From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   October 10th - St. Daniel Comboni   
      
   (1831-1881)   
      
   Daniel Comboni: the son of poor gardeners who became the first Catholic   
   Bishop   
   of Central Africa, and one of the great missionaries in the Church's   
   history.   
      
   It is a fact. When God decides to take a hand and select a generous and   
   open-hearted individual, things happen: great, new things.   
      
      
   An "only child" - with holy parents   
      
   Daniel Comboni is born at Limone sul Garda (Brescia - Italy) on 15th, March   
   1831, into a family of cultivators employed by one of the rich local   
   proprietors. Luigi and Domenica, the parents, are very attached to Daniel:   
   he is   
   the fourth of eight children, but the only survivor: all the others die   
   young,   
   six of them in their infancy. So they form a very close unit, rich in faith   
   and   
   human values, but poor in material things. It is this poverty that forces   
   Daniel   
   to go away to school in Verona, in the Institute founded by Father Nicola   
   Mazza.   
   During the years spent in Verona, Daniel discovers his calling to the   
   priesthood, completes his studies of Philosophy and Theology and, above all,   
   is   
   entranced by the mission of Central Africa, drawn by the descriptions of the   
   missionaries who return from there to the Mazza Institute. Comboni is   
   ordained   
   in 1854, and three years later leaves for Africa himself, along with five   
   other   
   missionaries of the Mazza Institute and with the blessing of his mother   
   Domenica, who finally tells him: "Go, Daniel, and may the Lord bless you".   
      
      
   Into the heart of Africa - with Africa in his heart   
      
   After a journey of four months the missionary expedition that includes   
   Comboni   
   reaches Khartoum, capital of the Sudan. The impact of this first   
   face-to-face   
   encounter with Africa is tremendous, Daniel is immediately made aware of the   
   multiple difficulties that are part of his new mission. But labours,   
   unbearable   
   climate, sickness, the deaths of several of his young fellow-missionaries,   
   the   
   poverty and dereliction of the population, only serve to drive him forward,   
   never dreaming of giving up what he has taken on with such great enthusiasm.   
   From the mission of Holy Cross he writes to his parents: "We will have to   
   labour   
   hard, to sweat, to die: but the thought that one sweats and dies for love of   
   Jesus Christ and the salvation of the most abandoned souls in the world, is   
   far   
   too sweet for us to desist from this great enterprise".   
      
   After witnessing at the death of one of his missionary companions, Comboni,   
   far   
   from being discouraged, feels an interior confirmation of his decision to   
   carry   
   on in the mission: "O Nigrizia o morte!" - Africa, or death.   
      
   It is still Africa and its peoples that drive Comboni, when he returns to   
   Italy,   
   to work out a fresh missionary strategy. In 1864, while praying at the Tomb   
   of   
   St Peter in Rome, Daniel is struck by a brilliant inspiration that leads to   
   the   
   drawing up of his famous Plan for the Rebirth of Africa, a missionary   
   project   
   that can be summed up in an expression which is itself the indication of his   
   boundless trust in the human and religious capacities of the African   
   peoples:   
   "Save Africa through Africa".   
      
      
   An original missionary Bishop   
      
   In spite of all the problems and misunderstandings he has to face, Daniel   
   Comboni strives to drive home his intuition: that all European society and   
   the   
   Church are called to become much more concerned with the mission of Central   
   Africa. He undertakes a tireless round of missionary animation all over   
   Europe,   
   begging for spiritual and material aid for the African missions from Kings   
   and   
   Queens. Bishops and nobles, as well as from the poor, simple people. As a   
   tool   
   for missionary animation he launches a missionary magazine, the first in   
   Italy.   
      
   His unshakable faith in the Lord and trust for Africa lead him to found, in   
   1867   
   and 1872 respectively, two missionary Institutes of men and of women: these   
   become known more widely as the Comboni Missionaries and the Comboni   
   Missionary   
   Sisters (Verona Fathers and Sisters).   
      
   He takes part in the first Vatican Council as the theologian of the Bishop   
   of   
   Verona, and gets 70 Bishops to sign a petition for the evangelization of   
   Central   
   Africa (Postulatum pro Nigris Africæ Centralis).   
      
   On 2nd, July 1877, Comboni is named Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, and   
   ordained Bishop a month later: it is confirmation that his ideas and his   
   activities considered by some to be foolhardy, if not crazy are recognized   
   as   
   truly effective means for the proclamation of the God News and the   
   liberation of   
   the African continent.   
      
   In 1877 and 1878 he and all his missionaries are tormented in body and   
   spirit by   
   the tragedy of a drought followed by starvation without precedent. The local   
   populations are halved, and the missionary personnel and their activities   
   reduced almost to nothing.   
      
      
   The cross as friend and spouse   
      
   In 1880, with unflagging determination, Bishop Comboni travels to Africa for   
   the   
   eighth and last time, to stand alongside his missionaries: intent, also, on   
   continuing the struggle against the pernicious Slave Trade, and on   
   consolidating   
   the missionary activity carried out by Africans themselves. Just one year   
   later,   
   overwhelmed by his labours, by many deaths in quick succession among his   
   collaborators, by a wave of calumnies and accusations that are a bitter   
   burden,   
   the great missionary falls sick himself. On 10th, October 1881, only 50   
   years   
   old, marked by the Cross which, like a faithful and loving bride, has never   
   let   
   him, he dies in Khartoum, among his people. But he is aware that his   
   missionary   
   work will not end with him: "I am dying", he says, "but my work will not   
   die".   
      
   He was right. His work did not die. Indeed, like all great projects "which   
   are   
   born at the foot of the Cross", it continues to live through the giving of   
   their   
   lives by many women and men who have chosen to follow Comboni along the path   
   of   
   his arduous yet exhilarating mission among peoples who are the poorest as   
   regards the Gospel, and the most abandoned as regards human solidarity.   
      
   Taken from   
   http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20   
   31005_comboni_en.html   
      
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.   
   --Saint Rose of Lima   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Being rich, our Lord Jesus Christ became poor for your sakes, that by His   
   poverty you might become rich. II Cor. 8:9   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Behold Me at Your Feet   
      
   Behold me at Your feet, O Jesus of Nazareth, behold the most wretched of   
   creatures, who comes into Your presence humble and penitent! Have mercy on   
   me, O Lord, according to Your great mercy! I have sinned and my sins are   
   always before You. Yet my soul belongs to You, for You created it, and   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)