Fr. Mario: My Mission Experience

My First Encounter with the Comboni Missionaries

In 1979 I met for the very first time the Comboni Missionaries in my neighbouring Parish Church and, later on, I worked with them as a Bible Catechist in a Comboni Parish church for 7 years before starting my training as a Priest in 1986.

 

It is very important to say that, when I was working with the Comboni Missionaries, one of the things that I really admired and caught my attention about them was their happiness and their dedication towards all of us. I admired, above all, the way in which they were sharing the Good News of the love of Jesus Christ in our daily life.

 

On the 13th of July 1996 I was ordained priest in my parish Church, by my local Bishop. It was a time of great happiness, joy and hope for the Christian Community, for my family, for my Comboni congregation and for the whole Local Church, which sent me to proclaim the Goods News as a Comboni Missionary Priest.

 

On the 1st of July 1996 I was appointed to work as a missionary in the province of Perú-Chile. I carried on the work of evangelisation in Perú until 1998 and then I was sent to Chile in order to open a new evangelising community. I worked there until June 2004. On the 1st of July of 2004 I was appointed to work in the field of  Missionary Animation here in the London Province and assigned to the Comboni Community of Horsforth, LEEDS.

 

My Mission Experience in Chile and Peru'

 

I believe that the most wonderful days I ever had in my life, until now, were those I passed working in the mission. It was like walking with people on the journey towards Christ by sharing my experience of the merciful and lovely God with them and receiving their own experience of God.

 

What was most important was to see the miracle of God in their lives and in their faces through their faith, their hopes, their poverty, their kindness, their values and limitations. It was the experience of helping them to rediscover something that was already in their lives “Jesus Christ” even though many factors such as poverty, marginalizations, and limitations were against them.

 

Eventually, having seen in them the spark of hope in their eyes and in their future life, I found the courage to tell them good-bye. This, for me, has been the happiest time of my life and a priceless (the most precious) gift of God in answer to Jesus Christ’s call.