The Provincial Commission of the Augustinian Laity will be organizing an Augustinian Family Feast in Gozo. It will be on Tuesday, June 7, 2022. We will leave with the ship at 9.00 am and return at 5.15 p.m.

The program will be as follows:

- Visit to the Augustinian Sisters in Għajnsielem. There, we will have two short talks about the Servants of God, Fra Grazzja Gauci OSA and the couple Inez and Henry Casolani, Augustinian Tertiaries. We will have a coffee between the two talks.

- Lunch at Marsalforn Restaurant

- Mass at Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary

The fee is €20 for adults and €10 for children, which includes transport in Gozo and food.

You can book at the Augustinian church that you attend. Transport to Ċirkewwa will be provided from wherever there is an Augustinian church. For more information ask the local Prior.

We invite you to take this opportunity to get back together.

The Lord bless us all. St. Augustine and the Augustinian Saints pray for us!

The restoration project of the Pipe Organ at St Mark Curch in Rabat was officially inaugurated on Saturday, 23rd April 2022. It is a project on which the Augustinian Community and The Augustinian Cloister Foundation have been working on for several years. It was than made possible thanks to the generous financial support of Dr. Gilles and Mrs. Claudine Gutierrez. Her Eccelency Ms Agnès von der Mühll, the French Ambassador to Malta, was also present for the enjoyable evening.

The Organ in St. Mark's Church was installed in 1959 by the renowned firm V. Mascione. With the work of Mro. P. Albert Borg O.S.A., the same firm had also installed organs in the Augustinian Churches of St Augustine in Valletta and in Victoria, Gozo, as well as in St. John Co-Cathedral. The recent intervention by restorer Mr. Robert Buhagiar, took about nine months, and was one of extensive restoration which practically led to the dismantling of all the Organ and after the necessary interventions, it was reassembled piece by piece.

In addition to a presentation of the work by the restorer and other short interventions, the inauguration evening included various pieces of organ music by resident organist Dr Chris Role, organist Claire Baluci, accompanied by musicians Mr Nicholas Busuttil and Ms Leanne Borg, and the beautiful voices of Ms. Jacqueline Micallef Grimaud, Ms. Nicole Weaving-Baluci and Ms. Imelda Micallef Lowell. The evening ended with a reception at the Priory.

The month of May, for us Augustinians and for so many devotees around the world, is linked to the figure of the great Augustinian nun, Saint Rita of Cascia. Saint Rita lived in Umbria in Italy, more than 600 years ago, but the different experiences that life has brought together, have made her a figure that appeals so much even to our times. She lived the challanges of married life, the experience of a mother who even lost her sons, the call to the consecrated life as an Augustinian nun, and in the last years of her life God granted her the grace to experience closely the suffering of his Son through a thorn on her forehead. In all this she lived heroically the Christian virtues particularly, love, forgiveness, faith, and total disposition to the will of God.

Along the 20th century, the devotion to Saint Rita spread rapidly, not only in Italy, but also in so many countries around the world. The Augustinians worked hard to spread such devotion presenting her to the people of God as a model of hope in the difficulties of life. Many devotees keep Thursdays as the day to resort to her with their difficulties and problems humbly requesting her intercession to deliver their prayer to God almighty.

In Malta the national centre of devotion to the Saint is the Parish Church of St. Augustine in Valletta. This year, being that the 22nd will fall on a Sunday, and it will also coincide with the Carnival celebrations in Valletta, the Feast in Valletta will be celebrated on Thursday, May 19th. On that day there will also be a devotional pilgrimage with the statue of the Saint leaving the Church at 5.30pm, and upon entering there will be a solemn Mass starting at 7.15pm. The devotional pilgrimage in Victoria, Gozo, will also take place on Thursday 19 May, while the feast of the Saint at the Church of Saint Augustine in Victoria, Gozo, will still be celebrated on Sunday 22 May.

The feast of Saint Rita is also celebrated in the other Augustinian churches. It will actually be celebrated on Saturday 15 May at St. Nicholas Church in Tarxien, and on Saturday 21 May at St. Mark's Church in Rabat and at Our Lady of Good Council in Paceville. The 9.30am Mass, broadcast on TVM and the Church's media on Sunday 22 May will be held at Saint Augustine Parish Church in Valletta. For more details it is good to look for the respective program, in the Church which is most comfortable for him to continue to pray together for the intercession of the saint of the impossible that we love so much.

Between the 18^th and 22^nd April, the Augustinian friars are meeting at The Santa Rita Priory to celebrate the second part of the Ordinary Provincial Chapter which is being presided by the Prior General, Fr. Alejandro Moral Anton O.S.A.

This second part started with the celebration of the Eucharist presided by the Prior General himself for the repose of all deceased members of the Province, especially those who passed to eternal rest during the past four years. These were Fr. Felix Buttigieg; Fr. Joe Farrugia; Fr. Rikkardu Attard; Cardinal Prospero Grech and Fr. Saver Mifsud.

Thereafter, during the first session, the Prior Provincial presented a forward-looking programme setting out three priorities for evaluation and discussion by the friars during this Chapter and the forthcoming four years: 1) Communion as a constant challenge for the friars and a much-needed witnesses for the Church; 2) Vocations as a precious gift for each and everyone and a proposal that should be made to all who are still seeking in life; and 3) The indispensable consideration of the Province’s Present Reality with the challenge of assessing and rationalising the energies, without diminishing the beauty of all opportunities for evangelization possible for the Province.

During these days discussions will continue on these priorities and other proposals that were put forward for consideration by the working groups and for discussion by the Assembly. Then, on Friday morning the voting session will be held and decisions will be taken on the proposals that will have been put forward.

The Ordinary Provincial Chapter will conclude with the reading and approval of the Acts and the celebration of Mass which will be held at the Augustinian Church dedicated to the Mother of Good Counsel, Paceville on Friday 22 April 2022 at 6.45 p.m. This closing Mass is open to all those who support or feel close to the Augustinian friars, particularly those who collaborate with them in various fields. After the Mass light refreshments will be served on the convent’s parvis. (Anyone interested in attending can may make use, of the parking facilities at the Merkanti Car Park of the Westin Dragonara Hotel free of charge)