As we know Pope Francis has called for an extraordinary missionary month in October 2019, in order to further awaken the missionary consciousness of the missio ad gentes and to resume the missionary transformation of life and pastoral with a new impulse.
One of the key proposals of this month should be training. That is why we offer you this little theme that can be used in youth and adult groups, in religion classes, confirmation groups, community formation and even as a personal reflection (although always better in community).
Therefore we will start from the letter of convocation of Pope Francis, from the letter Maximun Illud that Pope Benedict XV wrote (which we recommend reading or having next to consult) and whose centenary celebration causes the convocation of this extraordinary missionary month. We will also be accompanied by the writings and life of a missionary like Saint Daniel Comboni; His life together with that of other missionaries would inspire this letter and hopefully it will also help us and inspire each of us in our communities to be missionaries today.
We share the first of the videos we have prepared for the Extraordinary Mission Month. During the next several weeks, we will be sharing more resources for us to use in our Mission Promotion.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Missionary Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud munus, Pope Francis has called for extraordinary mission month to be held in October 2019 “in order to awaken always more the awareness of our mission ad gentes and rekindle with a new impulse the transformation of our life and of our pastoral work.”
The pope invites us to live intensely this missionary month through a Personal encounter with Jesus, our Witness, Formation and missionary Charity, as a challenge for our Christian communities.
“Baptized and Sent. The Church of Christ in mission to the world” is the theme the Pope has chosen for this month. In its 10 points it develops very well the missionary implications of our Baptism, encouraging a new missionary awakening, which necessary in the entire Church, in order to offer the message of Christ to today’s world.
May the celebration of this Missionary Month help us to see ourselves as missionary disciples because mission is “innate” to us and our responsibility, so that we may be a Church on the move.
For another year the Comboni Family of Spain gathered in Madrid for a weekend together. Religious, seculars and lay members together dreaming of how to be family and sharing times of prayer, food and formation.
This year we were accompanied by a team of CONFER working on the theme of Shared Mission in various charismatic families.
Through their proposed dynamics and time spent in group work they helped us to understand the challenges of shared mission, the duties we have as a family, our strengths, our weaknesses, etc.
All of this emphasizing the importance of the process and without skipping steps. The importance to understand that it is not only a matter of performing concrete actions or facing concrete challenges, but the importance that they start from a comm life sharing, entertaining common ties and relationships, loving and understanding one another. To understand the importance of complement each other, which does not consist in abandoning what each branch is, its identifying traits, but rather putting at the service of mission our particular traits as a richness that makes us complementary.
It is always good to meet, to feel how each time we recognize each other better and understand being a Comboni Family through something transversal of our being Missionaries and Comboni missionaries. It is not something extra that the group needs to take into account, but a transversal entity that makes up out being and doing as missionaries.
We also recognized that, at the ecclesial level, we live in privileged time when many other charismatic families question themselves on how to be Church, in our case this is something that Comboni himself had in mind from the beginning. It is up to us now to pick up this charismatic and ecclesial intuition he had.
The attendance at the meeting was lower for a number of circumstances, including having it while having decided last year not to. But all those present at the end were happy to be there. We are convinced that we must journey as a family. We know that we have many challenges to face, including perhaps the resistance of those ho are not yet convinced, but still convinced that this is the journey Comboni wants from us.
Now it remains to us to carry out the commitments we set for ourselves, the lines to follow in our work,… To strengthen the participation in this yearly meeting coming from all over Spain, at times trying to meet in different areas where we have various branches. All this without forgetting the history and the journeys we have had as a Comboni Family, the work of mission and vocation promotion done together, the joint meetings of prayer and formation and the joing celebration we had as a family.
May the Lord accompany us in this journey and may Christ inspire us.
Last week I was able to spend a good amount of formation time with Carolina, David and Juan Eugenio in Granada. It was a time to get to know one another better, to pray together, converse, walk, cook, eat and to celebrate life and our missionary vocation, coinciding as it was with Comboni’s birthday.
During this week we also had time to delve more deeply in our history as CLM at the international level, to go over the agreements made in the African continental meetings and how could we avoid giving sufficient time to share on the conclusions of our recent general assembly in Rome. We always gave enough time to get to know the international situation of the CLM and especially of the continent where they will be going.
We also spent part of the afternoon looking at videos and pictures from Ethiopia and Mozambique, and from them we moved to discuss and find answers to the realities to be faced.
Then we gave quite some time to work on community life. Our community is always the base of our presence as CLM in mission and the fundamental point of reference in performing our missionary ministry, in feeding and living our faith. It is like the Cenacle of Apostles Comboni wanted in order to spread what we have within us. We spent time to unravel several practical aspects such, organization, community responsibilities, projects, the economy, and other deeper aspects like how to protect our spirituality, how to be a Comboni family, keeping contacts with those who support us and others. We did it calmly in order to really converse, exchange points of view and learn from each other. We ended this part studying the Charter of the international communities approved at the recent international assembly which is and will be the foundation of our presence in international communities.
We also had time to spend with the Comboni family of Granada: one evening with the men and another with the sisters. It was a good time to pray together and talk about mission. It was a good family time dreaming together of how Comboni dreamed of us.
We did not forget to give time to conflict resolution. We know that conflict is natural in our human situation and that conflicts arise in our communities as well. That is why we must be able to face them, resolve them and grow together as persons and as a community.
During these days, we picked an entire morning to go walking, to visit the beautiful surrounding of the Cahorros, with its vertical walls and the beautiful views of the Sierra Nevada. It was also an opportunity to tests our strength and to be aware that we have to be well prepared for the pilgrimage over the Camino de Santiago. We will have to take advantage of the remaining weeks to arrive to it in good shape. It is always nice to go out into nature and have time to converse in a relaxed fashion while walking and thank God for all his gifts.
We ended dealing with the theme of interculturality. It is wonderful to travel to another continent and share other cultures, but it is necessary to be properly prepared to know the people with whom we will live in the coming years, in order to respect their worldview, in order to share our faith making sure not to over stress our own worldview and try even unconsciously to impose it, but rather in a spirit of sharing and grow in our diversities.
We closed the week by spending the weekend with the CLM of the southern region of Spain. It gave us time to share, do some formation, revision of life, to analyze this time of preparation for those who will leave, recharge our energy for the daily grind, etc.
On Sunday we did mission promotion in a parish of Granada. David was able to give a short presentation of his leaving for the mission and we took the opportunity to chat with the parishioners and sell some trinkets to finance mission work.
Their time to leave for Africa is getting nearer. Let us pray that the Lord will be with them, guide them in this time of special formation, a time also of spirituality and prayer to prepare them for departure.
Thanks for this week together.
Greetings
Alberto, coordinator of the CLM Central Committee
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