Vocation Stories

“During vocation campaigns in different schools, colleges and universities,” writes Comboni vocation promoter Fr Vincent Mkhabela, “it soon becomes clear that many students do not understand well the vocation of a religious Brother. I try my best to explain to them who a Brother is, but I always feel that my explanation does not satisfy them. In this article, I will give a brief explanation about the Comboni Missionary Brothers and their service to the Church.”.

The Comboni Brother belongs to the Comboni Missionary Institute. Together with the Comboni priest, he is an evangelizers through his work and witness, spending his life trying to live fully the Christian spirit unselfishly given to others. He is a man who has encountered Jesus Christ and now desires to live out this experience radically in a special way of service.

The Comboni Brother surrenders himself to the Gospel ideal, and thus inspired he says “Yes” to the life he has received as a gift; “Yes” to grow as a person in all his dignity; “Yes” to serve his brothers and sisters as a witness of God’s love.

Consecration and the vows

The Brother consecrates himself to God and the missionary activities of the Catholic Church, with all his heart, mind, strength, and availability, by practicing the Gospel values among the people. He makes this consecration by making vows of chastity, obedience and poverty.

He lives in community with other Comboni Missionaries sharing the one charism of St. Daniel Comboni and supporting one another in being faithful to their commitment. The Brother does this by showing that love, solidarity and a simple life are possible in our changing world. Religious consecration is thus a way of living out the baptismal commitment. It is not a distinct spiritual reality added to the ordinary Christian life, but a particular unfolding of that life.

Servant and promoter of human dignity

The Comboni Missionary Brother lives the charism of St Daniel Comboni through the service he renders, which is primarily a ministry of example. His vocation stresses the social aspect of evangelization. The Brother might be using his profession and practical skills in shaping secular society to the pattern of God’s Kingdom.

The services which the Brothers offer are varied: a Brother can work in the mission, hospital, media, parish work, and farming. They exercise their trades of electricity, plumbing, carpentry, and welding in distant parts of the world. They build clinics, schools, and churches. They serve the elderly, the poor, the sick and the orphan. They are engineers, doctors, teachers, catechists, printers, mechanics, and agricultural experts. They work in the provinces and in the cities.

The Comboni Brother brings to the world open hands, and through his service he teaches faith, reveals Jesus Christ and gives love. By his life a Brother proclaims that evangelization means total human liberation.

Still essential

The vocation to the missionary Brotherhood is essential even today for the life and future of the Church. It is a vocation specially consecrated to the foundation and growth of the new communities of believers.

The Comboni Missionary Brothers continue even today to evangelize together with the whole Comboni family, in the spirit of St. Daniel Comboni, in more than 46 countries worldwide. The harvest is great and the laborers are few, let us pray for vocations to the Brotherhood.

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Witness No 1

Casiano D C Jaurigue, a Filipino who is a postulant Brother, writes:

It has been my desire to be with the people in a community, assisting and extending help to them. After five and a half years of teaching mathematics in the University of the Philippines, Los Baños, where I obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Mathematics in 1997, I decided to join the Comboni Missionaries to become a Comboni Missionary Brother last June 2003.

I chose to become a Brother because of my longing to immerse myself in the lives of our neglected brothers and sisters, to work with them, and to share with them my Faith. I love doing things pertaining to human promotion and development. It is my passion to help others in uplifting their spirit and believing in themselves.

Somehow I was able to do this when I was still teaching; I had instilled in many of my students the values of honesty, excellence, diligence, perseverance and love of work. So why leave academe? Why exchange the possibility of a comfortable life - which has eluded my family up till now -, with the hardship that awaits a religious missionary?

I know that if I become a Comboni Brother I will be involved not only in the social aspect of the community but also in their spiritual angle. Doing community work and at the same time evangelizing the people - what a fulfilling life! The joy that comes from serving the Lord cannot be compared to the happiness this world offers.

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Witness No 2

The witness of faith and service to the point of martyrdom offered by young Comboni Brother:

Bro. Godfrey Kiryowa was born on December 20, 1973 in Kasaala, Uganda (East Africa). In 1998 he entered the Comboni postulancy for Brothers. He did a specialized course in bricklaying; he was good at building houses. Whenever he went to a new place, you would see him observing in silence how the house was built, and especially he would spend time looking at the church building and probably making plans to build future churches. He was a simple young man, humble and available to serve.

In 2002, he made his first religious consecration to God and the missions, vowing chastity, poverty and obedience and giving his life for the good of others. He was assigned to work in Karamoja (northeast Uganda) among the nomadic Karamajong people. He stayed in the community of Kapedo, where he rendered many services to the mission, and was involved in the building of schools and electrical workshops. He also assisted the old missionary priest, Fr. Mario Mantovani, driving him to the chapels for the celebration of the Eucharist.

Brother Godfrey was liked by people and by his confreres. Fr. Mario always appreciated his many skills and gifts. Brother Godfrey would always say, “I have nothing to give to the mission except my life and my limited knowledge”, but the Brother always gave to all he met a simple smile, and that smile expressed courage and dedication.

On August 14, 2003, Bro. Godfrey (who was then 29 years old) together with Fr. Mario (84 years old) was traveling by car from the town of Kotido to their mission in Kapedo when they were shot dead by some Karamojong warriors. Bro. Godfrey, who was driving, died on the spot. They were killed for no reason. Brother Godfrey gave not only his service, skills and gifts to the mission in Karamoja, but he gave everything. His blood as a Comboni Missionary Brother becomes a powerful symbol of the fruitfulness of the Comboni charism in Africa. May the sacrifice of his life intercede for many missionary vocations to the Brotherhood.

Witness No 3

What is Love? A Comboni Missionary Brother wants to know.

Brother Daniel Giusti is a Comboni Missionary. Twenty years ago, he went to Uganda (East Africa) as a layman. He was a physician who wanted to give his life to the Church, to find true meaning for his life.

Certainly there was a critical need in Uganda for his medical training. “My work wasn’t easy,” says Brother Daniel who arrived there in the midst of an ongoing civil war. “It was often hard, with little feeling of self-fulfillment or results. I continually thought of the Apostle Paul’s words: ‘Even if I give my body to be burnt but have no love…’. But what is love? What is there to real love that is more than my time and effort and career and hard work? In a true sense I was already giving these things, even perhaps to the point of burning myself out”.

A Comboni Missionary helped him to find a personal answer to these questions. “He helped us to understand that real love is to offer others our greatest treasure - Christ and the friendship that he creates and nourishes among us”.

The decision to become a Comboni Missionary allows Daniel to be a full-time physician as well as a missionary. “Now that I am a Comboni Brother, I am almost tempted to say that there is no difference from before - if it were not for the joy that has entered my heart. Everything that I had before is still there but with a sense of completeness that is new. Now I belong to the Church in a definitive way. I suppose it’s a bit like the difference between being engaged and being married. Apparently nothing changes in the relationship, yet everything is different.”

Brother Daniel loves his profession and his missionary life. The people of Uganda love him too and are grateful for the missionary doctor who has found his peace in their midst.<WM

Write to

Fr. Vincent and Fr. Marnie

Vocation team

Comboni Missionaries 282Roosevelt Ave

1105 Quezon City M.M

Philippines

Tel. 414-3164/372-5859

or E-mail:

postasia@i-manila.com.ph

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