We’d like to share with you this conversation organized by AMANI, a Spanish NGO that collaborates with the CLM, featuring the coordinator of the Central Committee of the Comboni Lay Missionaries.
In this video, he shares a glimpse of Africa—particularly from the perspective of the LMC present on the continent—covering some history, dreams, and the commitment to remain faithful to the missionary vocation inspired by St. Daniel Comboni. (Video in Spanish)
Once again, Manos Unidas, a Spanish Catholic organization that raises funds to help people around the world, has launched its campaign against hunger. With the slogan “Declare war on hunger,” it has called on people to combat the structural causes of poverty, inequality, and injustice.
For our part, we continue to collaborate as volunteers in the campaign, helping to raise awareness about these realities.
Our role is simple: to bear witness to our missionary life and explain firsthand some of the projects we have seen financed by Manos Unidas in our mission. This is not just any organization, but the way in which the Spanish Church is committed to the realities of impoverished countries and collaborates with them. Most of its funds come from this campaign, which is carried out by parishes throughout Spain every second Sunday in February, and it is time to report on it to all the people who offer their help each year.
This year we have had the opportunity to visit several parishes. Often what we do is attend weekend Masses and share our mission experience and the realities of different countries where we have been as missionaries at the end of the Eucharist or after the homily.
It is very nice to see how in some parishes, such as La Encarnación in Bormujos (Seville), the whole community gets involved in the campaign. Catechists, children, and young people work during the week to help raise awareness in the community, while volunteers organize charity markets or activities such as hunger dinners.
Also, in the parishes of Cerro, Ascensión, and Los Ángeles in Seville East, the volunteers of Manos Unidas and the parish priests lovingly prepare the Masses for that weekend. At the last one, we not only had the opportunity to share in the Eucharist, but also to give our testimony to the adult catechesis group. It was an hour in which we were able to delve deeper into these realities and share photos and a deeper understanding of the causes of these situations and the struggle these countries are undergoing to move forward. In reality, our help as missionaries or our support for certain Manos Unidas projects is nothing more than support for the work and sacrifice that the communities carry out. These communities are the real protagonists and the ones who teach us so much about resilience, about not losing hope, about being creative when you have few resources. We learn so many things from them that it is only fair to share them with our communities of origin at this time.
We hope that the faith and energy they show will also revitalize our communities in Spain and that we will be able to collaborate in building a more just world for all.
Best regards, Alberto and Maricarmen.
We continue with our series of missionary testimonies. In this one, Sister Lucía, a Comboni missionary in the Central African Republic, talks about some important moments in her vocation and missionary life.
We invite you to watch it (video in Spanish).
It is very rewarding to produce with dedication, striving for quality in nutritious, healthy, and unique food. But selling it and getting a fair price, hearing the praise of those who take it to their table, is even better.
This is what our third-year students at the Rural Family House in Açailândia experienced on Friday, thanks to a partnership between social movements, the Municipal Department of Agriculture of Açailândia, and the PAGES project of SAF/State of Maranhão. An Agroecological Fair for Family Farming.
This is the second year that the Rural Family House of Açailândia, in a project involving the subjects of Rural Economics, Introduction to Agroindustry, and others, has provided microcredit so that our students can have their first experience of entrepreneurship in the solidarity economy. We lend amounts of R$ 500 so that groups of 4 to 5 young people can produce a product based on ingredients from family farming and have a marketing experience. Thus, they produced geladim, truffles, cake in a jar, pé de moça… very tasty and sold them at school events and fairs.
Everyone repaid the microcredit and still made significant profits, in addition to learning how to organize production, marketing, working cooperatively, managing production costs, setting prices, and sharing profits. A win-win situation!
In addition, they also sold the routine production of all CFR students: fish, vegetables, fava beans, puba…
And they even helped other market vendors with their sales.
Cooperation is the way forward for family farming and overcoming capitalism!
A new school year is beginning, and with it comes the opportunity to embark on a missionary journey.
The CLM group in Spain is organizing a meeting for all those interested. As in Spain, many other countries are open to accompanying all those with missionary concerns.
So, if you are one of them, don’t hesitate to write and ask if we are present in your country, and we will pass on your contact details to the coordination team so that you can begin your missionary journey.
Here is the announcement for this first meeting in Spain at the end of October.
There are moments that change everything… and this October could be one of them.
Then this Missionary Vocation Meeting is for you.
From October 24 to 26, we invite you to a Missionary Vocation Meeting with the Comboni Lay Missionaries. A special moment to listen, discern, look at your life with missionary eyes, and ask yourself: What does God want from me?
