Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Comboni Missionaries

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MCCJ

The Comboni Missionaries are a Catholic missionary institute currently present in over 40 countries across all continents. Their mission is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, particularly to peoples and communities who do not yet know it.

All the missionaries consecrate themselves to God for this mission: There are around 1,500 of them in total. The majority are priests, but a significant number are brothers, who participate fully in the same mission through a wide range of professional skills. Together, they strive to be attentive to the practical needs of the people to whom they are sent, particularly in the areas of human promotion, education, healthcare, communications and integral development.

Hailing from Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia, the Comboni Missionaries work primarily in contexts marked by poverty, marginalisation, injustice and both new and ancient forms of slavery. In these environments, they are committed to building vibrant Christian communities capable of acting as a catalyst for human development and social transformation. Their service is inspired by the hope of contributing to the building of a future in which humanity can live in harmony with Mother Earth, in peace among peoples, recognising their shared dignity as sons and daughters of God.

Founded by St Daniel Comboni in the mid-19th century, with the dream of bringing the Gospel and integral development to the peoples of Africa, the Comboni Missionaries now work on every continent. They are present both where it is necessary to establish new Christian communities and where there is a need to accompany and support young local Churches, still in the process of growth and consolidation.

Against the backdrop of the sharp rise in migration flows in our time, the Comboni Missionaries now carry out a significant part of their mission in the northern hemisphere as well, particularly in the human and social peripheries of major cities. In these settings, they share the Christian faith as a catalyst for fraternity, intercultural dialogue and social friendship among people of different nations, cultures and religions.

The motto that guided St Daniel Comboni, ‘Save Africa with Africa’, continues to deeply inspire the Comboni Missionaries. It translates into a commitment to empowering and emancipating local people and communities, so that they may be protagonists of their own Christian, social and human growth. This missionary style is expressed in a particular way through the formation of local leadership, both within Church communities and in development and social justice projects.

In the heart of every Comboni missionary, the ‘flame’ that Saint Daniel saw emanating from the open heart of Christ on the cross continues to burn; he witnessed this during a special moment of contemplation in St Peter’s Basilica, Rome, on 15 September 1864: it is the love received from the Heart of Christ, the Good Shepherd, which still today drives the missionaries to reach out to the poorest and most abandoned. Wherever they are sent, this flame of love inspires them to enter into respectful dialogue with everyone, to share the faith and to foster paths of fraternity that rekindle hope in a reconciled and peaceful world.

The missionary charism given by God to St. Daniel Comboni is today shared by various groups which, together, make up the Comboni Family. For this reason, whenever possible, the Comboni Missionaries work closely with the Comboni Missionary Sisters, the Secular Missionaries and the Comboni Lay Missionaries. Each group lives out and embodies, according to its own specific vocation, the same missionary spirit that animated the Founder.

The charism of Saint Daniel Comboni is a gift to the whole Church and is open to many forms of participation. Part of the mission of the Comboni communities is also to share this spirit with the Churches of ancient foundation, so that they may renew their missionary zeal and actively collaborate in the proclamation of the Gospel and in concrete acts of solidarity, justice and peace, visible signs of God’s love for all humanity, without distinction.

The Comboni Family

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The Comboni Family is a community of people that originated around the person of a missionary, Saint Daniel Comboni. A man born almost two centuries ago, on 15 March 1831, in a small rural village overlooking Lake Garda, Limone.

It was from Limone sul Garda that Daniel set off to study in Verona, at Don Mazza’s Institute, and to understand, with a foresight that remains undiminished, how a distant continent like Africa needed to undertake a journey that began with itself, with its people, who have long been—and still are—plundered of their natural and human riches.

Daniel, therefore, called for a mission and a Church capable of uniting forces to save themselves through the salvation of Africa, its peoples, and thus of the Church itself. The same yearning that drives the Comboni Family today.

In that Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, which Comboni, through a charismatic intuition, began to dream of at the foot of Saint Peter’s tomb on 15 September 1864, a different world is envisaged, encapsulated in a motto: “Save Africa with Africa“. A motto that dreams of making people the protagonists of their present and future, starting from the daily realities in which they live, from the ancient and modern forms of slavery imposed upon them by an increasingly greedy and harsh Western wealth.

Comboni knew that the first instrument for salvation was knowledge, and he dedicated himself above all to education—of teachers and craftspeople as well as catechists, nuns, and priests—so that each person, within their own community, could find their way of living the Gospel, proximity, and sharing.

Thus the embryo of a missionary movement was born that brought together religious and lay people, men and women, local and foreign, capable of sharing needs and interests in the complementarity of an objective based on the awareness that each person is saved if all are saved, that each person can be what they are if others have the same possibility.

A vision of humanity that was not confined to the African continent but extended its reach across the whole of Europe, which needed to know that then-distant land and contribute to its salvation. Understanding the importance not only of education but also of information, Comboni conceived of a magazine: “The Annals of the Good Shepherd“.

Daniel’s era was a distant one—an era of the slave trade, of great discrimination based on colour and religious differences. For this reason, Comboni understood the need to unite the worlds of knowledge of his time: the civil, cultural, and political worlds, all striving towards a common cause. His dream transcended time; his dream remains relevant, not only because his words came true—”I shall die, but my work will not die“—but because even today we live in a time of slavery and supremacist thinking.

