Dear Friends,
I write to you from Rome, where I have assisted over the last three days at the solemn ceremonies of the Easter Triduum, as I am sure many of you have all over the world. You have been in my prayers before the altar throughout these days.
In this age it is easy to lose sight of the fact that our Salvation is already assured by Christ's Sacrifice on Calvary and Resurrection. So many troubles beset us on every side. This is no less true of our own beloved Order of Malta.
But these holy days show us that the Battle is won — Hell’s armies flee. I am grateful to our Chaplain for his insightful mediations which we have been privileged to read during Holy Week. All we need to do is to keep the Faith, and we are thereby collaborating with the Risen Christ in our own Salvation. But we are also collaborating in the Salvation of our fellow men, because we are all brothers within the Church which He founded on Maundy Thursday, and which he entrusted from the Cross to the maternal care of Mary, Mother of the Church - "Son, behold thy Mother".
Let us ask Her prayers, the prayers of Our Lady of Philermo, that all of us in the Order of Malta, and all of you who pray together and work for the Poor within our great Order family, may never waver from the path we have been shown over these last few days.
A very Happy Easter to you all.
Fra' Ian Scott
Grand Prior
The picture above shows the Resurrection, by a follower of Caravaggio, around 1600, possibly Francesco Boneri, knows as 'Cecco del Caravaggio'. It is housed in the Art Institute of Chicago.
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