As Comboni missionaries residing at the CMC in Villa Mendoza Subdivision, Sucat, Parañaque City, we are committed to embodying our missionary charism within the local community. Our primary focus is missionary animation, which we pursue by promoting the World Mission magazine (WM), distributing missionary materials such as booklets, rosaries, medals, and organising annual campaigns like the Holy Redeemer Guild (HRG) and the missionary calendar within the parishes of the diocese of Parañaque and other dioceses in the Metro Manila area.
We celebrate a daily Mass open to the public, and on the first Thursday of each month, we join with the people who frequent our chapel to dedicate an hour of adoration to praying for vocations. Additionally, we actively support local parish ministries whenever invited, working closely with the respective parish priests. These collaborative efforts provide us with the opportunity to share our missionary vocation and message during homilies and to engage with parishioners by recounting stories from our previous missionary work in countries such as Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, the Congo, Chad, Ghana, and China.
One of the ministries that we are willing to offer is the celebration of funerals and the blessing of homes and other establishments, upon request and in collaboration with the secretaries of the parish offices of the neighbouring parishes. Life brings moments of joy, gratitude, and celebration–such as moving into a new home, launching a business, or beginning a new chapter in family life. But life also brings trials: illness, loss, hardship, anxiety, and sorrow, all moments in which we feel the need for God’s comforting presence in a special way.
As missionaries, we believe deeply in being close to our brothers and sisters in every circumstance of life. Therefore, whenever possible and upon request, we make ourselves available to accompany and support those people experiencing significant moments in life, whether joyful or sorrowful. Because of this, we are always ready to offer a listening ear to individuals who ask for a private opinion (counselling) or spiritual accompaniment, and especially for the sacrament of confession, which we are happy to organise and offer in cooperation with groups who request it on behalf of their members. Our chapel and its covered patio are also available to groups that ask to use them for meetings, recollections, prayer sessions, or other special activities.
GIFT OF EDUCATION
Each year, our CMC religious community organizes two outreach initiatives to support our neighbours who are most in need. The first is the educational outreach that occurs before the start of the new school year. Thanks to the generous help of our volunteers and collaborators, we purchase and arrange in new school bags, school supplies, and stationery materials needed for a whole year (according to the grade level of each child) for a group of about seventy elementary school students.
In addition, we sponsor ten high school students of a government school in Parañaque by helping them cover the cost of school supplies and daily allowance. We are deeply committed to fostering human development through education, believing that by supporting these students, we are helping them shape a brighter future for themselves. Then, in December, we hold the Christmas outreach on a Saturday morning; approximately one hundred poor families come to our compound, and we provide them with 10 kilograms of rice, two bags of gifts, and a variety of food supplies to use during the festive season in a dignified manner.
COMMON CAUSE
As a religious community, we see these activities as meaningful opportunities to share the blessings we have received with others who are less fortunate. On the day of the outreach, with the support of our collaborators and volunteers, we prepare a simple program that includes songs, games, prayers, and a shared meal to welcome and entertain our guests warmly.
We take pride in the fact that every member of our community is actively involved in making this program a reality. The funds for these charitable activities come primarily from local individual benefactors (and occasionally from individuals and missionary groups abroad) who witness what we do. This way, they make themselves our partners in putting into practice that particular aspect of our Institute’s charism that is expressed in the words of St. Daniel Comboni, who urged his missionaries to “make common cause with the poorest and most abandoned.”
Others contribute to this exact cause by donating items that we use for the “garage sale” we organize on select Sundays during the year, and the “Christmas Tombola” (a fun raffle game) that we hold after the Simbang Gabi Mass. The proceedings of the raffle are used to fund our outreach activities (including the portions of rice we give to the poor who come to knock at our door).
