Our theme for the day was unity.
As the Lord has brought us all from different lands, languages and different cultures, we come together in the Holy Spirit.
We ourselves, our work and our communities are like a puzzle. One piece alone has little meaning, but together we can create something beautiful.
African CLM
Greetings from Mozambique.
The 24th of July we have started the 3rd African Continental Meeting of CLM in Anchilo, Mozambique.
We have come from all over the continent to meet as one Comboni Family to discuss and collaborate on our missionary vocation, our experiences, and our struggles following in the footsteps of our founder St. Daniel Comboni.
We ask for your prayers to the Holy Spirit to guide us through this time of community and reflection.
African CLM
I arrived to Carapira in full celebration of Easter! It was a great gift! A festive Mass on the night of Saturday and one on Sunday morning, both with the dances and songs that deserve every great Easter. Afterwards a nice lunch with the missionary team, the Comboni Family.
It is the first time I leave my country, my beloved Brazil. And already it has spent the first month! The work that I am calling to do is to accompany the youth of the school (Industrial Technical Institute) run by the Combonis in Carapira. 130 are the young people who study and live here. Learn professional techniques offered in courses, learning to be a family, be smart and able people to build a better world are the main principles to follow with these young people. I took up nursing of the school, a room with beds for the rest of the sick children and medicines and basic utensils for care. I remain a big part of my time in this room (the pharmacy) and make my ministry here, my service, my daily renewal of my Yes to the mission. I also accompany students to the hospital when needed, help them to take medication, wound care and various injuries.
As a child in catechesis, I dreamed to be a doctor to go to Africa… I finally studied psychology and not medicine, but was a great choice! Now I look what I have been called and see me in a nursing care hurts and pains. There is a peace that invades the soul! There’s a smile that shows when looking to improve the way to cures, or even when I call attention to a boy for skipping his medication. And the soul rejoices when our pharmacy is not only the physical space to administer medication but becomes space to share, to discuss a variety of possible topics. We talk about family, we talk about the heavy situation faced by Mozambique and Brazil in politics, we talk about school difficulties, dreams and love; We smile together and play, and in addition we also have some time to correct ourselves and find the best path for each day. I have two students working with me, Cacossane and Mendes. They help me in everything and always try to improve our communication to better understand and optimize the service to all other students. I am pleased to see small achievements, curtains, pot for tea, cup holders, dogfish soup, etc. Small things that make the difference, cheering!
For now, we are two at home, Beatriz (from Mexico) and me. She tries to teach and guide me on things here, show me the realities and correct, if necessary, my quick way of speaking that generates misunderstanding. The Portuguese is actually much! The mission begins at home! Community life is an invitation to forgiving love and forgiveness that loves is a joint growth, it is a constant learning. In this way, we build and prepare to welcome Kasia from Poland and Barbara from Italy who will be with us soon and my heart is already on holiday with their arrival.
We are a large and very rich missionary team: priests, brother and laity! We come from different places, cultures and ways of being different and this is a beautiful treasure for the mission. My Brazilian roots are with these Italian, Mexican, Portuguese, Mozambican roots… Longing Brazil dwells in the heart, longing for people, places, even more for food! Nostalgia also supports the mission because it reminds me that the mission is not done alone, the mission is collective. I came to Mozambique, but there are many people who are elsewhere and pray for me and the mission without prayer support fades. Maybe that is why my heart is full of gratitude, because I have many people who supported me from many corners of this great world. Therefore, also on behalf of all these people every day I renew my Yes to the mission, my yes to God, my yes to this school in which I live and work and my yes to each of these guys.
Here they say “Vacani, Vacani”, little by little. And so it is! One-step at a time, slowly but without wasting time when it comes to improve, to move forward, to evolve. One-step at a time to improve communication, specific things needed to make a good missionary way, practical things for the work, in everything step by step. Remembering that take care of me is the first step to be complete for the people I am called to serve. Therefore, my path moves through step by step and I can sleep peacefully at night, with a heart full of joy for all that has allowed me to live in this holy land. I thanks everyone who accompany me with the prayer and wish you well. We are together!
The good and loving God, Father and Mother, care for us and strengthen us!
Mother Africa, you welcome me, teach me to live you!
Priscilla Garcia – CLM
I had the opportunity to participate in the first meeting of permanent formation of CLM in Mozambique. I was invited as a candidate in training to dialogue with the coordinator and share my personal reality. During this meeting I had the grace to study about the Mercy of God as our Father; this topic helped me to reflect on my situation and shone in my mind the points that we will treat later on.
After this day of personal reflection, prayer and sharing, experiencing God’s mercy and a good rest, we continue the meeting with the evaluation of 2015. First we talk about projects, our community orchard, the school canteen, selling handicrafts and the next project in Cabaceira. Then we talked about the initial and ongoing preparation. Also on Missionary Animation, pastoral activities, Economy, departures and arrivals.
After listening to our assessment and new suggestions, brother Luis (MCCJ advisory for the CLM group in Mozambique) made us see the importance of our vocation as lay people, because our work is important in the mission without having to replace the task of the priest , brother or sister, as many people think. San Daniel Comboni also led laity to the mission.
We completed our meeting with lunch, where we experience green tomatoes (which is eaten in Mexico as chutney) which led to a nice conversation about traditional dishes from different parts of the world.
Arnaldo Inasio Sualehe
The Missionary laity of the diocese of Nacala met on December 7 to celebrate Advent retreat.
Attended 16 lay people from the various missions of the diocese. Fr. Damasceno, Spiritan present in the mission of Itoculo, led the retreat.
In the morning after our arrival, we made an initial prayer reflecting on the transforming power of love and Fr Damasceno invited us to use it to change what closes us on ourselves, remembering that Advent is a favorable time for this.
Then p. Damascus helped us to reflect on the Gospel of the second Sunday of Advent, and to see that, after describing the “powers” of the world, political and religious, he concludes with the assertion that the Word came to John in the desert. God reveals His word to the little, in the forgotten places. So we are invited to retreat to the desert to hear God! The desert is the privileged place of God’s relationship with his people. It also proposes some questions to reflect on our missionary experience, challenging us to review some attitudes and commitments.
After lunch, to continue the reflection, we chose the beach, a quiet and peaceful place, which gave us the contact with nature, a magnificent work of God. This environment well-lit reflection in the afternoon, bringing the second reading of the 3rd Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of joy. “Rejoice in the Lord always!” A relationship with some of the paragraphs of the encyclical “Laudato Si” and also some excerpts from the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
In the afternoon, returning from the beach, as we celebrate the closing Mass of the day, where also, at the time of Thanksgiving, there was the farewell of 5 laity who returned to their home-lands: 3 Spanish Vincentian lay, Cristina, Nina and Virginia, a Comboni lay Portuguese Márcia and a Brazilian Comboni lay Flávio.
The meeting ended with a dinner and fellowship, in the joy of waiting for the Lord’s coming!
Good experience of Advent to all!
Flavio Schmidt, CLM
