Europe – Page 4 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Testimonial: Kitelakapel village experience July-August 2024

25 September, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

During my three weeks in the village of Kitelakapel, I had an experience that deeply enriched and changed me. From day one, I was welcomed with warmth and joy by the Comboni Lay Missionaries-Linda, Pius and Maya-and by the villagers. Each day was an opportunity to learn, share and grow with them.

We spent much of our time visiting local schools and working side by side with the village children and youth in the compound. Despite the lack of material resources, there was an incredible human richness: all it took was a look, a smile, a hug or a laugh to feel immediately at home. The simplicity of their lives taught me to appreciate the little things and to rediscover the value of essentiality.

What impressed me most was to see how the children and young people enjoyed themselves with so little. Every game, every moment together was precious, because what really mattered was being there for each other. Their joy and gratitude was a constant reminder of how much we often take for granted in our lives.

If you want to go first, run alone; if you want to go far, walk together-this is a Kenyan proverb that I got to hear and learn during my stay, and now that I have returned to my daily routine, I can say that this proverb has universal value. In our modern lives, which are often geared toward individual success, we forget the importance of walking together with others. Whether in personal life, work, or community, walking together leads not only to a greater sense of belonging, but also teaches us the humility and strength that comes from being part of something bigger than ourselves. In the village, I experienced what it means to be community: the important thing is not to focus only on the speed of our journey, but on the quality and depth of our relationships along the way. It is a reminder that in order to build something meaningful and lasting, it is essential to walk together, step by step.

I am grateful to God for allowing me to have this extraordinary experience. It has filled my heart and soul with rejuvenating emotions, and it has shown me how much you can receive even when you think you are going there to give. Give what you don’t have,” wrote Alessandro Manzoni back in the 1800s, ”the secret of happiness is precisely this: giving goes beyond the simple act of giving something material, it is an invitation to offer others what, on the surface, we might lack ourselves, but which can be generated and shared through our being and our spirit.

I will always carry with me the faces, smiles and stories of these wonderful people who taught me the true meaning of sharing and Love for self, others and God.

Elisabetta

A love that impels us to know and know how to love

16 September, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

We are here again to give you news and to share, with you, this last time. In these months we unfortunately struggle to respond to all your messages (there are so many of them), due to unplanned vicissitudes, but this is all part of being on mission and living it to the fullest, until the last moment of each day.

Last time, we told you about the sorrow of saying goodbye to Father Jaider, the Comboni parish priest, who left urgently for his homeland due to repeated illnesses.

But well behold, on the same day exactly one month after his departure (again on the 5th but in July), the community of Comboni Fathers, was hit again by terrible news. While waiting to welcome a Combonian brother back from vacation in his homeland, the news of his death reached us overnight on the same day he was supposed to join us.

To date, the Combonian community consists of only one father and one theology student. These have been difficult, intense months, full of obstacles, but even in this time, God’s infinite mercy and goodness has never ceased to work wonders and to give us the strength to face this time and to continue to look to an ever higher horizon together with these brothers and sisters of ours. Indeed, in this very time of fatigue, of fragility, the Lord has united us even more as a community with the fathers, as the Combonian family, and we have never failed to feel, that the Lord was leading us. It is precisely in fragility, that the Lord likes to work, if we always leave everything in His hands and rely on His Grace. As a wise woman who walks with us says, “build with those who want to build and always go forward in the joy that comes from the Lord”; these are indeed true words, because the more we leave everything in the Lord’s hands, the more He builds.

In these our first six Mozambican months, there has been no shortage of hardships and obstacles, and in some cases they have not been easy to overcome, especially those derived from the people closest to us, but really only with the Lord’s help, with your being there, with your making yourselves heard and with the help of the people, have we always managed to keep alive in our hearts, the joy, the peace and the hope, to continue to embrace this wonderful land, rich in beauty but at the same time with many contradictions.

Every day the Macua people teach us and give us the joy of sharing our lives with them. During this time, we have also experienced unexpected, enriching moments, such as the visit of the general council of the Comboni sisters and at the beginning of August, also that by the fathers of the Comboni general councils. How much Grace received, unexpected and rich with some more horizons….

