Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Sending celebration for Linda, destination: Kenya!

by
LMC Linda

On Saturday, the 23rd October, during the Mission Sunday Vigil prayer in the Cathedral of Bologna, Linda officially received the blessing and mandate as a Lay Comboni Missionary in Kenya from the Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna Matteo Zuppi, the director of the Diocesan Missionary Centre fr. Francesco Ondedei and the whole diocese of Bologna. With her, Katia, a missionary of the Immaculate-Father Kolbe, also received her mandate for Brasil.

With Linda and Katia, today, “we all receive a mandate”, said the cardinal, thanking them for their brave choice, which “encourages us, in turn, to take action, showing us that indeed it is possible, that we all can give our lives so that the Gospel may reach all corners of the earth, with no boundaries”.

It was a very intense moment, not only for Linda but for the whole group of Bologna, which has accompanied her during these months of preparation and discernment. Significantly, our friends the missionaries of Villaregia, the community where Linda lived for a few months this year, were also present and took an active part in organising the same Vigil Prayer. And the words of the cardinal well reflected our own feelings and visions, as he continued: “Mission is all about being concerned not with my own sake, but OUR sake, caring for others, even those I haven’t met yet (…) Mission starts when, full of His Love, I can feel the scandal of too much suffering and injustice, and I testify Jesus’s love by living it myself and talking about Him.”

And also: “At the heart of every missionary’s life is brotherhood”… the exact opposite of what we experience in our daily life: individualism, everybody thinking only for ourselves and their own needs and fears… However, continued Zuppi, “if we are waiting to find all the necessary reassurances, the most right, undeniable truths, the tools to understand ourselves and to understand each other, these will never be enough”…

The cardinal reminded us that our mission does not begin only after we have found all the answers, but when Jesus’s Love, which we have seen and experienced, does not let us remain silent or quiet in the face of all the suffering and injustice we see!

Linda, too, in front of the assembly, explained in a few words what motivated her to make her choice to become a Lay Comboni Missionary, in spite of the fears that often hindered her path towards discovering her missionary vocation. She recalled some significant moments in her journey of discernment, like when, in the capital of Sudan, Khartoum – where she was working as an English teacher – in her free time she used to give literacy lessons to a group of young refugees from South Sudan, as a volunteer in a parish that was run by the Comboni fathers. Seeing these adult students slowly becoming able to read and write, and getting better jobs as a result, was a source of great joy and satisfaction.

Through Linda’s words and enthusiasm, we could almost feel that very joy that she said she experienced when she came to realise, at some point, how immense Jesus’s love for her was. And this joy was so extreme and overwhelming that it slowly melted all fears and finally gave her the courage to decide that she wanted to donate all her time and serve the Lord totally. This, and the strength she finds in the Lay Comboni Missionaries as well as the whole diocesan community, through the mandate she was given today, is what will keep motivating her in this vocation.

As we rejoice for Linda’s decision to leave her home and family for a greater good, we hope that, through her, new common projects may develop, projects that may unite our community in Bologna and her community in Kenya, building new bridges of hope.

In the words of Saint Daniel Comboni: “Courage for the present, and especially for the future!”

CLM Bologna

Celebrating World Mission Sunday with new CLM candidates

by
Domund

During the weekend of the World Mission Sunday we were fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with some people who have approached the CLM group in Spain to get to know each other and to make a vocational discernment.

It is always a good opportunity to share our vocation and, to the extent of our possibilities, to serve as a help in the vocational journey of new missionaries.

We believe that in this time of Pandemic many things stopped, but not so the Spirit that is always present and does not rest. If the Lord continues calling new workers to his harvest, we want to be open to accompany this journey in the measure of our possibilities.

Last year we had several online meetings with the group but finally this year, and given that the levels of contagion of the pandemic have decreased, we were encouraged to hold a face-to-face meeting where we could all meet. Always maintaining the necessary prevention measures in these times.

It was a nice weekend where we moved from all parts of the country to share our time, to share what has brought us and to start walking together.

At the beginning of the year it seems important to us to establish the proposed path, the calendar of meetings and the themes we offer. We know that it is an effort for everyone to travel, to prepare the topics, to free the different weekends of the meetings to be able to participate, but we believe that it must be a serious path. It requires an effort on the part of all, but if the Lord calls us, our response must also be serious and committed.

The weekend is dedicated to getting to know ourselves better, to begin to work on our life line, our life history with the Lord and the events that have brought us to this particular moment in our lives. Also to understand our relationship with God, for that is what discerning a vocation is all about.

We hope to have established the basis of the path to follow. This path will be made with face-to-face and online meetings, but also with the personalized accompaniment of each candidate and the possibility of participating in local meetings as well as in national meetings with the rest of the CLM in Spain.

As it was on the day of the World Mission Sunday, we could not but share our joy with the parish of St. Angela de la Cruz in Madrid that hosted us for this event. We were able to help animate the celebration, bringing something of our life in Africa and Latin America, bringing closer the reality of some of these countries and our life experiences.

