International Day of the Comboni Lay Missionaries: December 15, 2019

Comboni Lay Missionary Day
December 15, 2019

Dear CLM.
As you all know, in our past VI General CLM Assembly of Rome 2018 we decided to choose a concrete day to celebrate our common CLM vocation.

After a time of reflection and prayer we choose the third Sunday of Advent - Sunday of Joy - be the day of the CLM at international level. This year, 2019, will be on December 15. Last year, (December 16, 2018) the members of the VI International Assembly were in St. Peter's Square and Pope Francis named and greeted us.

At that moment, we felt the inspiration of the Lord through Pope Francis. Inspired by the lecture of Philippians 4, 4-7: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This moment of Joy will inspire our missionary vocation. We really feel challenge to carry the Good news of the Gospel all over the World. It is the encounter with Jesus Crist that has transformed our life.  We understand this grateful joy to be the center of our being missionary, spread the happiness of following Jesus wherever He call us to be.

And centering this joy as a way of communicating the will of God for all Human being and the whole Creation, we feel called to celebrate our CLM day as a day of Thanksgiving for our vocation.

We know our Christian life are full of difficulties, following our Comboni Lay Missionary vocation is something we have to renew everyday wherever the Lord place us. Because of this, we want to encourage everyone of you, with your families, communities and friends to celebrate this day.

This is going to be the first day we are going to celebrate this especial day all over the word. In this sense, we ask you to make an especial day for all of us.

Wherever is possible, please gather together to make this celebration real. We also encourage you to invite the rest of the Comboni Family to celebrate this day with us. To invite your communities and friends to pray for us and with us celebrate our vocation.

We know that some country-groups are organizing especial prayers for this day, Eucharist celebration, meals and parties. Other are even thinking on a week of prayer or a small retreat.

This has to be a moment of reinforcing our common CLM vocation. A moment of JOY!

Because of this, we ask you to prepare properly this day, have a special moment of prayer, maybe a Eucharist… and of course a big feast.

We hope every CLM, no matter where we maybe, find time to remember the Call he or she has received. Take time to thanks the Lord for this friendship. Take also time to think on the rest of CLM spread in the three continents, especially those who are now out of their countries serving in our missionary communities. Let this moment of common prayer united us in our common mission. One world, One humanity, One common answer.

God bless you!

CLM Central committee