Introduction
We continue to deepen our history in this third session by taking a closer look at the first PMN expedition.
- Comboni is nominated bishop of Central Africa.
- The first professions are made.
- First expedition to Africa of the PMN.
Nomination of Comboni Bishop
Comboni was appointed bishop on 2nd July 1877 and on 12th December of that year he left with a new missionary expedition, accompanied for the first time by his nuns. They were five Comboni Missionary Sisters: Maria Caspi, Giuseppa Scandola, Concetta Corsi, Vittoria Paganini and Teresa Grigolini. Two years later, he organized two new missionary expeditions, always with female personnel of his Institute. In a very few years there were already 15 Comboni Missionary Sisters working with Comboni both in Cairo and in Sudan.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition had retired after 12 years of service and the mission was left in the hands of young missionary sisters who had to discover for themselves how to live the mission and religious life in this new context.
Reading
IT – Video: Comboni obispo | Read more AMN 20, pp. 81-90
Read this full episode in AMN 20, p. 90-102
Second expedition (1879)
Please request fervent prayers for this new-born Verona Institute, which is destined to create in Central Africa all the feminine works of the Catholic apostolate in Central Africa which are so abundant in Catholic Europe: God chose the weak things of this world to confound the strong etc., etc., as the Apostle said. (W. 5752)
Read more AMN, 20 pp. 111-121)
The Founder takes his leave (1881)
Our founders have felt in themselves the compassion that Jesus felt when he saw the crowds like sheep without a shepherd. Just as Jesus, moved by this compassion, offered his word, healed the sick, gave bread to eat, gave his own life, so the founders have placed themselves at the service of humanity wherever the Spirit sent them, and in the most diverse ways: intercession, preaching the Gospel, catechesis, education, service to the poor, to the sick…. The imagination of charity has known no limits and has been able to open innumerable paths to bring the breath of the Gospel to cultures and to the most diverse areas of society. (cf. Apostolic Letter VC, 2014)
Read AMN, 20 pp. 145-150) | IT- Video- Gli ultimi giorni del Padre
Contemplative Time
The beginnings of the first Italian Women’s Missionary Institute speaks not only of “glory” but above all of vision. It speaks of women in love with the Gospel with vision because it prepares the future by creating spaces for others to continue acting and embodying God’s longing through commitment. What is your longing and commitment to the present? Share in two paragraphs with two or three sentences maximum.
Write in your Journal
What has it stirred in your heart to touch these experiences with your hands?