Daniel’s work saw the birth of the religious institutes of the Comboni Sisters and Missionaries, and more recently the Comboni Secular Missionaries and the Comboni Lay Missionaries. Thus, the yearning “If I had a thousand lives, I would give them all for the mission” has continued to unfold over time, in the lives of those who have chosen to continue the Plan, to translate it into the journey of a family, the Comboni Family.

Men and women capable of broadening the geographical horizons of that dream, opening their hearts to serve the poorest and most abandoned, as Comboni said, present in Africa, Europe, America and Asia; in those frontier places, on the peripheries of a global world that is expressed as a common home, the home that the Comboni Family inhabits in every place where it lives its daily life.

We present you, therefore, our Family, a Family that follows in the footsteps of Saint Daniel Comboni, hoping that you will wish to be involved in a group of people that goes beyond physically being in the same place doing the same things, which means mutual sharing and welcoming the richness that lies in each person’s uniqueness, where the distinctiveness of another becomes a gift that helps one better understand one’s own identity…

Be courageous! Get up!

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CLM Germany

Joint weekend of the CLM with Fathers Günther and Hubert to prepare for the National Catholic Meeting in Würzburg

From February 27 to March 1, at the Comboni Missionaries’ house in Nuremberg, we worked on the theme of the National Catholic Meeting, “BE COURAGEOUS! GET UP!”

On Friday and Saturday, we focused on the concrete preparation in terms of organization and content for the Comboni Family pavilion. We received statements from friends of the Comboni Family worldwide on the question: What gives me the strength to get up (always)? These should be visible at the stand, as well as the spirituality, commitment, and projects of the Comboni Family. The doll “Danielle,” handmade by Brigitte, should encourage passersby to reflect on what gives them the strength to get up—perhaps in this way we can make contact with them.

For families with small children, a small booklet was created with suggestions on how the family can follow the path of Jesus.

It was a weekend of constructive and creative work. We are looking forward to the days in Würzburg and hope for fruitful encounters.

At the final Eucharistic celebration on Sunday, we exchanged detailed ideas about the biblical passage from the Gospel of Mark (Mk 10:46-52) that is behind the theme.

Perhaps we will see each other in Nuremberg?

CLM, Germany

Walking in covenant with God

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Retiro LMC Portugal

This year, the CLM Lenten Retreat gave me the opportunity to visit and deepen God’s Covenant with me and with us.

With His Grace, I was able to remember more or less obvious truths and discover other more subtle, but also more revealing ones.

What is the extent of this Covenant?

To begin with, God reminded me that His Covenant is eternal.

But He also revealed to me that this eternity is not limited to “my eternity,” but extends to all who dwell in “my house” (cf. Gen 17:7), that is, all the people whose lives intersect with mine in some way, especially those closest to me.

Lord, I walk through my life in the palm of Your hands, distracted, entertained by what distances me from You, forgetting the Eternal Covenant that You made and always make with me and with my loved ones.

How blind I am!

How is it possible not to see You clearly in every encounter with others, especially those closest to me?

In every encounter I have, my heart should rejoice: “Courage! Let’s go to Heaven together!”

As St. Edith Stein said (more or less): “Lord, You never cease to take me out of the nothingness that I am, to bring my whole ‘house’ to You who are Everything!”

What a joy that You want me whole, with everyone who is part of my history, everyone, everyone, everyone, no matter how fleeting their passage through my life may have been!

And what a joy to know that You also find and desire me, through my presence (however fleeting it may be) in the lives of so many with whom You also establish Your Eternal Covenant!

What is our part in this Covenant?

God said:

– Hear, O Israel! (Cf. Deut. 6:4)

– Hear, O Adam! (Cf. Gen. 3:9)

– Where are you?

– Come out from among the trees of the garden where you hide from My loving Voice.

Behold, I have made a tunic (cf. Gn 3:22) to protect your heart from the cold that your estrangement generates in you (and in Me).

Behold, I have dressed you and imposed it on you, because I love you and do not want to lose you.

This tunic is My Law, it is the SHEMÁ (Dt 6:4-11).

Use all your heart, all your soul, all your strength to keep it.

This is My Covenant. If you walk in it, you and your household will be happy!

What guarantees do we have that the Covenant will not be broken?

The simple fact that God declared to Noah the eternity of His Covenant with us would be more than enough.

But God has reiterated this reality countless times throughout the history of salvation, despite humanity’s successive infidelities.

As if that were not enough, in the fullness of time, He gave His own Son to pay our ransom.

Jesus was nailed to the Cross, with no chance of escape or withdrawal. God gave everything for me, for my loved ones, for all of us!

The Eternal Covenant of immeasurable and infinite Love is only a yes away.

May God, through the intercession of Mary, all of Heaven, and our brothers and sisters on earth, help us to let down our guards and accept His plans for eternal and happy life!

I sincerely thank our sister, Sr. Fátima Frade, for all her work in preparing the retreat.

I also thank the Teresian Sisters for their kindness and hospitality in welcoming us once again to their home in Fátima.

I wish everyone a Holy Lent as we journey towards the Lord’s Easter.

Pedro Moreira, CLM Portugal

Here is the link to how it appeared on the Portuguese blog:

https://leigosmissionarioscombonianos.blogs.sapo.pt/caminhando-na-alianca-com-deus-179331?tc=221931442240