Comboni Lay Missionaries

Seminar “Trafficking in Persons and Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

LMC Guatemala

Guatemala City, Guatemala, August 18-20, 2023

The Comboni Lay Missionaries of Guatemala this year are committed to Formation and Awareness in our commitments for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation. We are beginning this journey trusting in Our Lord Jesus Christ under the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni and Our Mother the Virgin Mary to enlighten us to be able to see, hear and feel the cry of the Living Christ in the streets, in the peripheries, at the borders, in the bus terminals, in the shelters, in our communities and in all those places where there is always a cry for help.

We share with you the Final Message of the Seminar on Human Trafficking and Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean “I have seen the oppression of my people, I have looked upon their suffering and I have come down to deliver them” (Ex 3:7-8). (Ex 3:7-8)”

Miriam Herrador, CLM Guatemala

6 years of Chispuditos

Lmc Guatemala

With God’s blessing, lots of joy, good cheer, smiles and anticipation, the CLM were contributing ideas, activities and snack suggestions to celebrate the children of Aldea La Salvadora I and II the anniversary…

VI ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHISPUDITOS PROGRAM.

On JUNE 3rd, the anniversary date, with a pleasantly sunny morning and with the attendance of the 50 children that month after month are given preventive monitoring for child malnutrition, we prepared a delicious and fresh fruit salad, which children and parents enjoyed together with a bread with chicken filling and a very cold and refreshing horchata.

There were fun games of rounds, songs and races around chairs; mimes and even races of moms with their babies, presenting each one with an attractive pastel-colored plastic cup. It was such a fun and entertaining atmosphere that children and adults alike had a morning of celebration and fun.

Of course, the grand finale of this celebration was the presentation of a fairy tale play, in which the CLM put all their soul and energy in their performance, leaving all the spectators surprised and amazed, it was the fable of Leo and the mouse. Curiously, several children did not know the fable and we were very impressed by the way in which adults and children were completely introduced in the story.

It was a very enjoyable moment, a moment in which we celebrated life and that, in the midst of suffering, there is light and hope for these villages.

Our deep desire as a community is to grow with this program, so that the word of God can reach more families and comfort them in their sorrows, so that more children can have the opportunity to improve their health and so that mothers can have the necessary tools for their children to grow with greater opportunity.

Sara Ramírez

Small stories, shared experiences

Guatemala LMC

It is a new year that has already reached its halfway point, with many hopes we begin with joy this new stage in the CLM, trying that all of us in the community participate with our abilities and willing to learn more every day.

In the eagerness to simply share our experiences as a community, some of us have taken the time to share our joys, meditations and experiences about BEING CLM.

“On Sunday, the monthly CLM gathering was held at Casa Comboni in the small hall. Not all the Laity were present for different reasons. There were changes in the calendar for this month. The missionary animation was moved to May 28 and on April 30 we will arrive to make improvements in the Chispuditos program. The Mena couple had the task of making the altar and explained to us the meaning of what they placed.

In the formation we took the CLM group autonomy form, a very good reflection that led us to make decisions as a community. It was also said that each of us look for a donor for the mission, fight for the projects to buy a vehicle and build a mission house, also talk to the parish priest where we live to make more missionary animations.”

Mercedes

“On Thursday when I went to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, I met a friend and I told him about the mission, about everything we were doing, about the Chispuditos program. He got excited and said it was a pity that he had already committed himself to a church group.

Another day a lady came to have an injection and we started to talk. She told me that she did not pray the rosary, but one day when she came with me I told her that I prayed it every day and made my petitions. That day she decided to pray it every day and that she thanked God for all the advice I gave her.

One day when I was coming back from church I met an old neighbor and she was very happy to see me, she hugged me and hugged me saying that she missed me, because just seeing me walking down the street she felt that I transmitted tranquility or security, she did not know how to explain it.”

Mirta

We share from the simplicity of heart and let you know that we are walking, getting to know each other more as a community, meeting our neighbors and placing ourselves at their service.

May God bless the mission, the CLM and may St. Daniel Comboni intercede for each one of us.

CLM Guatemala

A collaboration from fraternal LOVE…

LMC Costa Rica

Hello! I am Sylvia Durán Jovel from Costa Rica and I took the decision and my desire to be a Comboni Lay Missionary after listening to one of the most beautiful testimonies on Radio Maria, a Catholic non-profit radio station where I am also a volunteer and where I have witnessed many acts of love, faith, perseverance in prayer in every sense, but especially with the prayer of the missionary rosary from its oracles.

