Christmas 2022 and best wishes for 2023

 

 

 

 

Christmas 2022 and best wishes for 2023

Christmas is a big and long celebration! The Church celebrates it for 8 days, until January 1st.

Here in Central Africa the celebrations are simpler, less ornate, but perhaps richer: fewer lights, but more Light, some rare Christmas trees (decorated with strips of paper or plastic), some very simple mangers, and a few (more often none) Christmas presents.

Yet, the celebration is very intense, and one clearly feels that 2,000 years ago, on that night in Bethlehem, something very important happened. Well Someone!

On Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve, I celebrated it in Bawi, 35 km from Baoro. While I confessed the numerous Christians, we projected a beautiful film on the Nativity of Jesus. The Mass was well attended, and there were many people.

I returned to Baoro around 10pm, and on Christmas day I spent it in Barka Bongo, about forty km away. There was a lot of celebration, and after Mass the village organized lunch for the entire Christian community, children and adults.

Monday, December 26th is Santo Stefano, and I went to Dobere, about fifty km away. Today is the feast of the patron saint of the chapel.

After a couple of hours of confessions, we celebrated Mass, well accompanied by the choir of the village.

Here as well they organized lunch for all the Christians in the village.

Tuesday I went to Bozoum: in a month, from January 27 to 29, we will have the 18th annual Bozoum Fair, and it's time to start the preparations, and this is the reason for my visit. In the afternoon, after visiting the market, I went to see the rice fields, which are in full harvest.
Happy New Year to all. Thank you to all of you who read and follow the blog. Thanks to me who writes it (!!!), but above all to Fr. Juan, Sr Nazarè, Ludmila, Natasha and Regina who translate it into Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, English and German every week.

Heartfelt wishes: every moment, every moment is full of Grace and Mercy. God blesses us. And God bless you!

Messa della notte di Natale, a Bawi
Messe de la nuit de Noel à Bawi

Barka Bongo

 

 

Dobere

Il riso di Bozoum
le riz de Bozoum

Bozoum

Bozoum, il mercato - le marché

A celebration with an exceptional visit

Il Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga

 

A celebration with an exceptional visit

We are very close to Christmas, and the days are "effervescent" for us.

On Friday I returned from Bangui, and on Saturday I spent the whole day in Barka Bongo, a village 40km from Baoro. Here the Christians of the 4 nearby villages (Bawi, Zoungbe, Barka and Balembe) got together for a day of reflection, prayer and sharing. They call it "be nzoni" (good heart): it is when the villages get together to help one another, even with material goods. In the morning I had a catechesis on the sacrament of Confession, and then there was Mass. After lunch (where everyone contributed), we started with the "dodo ti dimes": the dance of offerings. The Christians from each village danced and brought their offerings, which we will then deliver to the host village. While the "winner" (the village that donated the most) will have the opportunity to organize the same feast in a year or two.

On Sunday, I celebrated Mass in Samba Bougoulou, 35 km away on the road(ccia) to Carnot.

On Wednesday, December 21st we welcomed an extraordinary guest: the bishop of Bangui, Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga.

He is a man of extraordinary faith and courage (he has just published a beautiful book in Italian: "My struggle for peace. With bare hands against the war in Central Africa", what a great inspiration!).

While here he wanted to visit the most critical areas of our diocese. Areas where, apart from the missionaries and a few others, no one ventures: there are rebel militias who attack and keep the people under constant threat. During his first week he visited Niem,. Bocaranga, Ngaundaye, Mann, stopping in smaller villages. In one school, the children wrote on their boards: "au secours" (help!).

At the end of the visit he stopped here in Baoro, and we held a nice meeting with the young people, in the state high school of Baoro, and another moment with the parish community, at the catechists' school in Baoro.

I am done, wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Best wishes with Mathieu!

Who is Mathieu?

A couple of weeks ago we completed the work on the chapel of Kouisso Baguera, 7 km from Baoro.

After a solemn Mass, celebrated by the Bishop; with songs, dances and everything there is available for a liturgy in Africa.

Finally, I asked the bishop to give a small gift (a statue of the Child Jesus) to Mathieu.

Mathieu is deaf and mute. He hears nothing, does not speak except for a few verses. But during the work of the chapel he was always there, every day, to lend a hand, with so much joy. He, who is among the last in the village, is the most available and most serene. The Bishop called him up and he came to receive his gift.  He received it with such dignity, and with eyes that shone with joy and emotion.

This year, I wish you all the best, along with Mathieu!

Christmas is no joke! Christmas is God who takes man, every man, so seriously that he himself becomes man.

Christmas, that child, is serious! It changed the world. Believe it or not!

With Christmas, there is God who becomes man, Emmanuel: God with us.

Christmas is a revolution: "Every man is the starting point, each time decisive and each time irreplaceable, of divine activity" (R.Guardini).

Merry Christmas with Mathieu!

P.Aurelio

 

i giovani all'ascolto del Cardinale
les jeunes à l'écoute

Barka Bongo

 

 

Ecole des catéchistes, Baoro

Samba Bougoulou

 

 

Good job!

 

 

 

Good job!

Here I am, a little late.

I have just returned from Bangui after a few days of work and meetings.

The weekend was quite busy. Saturday afternoon I went to Igwe, a small village in the middle of the savannah. It was sixty km of road, in the middle of burnt trees (these are the bush fires characteristic of this period), to find the small community ready, already gathered in the small chapel (basically a thatched roof).

Sunday morning I celebrated in Balembe, 42km, on the road to Bangui. Even here, despite the cold (it is possible to reach 12 degrees at night), I found a good group of Christians.

I immediately continued towards Bangui. Enrico Massone (who has been coming to Central Africa since 1987 to complete various pieces for construction) and Giovanni Grossi Bianchi, the architect who designed the new convent in Bangui, have also arrived.

With Giovanni we arrived in Boali, 90 km from Bangui: where there were some very beautiful waterfalls.

On Monday, after visiting the building site, we began assembling the vaults that will form the ceilings of the rooms. I think they may be the first in all of Central Africa! We had metal ribs prepared from Italy, on which Enrico, together with the company's bricklayers, layed the fired bricks.

We chose this solution, instead of reinforced concrete, for aesthetic reasons as well as for thermal insulation. I will also bring a new element to the country.

Wednesday morning we moved about a hundred, and the vault is revealed in all its beauty. It was so nice to see the enthusiasm and wonder of the local masons, who have discovered this technique for the first time.

le volte del nuovo convento
Les voutes du nouveau couvent

Enrico Massone

fiore di caffé
fleur du café

Cascate di Boali
Chutes de Boali

Orchestra della cappella di Igwe
L'orchestre de Igwe