Daniel Comboni
Comboni Missionaries
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Opening Mass of the XVIII General Chapter in Rome
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Today, the XVIII General Chapter of the Comboni Missionaries has been officially opened. The logo of this Chapter enucleates the message of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation 'Evangelii Gaudium': Comboni Missionaries, Disciples Called to Live the Joy of the Gospel in Today's World. The Father General, Enrique Sanchez, in his homily at the opening Mass, pointed out that “only to the extent that we are able to put the person [of Jesus] at the center of our reflection, our interests, our search [ ...], the Chapter will become an intense moment of the Comboni missionary life"; in fact, to put Jesus at the center is to accept the style of the Good Shepherd, that means to "live decentralized, free from one’s interests, willing to share the suffering and pain of the poor of our time”.
Ideas reiterated in his opening speech in the chapter hall where Father General remarked that, as Chapter delegates, “our work has to do more with the work of a mediator rather than a protagonist of the listener and the guardian of silence rather than the thinker, more of a tool in the hands of Someone Else than the promoter of our causes”.
Fr. Enrique ended his speech hoping that the courage and faith that inspired Comboni may help the Chapter delegates to overcome the difficulties, the problems, the inability to dream, because the missionary does not live for nothing else but to proclaim the Gospel to poorest and most abandoned.
[Readings of the Mass: Isaiah 61:1-3; Galatians 6:14-18; John 10:11-16].
Click here to read the homily in Italian.