in the Eucharist scheduled at 14:00 hours.

May our faith continue to grow and be as firm as that of San Jose Sanchez del Rio, San Joselito de Cariño.

LONG LIVE CHRIST THE KING AND SAINT MARY OF GUADALUPE!

SAINT JOSELITO, pray for us…

José David Rojas Quesada, CLM Costa Rica in Mexico

Community Experience in Mexico

4 February, 2025 by Alberto de la Portilla

“BECAUSE TO SERVE YOU MUST BE PREPARED”.

The final stage in the formation of the American candidates of the “Comboni Lay Missionaries” (CLM) movement has begun, a time of being in tune with themselves and with the other CLM before leaving for the ad-gente mission to give a generous response to the call received to go to the evangelization of the most abandoned peoples, the main reason why we exist as a group.

There are four people who share this experience: Mariana Meléndez Cándido, 36 years old; Rosalinda Olivo Oria, 69 years old; Sandra Luisa Rodríguez Andalón, 64 years old; all Mexican and José David Rojas Quesada, Costa Rican, 43 years old; from a human point of view it is not understandable to leave family, work, friends, customs, knowing that only the ideal of Comboni unites them, with the only objective of being ready for the mission.

Now they are part of the same family where, strengthened by prayer, it makes sense to be together. United, remembering that being children of the same Father makes them brothers, rescued by Jesus Christ who from daily life invites them to be with Him and moved by the Holy Spirit to be sent to the most needy as Daniel Comboni did in his time.

Today this legacy continues as heirs of the Charism, the Comboni Family (MCCJ, HC, SC, LMC).

CLM Mexico

Rejoice, the Lord is coming soon…

19 December, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

December 15, 2024

On this date, the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudette Sunday, Sunday of Joy, International Comboni Lay Missionary Sunday, the readings of this Sunday invite us to rejoice, to be attentive but joyful because the Lord, our savior, is coming soon.

With the same joy in Costa Rica we gathered in the Parish of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, in Barrio Cuba, San Jose, with great enthusiasm, the CLM continue to grow internationally and here is no exception, since our candidate Jorge Arturo Zamora Viquez, a resident of Perez Zeledon, south of the country, took his commitment, becoming the second Comboni Lay Missionary in Costa Rica.

Ignacio Marin, Comboni Missionary, presided at this celebration, and together with the assembly, listened to the reading of the commitment of the now CLM Jorge, also taking the opportunity CLM José David Rojas made his renewal of commitment, then both and together with Father Ignacio proceeded to sign on the altar what was read as a sign of sealing this commitment to God Himself. Let us continue praying so that the owner of the Harvest continues sending workers to his fields willing to give everything to put their service, dedication, love, courage and effort in and for the Mission Ad Gentes.

As signs of commitment, Brother Jesus, Comboni Missionary and advisor of the CLM in Costa Rica for the CLM, gave Jorge a ring as a covenant with God, a cross as a sign of the Christian and a rosary so that prayer will not be lacking in his life. After the Eucharist we went to the Martyrs of Uganda Seminary, in Sagrada Familia, San José, which is the center of our meetings and formations, to share lunch with some friends of the Mission.

In the meantime we continue working, forming ourselves, serving so that when we meet with the poorest and among the poorest, we can spread the same joy that invites us on the third Sunday of Advent, and that our testimony may serve as an example to bring many souls to the foot of the cross of that God of mercy and love.

CLM Costa Rica.