Being part of the formation to be CLM involves gathering on the second and fourth Sundays of each month at the seminary located in Sagrada Familia, a marginal urban neighborhood where the parish priest is Father Fabio Loaísiga, who by the way is also the director of Radio Maria.

On June 25 we would have our meeting which coincided with the retreat “A New Pentecost”, organized by the radio in the Curridabat area with a priest who came with his ministry Dei Verbum from El Salvador and a proposal full of love to praise our Lord that would definitely burn more hearts for the love of GOD as Comboni is passionate about and it is really his exquisite madness. My mind and heart were struggling between which of the two activities to attend, and well one is that an activity to know the deep love that God has for us and the other is a commitment with the LOVE of COMBONI to change hearts mainly in Africa, but we also have a small Africa where we are and where we go. God makes everything perfect, our CLM formation meeting was cancelled and it opens the opportunity for the 2 CLM aspirants and our leader to attend together for the first time as a CLM group to support this extraordinary retreat MISSIONARY opportunity during our formation. Giving that small but great bit of sand filled my heart with joy, and I did not care about my spleen pain (which still bothers me writing these lines), I was happy. In this retreat where almost 2000 hearts attended and we also saw how the LOVE FOR MISSIONARITY gave us the opportunity to see and be the missionary who seeks to know Christ and his faith more and more each day.

To have responded urgently to the call for help from the brothers and sisters of Radio Maria and to be a testimony of the joy that convinces and increases it in our own life for knowing Christ in that place. We arrived in Curridabat ready to serve, each one in different activities, and little by little we saw the transformation of moments, having put our gifts at the service. Little by little the activity progressed and the time of the Holy Eucharist was approaching where, to our pleasant surprise, the Comboni Priest Guerlain Joachim Biseka (a native of Congo and who works hard in the Comboni Parish of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal located in Barrio Cuba, another urban slum and for whom I pray a lot and for whom I have special admiration and affection), had also been called to give support in confessions. And how could I not jump with happiness because COMBONI wanted us to be where we were most needed, with our gifts and charisms, and also where we could confirm and reaffirm our vocation and love for Him and also shout it with crazy love. It was a time of grace in my life and even more so knowing that Comboni knew that women were the key to carry out the mission by creating the first women’s missionary institute in Italy. Thank you Comboni.

Sylvia Durán Jovel, candidate of Costa Rica

Speak, for your servant listens…

LMC Costa Rica

Last June 16 we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a very special day for all of us Catholics, and for the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, also from now on for this humble servant, who, with a heart full of great joy, under the protection of the Virgin Mary of Nazareth and the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni, makes his Commitment as a Comboni Lay Missionary.

It has been a dream since this whole journey began, knowing that it is a commitment with much meaning, being the first Lay Committed under the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni in Costa Rica, knowing all that this represents in all aspects, but with great joy and hope knowing that God will not abandon me and always ready to listen to the voice of our Lord.

It was a very special day, to be able to celebrate this feast together with the whole Comboni Family, Priests, Brothers, Sisters and Seculars, also part of my family, my father, brother, aunts, some friends including 5 people who are making their first contacts to make the decision to join the CLM, let us pray to God that they can sharpen their hearing and listen to the voice of God, to realize what he wants for their lives too, full of signs that will help me always keep in mind this step, the covenant with God, the cross; As St. Daniel Comboni would say, “The works of God are born and grow at the foot of the cross”, the Rosary to keep in mind my prayer.

In this same Eucharist we were accompanied by 12 sisters and brothers who took their commitment as Coordinators of the Comboni Cenacles, who also begin to be part of the Comboni Family in Costa Rica.

In total we were more than 50 people who celebrated this Solemnity in the Comboni Seminary Martyrs of Uganda, as a family and we were witnesses of the mercy of God, personally with much joy and hope to respond as the Creator wants and putting myself at the disposal of the entire Comboni Family for wherever it is necessary and to be able to serve.

I thank God for taking notice of this servant, who, although he is very full of weaknesses, knows that Mother Mary, St. Daniel Comboni and the prayers of all, will struggle to bring the word of God in the best way to wherever God wants it.

Jose David, CLM Costa Rica