Oral Literature. Anansi, the hunter and the gnome
A long time ago Anansi and his family lived happily in a compound that they shared with a hunter and family. Anansi got on very well with the hunter who was a very good and kind man. The hunter often shared some of the game with Anansi. The kind gesture was returned by Anansi by […]
Vocation Story. Fr. Aldrin. Working together with the people
I am Fr. Aldrin Janito, one of the pioneering Filipino Comboni Missionaries. I was born in Kiamba, South Cotabato, in the south of the country. In June 1991, I started my journey with the Comboni Missionaries. While undergoing my postulancy formation, I also graduated in Philosophy. Then I went to the Novitiate in Calamba, making […]
Mission Dairy. Father José and the Blue Chapel
Father José Vieira, a Portuguese Comboni missionary, tells us about his pastoral visit to a Christian community in Massina, Ethiopia. I used to hear about Massina when I went to celebrate mass at the outstation of Jalahu, at the bottom of a narrow valley beside the Hawata River. My mission was Haro Wato, on the […]
Bible & Mission. All for one and All for All
From the unique solidarity of Christ and from His being ‘one for all’, comes the solidarity of ‘all for one’ and ‘all for all’: that is, a human being is in solidarity with oneself and with all others. Christ represents us all, but He does not replace us: He opens up a new path, which […]
The role of Masato drink in the Peruvian Amazon
Masato is the typical and preferred drink of the Asheninka, the Shipios and other indigenous groups of the Peruvian Amazon. Masato is a fermented drink based on yucca, which is a big tuber also known as cassava, its ancestral name is piarentsi. In some regions of South America, Masato can be prepared with other […]
Herbs & Plants. Harungana madagascariensis. The Medicinal Plant
The plant has been used over many years in African herbal medicine for the treatment of a wide range of human illnesses. It is a small to medium-sized bushy tree, about 4-7m in height. Bark brown, rough and scaly, with orange sap when damaged. Leaves opposite, elliptic, up to 20 cm long, dark shiny […]
India. Saving an Endangered Language
Hrusso Aka, an indigenous language in northern India, was on the verge of extinction. A Jesuit, whose mother tongue was Konkani, a language along the western coast of India, came to help the Hrusso Aka natives save their dying tongue. A tribal language in northern India was moving toward extinction in the late 1990s. […]
Towards the 2023 Synod. A path of renewal and conversion
To quote an African adage: “The one who does not dig his field dies of hunger”. Life is like a seed. Those responsible should regularly check the soil for seed fertility, growth, and flowering. And this is also true in human growth. How can the synod on synodality remain fertile to bear fruit now […]
Bible & Mission. What is there between You and Us?
What word! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out!” (Luke 4: 31–37) Jesus, who was proclaimed Son so as to become our brother, was tempted by Satan to act as son of that God that the devil had suggested. Adam listened to the serpent’s proposal and became […]
Ghana. ‘Hogbetsotso’, a Festival of the Exodus
It is one of the indigenous festivals in Ghana celebrated by the Anlo people of Southern Ghana to commemorate the escape from the region of Notsie in Togo to their present abode in the Volta Region of Ghana between the 14th and the 15th centuries. Hogbetsotso is a festival that reminds the Anlo people […]