As Cardinal Mercier said : "When prudence is everywhere, courage is nowhere."                                                                                  From Cardinal Sarah : "In order to avoid hearing God's music, we have chosen to use all the devices of this world. But heaven's instruments will not stop playing just because some people are deaf."                                                                                              Saint John-Paul II wrote: "The fact that one can die for the faith shows that other demands of the faith can also be met."                                                 Cardinal Müller says, “For the real danger to today’s humanity is the greenhouse gases of sin and the global warming of unbelief and the decay of morality when no one knows and teaches the difference between good and evil.”                                                  St Catherine of Siena said, “We've had enough exhortations to be silent. Cry out with a thousand tongues - I see the world is rotten because of silence.”                                                  Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”                                                Brethren, Wake up!

CONSECRATION OF OUR CONVENTUAL CHURCH - MONDAY 20 FEBRUARY

Today’s feast marks the consecration, in 1578, of the Conventual Church of Saint John of Jerusalem, the mother-church of the Order of Malta until 1798 and now the Co-cathedral of the diocese of Malta. Holy Mass will be celebrated for the Order in England at 6.30pm at the Assumption, Warwick Street.

On this day the Order also customarily commemorates the dedication of our other churches and chapels around the world, including our eponymous Conventual Church at the Hospital of Saints John and Elizabeth, St John’s Wood. We also give thanks to Almighty God for the kindness of Cardinal Nichols, of Mgr Newton, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate, and Father Elliot-Smith, the Rector of this church of there Assumption, in allowing us its use as a Conventual Chapel.

At this Mass, there will be a special showcase by Ensemble Pro Victoria, directed by our praefectus cantorum, Toby Ward, of the Missa Maria Magdalena by the Portugese composer Francisco Garro, director of the Chapel Royal in Lisbon for 31 years until his death in 1623. The work, once lost, has recently been reconstructed for the Ensemble. The Communion motet by Fernando de las Infantas was composed to commemorate the defeat of the Turks during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, in the aftermath of which the city of Valetta and our Principal Church at its heart were constructed. Deo gratias!

This day also, the Grand Prior, Fra' Max Rumney, is visiting the Nuns of the Order at the Convent of Saint Jean d'Acre at Salinas de Añana. Their Convent is nearly as old as our Priory, having first been founded when the Order still held Acre (1190 to 1291). He is presenting them with a gift of stolas for the Professed Sisters. Please pray, today and every day, for vocations to the religious life among women in our Order. 

After Mass, all are invited to a Reception in the Chapter Room, at which Ensemble Pro Victoria’s landmark 2023 recording of Francisco Garro will be presented. See the link to their musical work HERE.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us
Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us
Posted on Sunday, February 19, 2023
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SAINT PAUL'S SHIPWRECK

In Festo Naufragi Sancti Pauli Apostoli

 
"Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea." 2 Corinthians 11:25

Today is the feast on Malta of the Shipwreck thereon of the Blessed Apostle Paul. We know of this because, as we recall from his Epistles, and from the antiphons of the feast we celebrated a couple of weeks ago, the Holy Apostle was fond of a good moan, a source of great comfort to anyone living today, or indeed in any age.

Nevertheless, taking refuge in cave, a place of enduring pilgrimage, he found a people still in the darkness of the absence of Faith, but who held naturally within themselves that charity which the charism of our Beloved Order would one day truly make theirs:

"And when we were escaped, then we knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and refreshed us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold." Acts 28:1,2

In all, Saint Paul was shipwrecked three times, but only once amongst us!  Our Order had not celebrated it formally since 1798, a shame, having built such a truly beautiful capitular church in the honour of this great feast.

Saint Paul the Apostle, pray for us
Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us
Blessed Gerard, pray for us
Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2023
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