We prepared the celebration between candidates and CLM together with the choir (who gave us a nice surprise gift) and the catechists of the parish. I think it was a nice and participative moment where the children as well as the rest of the community could approach in a different way to this World Mission Sunday.

We continue to pray that the Lord will continue to call new missionaries and that we will know how to accompany them in their vocational journey.

There is still a great need for missionaries, so we encourage anyone who feels this call to approach one of our groups and make a vocational journey. Let us know how to say Yes like Mary.

Greetings to all of you.

Alberto, CLM Spain

A Call to Christian Commitment in Politics and Economics

by
P Pierli y Hna Teresita

We share with you an inspiring letter for Christian commitment in politics and economics shared with us by Father Francisco Pierli and Sister Teresita Cortés.

P Pierli y Hna Teresita

Very dear friends and Colleagues,

Thanks to God, that after a long spell of silence we are now in position of joyfully communicating with you from a beautiful part of Italy where we Combonis have an institution for the recovery of sickly and elderly confreres. It is the so-called “Centro Alfredo Fiorini” dedicated to a Comboni Brother who was murdered in Mozambique during a Social Mission.

We are writing this letter to underline that our communion continues and hopefully will increase since the health of Fr Pierli is improving.

We took the opportunity to visit the House and the Museum of the great Italian Politician Alcide De Gasperi. In eight successive coalition governments he served as Prime Minister and he was always clearly inspired by the Catholic Social Teaching. He was one of the Founders of the European Union together with Konrad Adenauer from Germany and Robert Schuman from France. We did that visit to the House and Museum of Alcides De Gasperi as a pilgrimage. We are interested in the above mentioned Politicians because all of them and especially De Gasperi, were ready to invest themselves to the utmost to transform the Civil Society according to the Gospel values. They were Statesmen, with a vision of the future, totally committed to regeneration – rebuilding, after the Second World War, of their own respective countries socially and economically and to unite them into a federation as a seed of a greater United Europe. De Gasperi’s Cause of Beatification has been already started. “A Politician looks at the next election, but a Statesman looks at the next generation”. (Alcide De Gasperi).

They inspire us with their commitment, to re-interpret our Christian faith in Politics and Economics: in Parliament, in the State House and in Social life. In spite of the difficulties they met, they managed to penetrate the world of politics and in the field of economics with the Christian values elaborated in the Documents of the Social Teaching of the Church.

May their example and intercession help all of you Kenyan and African Politicians to be at the service of your people, actually people God has entrusted to you, for the liberation of the plague of the society, and for the construction of unity and communion at National and Continental level.

Fraternal greetings and best wishes! With our prayers for you,

Fr Francesco Pierli MCCCJ – Sr, Teresita Cortés Aguirre CMS

Sent to Mozambique to share Christ

by
Bartek

In the chapel of St. John Paul II in Krakow LMC Bartłomiej Tumiłowicz was officially sent on a mission to Africa.

Bartek

Bartłomiej Tumiłowicz took up the challenge of being a lay missionary on the continent, from where “the spring of the Church will come”, as the patron of his parish, St. Pope John Paul II, said.

In his homily, bishop Robert Chrząszcz referred to the Gospel passage about the Apostles wanting to sit next to the Savior in His kingdom (Mark 10,35-45), noting that in order to get there, one must first put on the robe of humility during earthly life: – Do these words really turn the world upside down? Actually, it is not. It’s just getting it back in order. Jesus often broke established patterns of thought in order to introduce the order of the Gospel, which was the guarantee of true happiness. He wants to free us from the desires that enslave us. Today He wants to convince each of us that our greatness is not about domination and possession.

The hierarch indicated, for example, the patron of the parish, who with love undertook the great responsibility that was upon him: – “Whoever would become great among you, let him be your servant.” The patron of our parish community, St. John Paul II the Great. And we know that his greatness was not that he was pope, but he was great because he had an attitude of service. He wanted to serve man in the position where God had put him. Because the attitude of the service does not mean hiding in the shadows, not taking up positions or running away from activity. There is also no need to change work to a more servant one.

Bartek

The clergyman emphasized that this humility helps us achieve great things. Referring to the task undertaken by the lay missionary, he remarked: – We know and believe that Bartlomiej is not going there to reign in order to suddenly be able to call himself a great missionary, or to consider himself important because “I will be a missionary”. He is going there to serve. Therefore, this mission is great, very important. The more we have this will to serve, to give ourselves to others in our hearts, the greater we become in God’s eyes.

The bishop said about the goals that the missionary has before him: – That is why today we remember St. John Paul II the Great and those other great saints who, through their service and their gift, showed greatness in simplicity and love for God. Today we also pray for Bartlomiej that good God will accompany him, that he will understand well this spirit of service, which will be very necessary for him there in his missionary work. That he could open the hearts of other people to Christ. But starting to open his own heart.

Bartek

CLM from Poland