Inside our hearts, bigger dreams are opening up with wider horizons that start from listening to the reality in which we are inserted; all this we know for sure that with our forces alone, we will not be able to achieve it.

In this time, we have tried to always stay one step behind to observe and try to understand what the main needs are for real in this land and to really make them protagonists of their history and their land. Here for us mission is this: to create real, authentic relationships, to create bridges, to create network.

We are overjoyed despite some difficulties and some malaria that hits us (both of us are down to 2), but the joy, hope, passion and love we feel for this land is a drive that moves us every day to keep sowing and building. We also continue to thank each and every one of you, because your presence, closeness and help are fuel to continue to hope and grow, to be able to build a better future together with these people and to feel that we are all together pilgrims of hope in a better world, where every man has the right to live a dignified life.

We all are mission and we with all of you, feel like family.

A hug from the bottom of our hearts. We continue to pray for all of you and you too, continue to pray for us

With love, deep appreciation and gratitude – Ila and Fede

Prayer Intentions of the Comboni Family September 2024

4 September, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

For the Secular Comboni Missionaries who, from 20th September to 1st October are celebrating their Extraordinary General Assembly for the approval of their reviewed and updated Constitution. May the Holy Spirit accompany them and may St Daniel Comboni intercede for them so that the event may be a sign of renewal and new vitality for their mission in the Church and in the world. Let us pray.

Prayer Intentions of the Comboni Family August 2024

1 August, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

That in a world that is increasingly a “global village” due to the migrations of peoples, our multicultural communities may be examples of understanding, hope and interior richness Let us pray.

Comboni Sisters Assembly single European province

26 July, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

Challenges is a television program that chronicles human and sporting feats accomplished with will and determination. For the bold path taken, an episode could be dedicated to the Comboni Sisters European Province Assembly: the process of transformation and renewal that led to a single European province is a real challenge.

“Enlarging the space of the tent” title of the assembly that defines this historic moment.

Manu and I were invited as representatives of the European LMC. Immediately we were struck by the title, widening the tent is the title we gave last November to a path of accompaniment to a laywoman who had expressed her desire to leave for a long mission and had 5 couples of CLM from Verona involved in the path.

Great harmony right away!

In the new tent, open on the 4 cardinal points, we were comfortable, we felt welcomed and it was an opportunity to stay with many sisters: with some there is a long-standing friendship but with all of them we felt in tune.

We not only listened to the proposed topics with interest but felt touched as a couple and as a CLM group on the way.

We were struck by the attitude and involvement of all participants from the youngest to the most experienced, as if everyone was a key player in this change.

Presentations, remarks, and discussions were animated by a common tension of a community that looks to the future with courage and is not held back by worries about stability and hard-won securities.

“Dare the new together” the initial invitation seemed to us to be taken up and fully put into practice.

The dynamics proposed to gather input from the assembly made the proceedings stimulating and enjoyable and involved everyone present, even those who were connected online.

It was a rich and stimulating journey in terms of content where the presence of all branches of the Comboni Family recalled again the theme, so dear to us, of Unity so alive even in the Assembly.

The methodology of “Conversation in the Spirit” in small groups was very effective in bringing out a phrase-objective-bead, embodied in the assembly journey lived so far but fruit of the Spirit’s action on more than one person.

Everyone present was able to speak, confirming this style of doing things together, and bring back what had emerged in the group discernment.

In the journey made in the intense three-day Assembly some points resonated deeply in the hearts of both of us (mine and Pol’s):

adopting an openness to the new: a tent open on four sides;
the beauty of being together as a gift of the Spirit;
the attitude of caring for sick sisters seen as wealth to be cherished;
not changing the mindset but moving to a mindset of change, “ which then becomes a way of life;
respect and careful consideration for the special and solitary choices of some sisters, in order to be able to grasp their prophetic significance.

Thank you for this beautiful engaging experience and for the journey made together as the Comboni Family; thank you for the friendly faces met again from so many different countries, thank you for the new encounters, thank you to Comboni who inspires our steps and teaches us to dare new steps!

Our wish is good journey and let us widen our tent!

Manupol