The Franciscan students have organised the Franciscan Visit (Żjara Franġiskana) at the Għaxaq Parish. During the past months plans were made together with Parish Priest Mario Said and the Parish Council so that the visit could take place

between the 22nd and the 26th August 2012.

Since this initiative is in the tradition of our Province and is part of our charism as an Order, we have kept ideas from past visits held in Malta, but also introduced and combined new ideas from our experiences of such missions in Italy.

One of the new initiatives was to invite the Second and Third Franciscan Orders to participate, thus giving a clear image of the various realities of the Franciscan Movement. The Poor Clares sent their novice Sr. Annemarie Magrin from their Monastery in St. Julians to give a testimony during the closing mass on Sunday at the Għaxaq Parish Church, however all the community was with us, an supported us with their daily prayers. Sisters and formees from the Congregations ‘Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart’, ‘Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary’ and the ‘Franciscan Missionaries of Mary’ together with some lay persons joined us throughout the whole program, especially during the home visits, which were of maximum importance during this visit. In total 22 Franciscan Friars, 11 Sisters and 5 lay – a total of 38 missionaries participated. 6 friars were also hosted by 6 different families in Ghaxaq, and lived there during the period of this visit and all those participating daily, ate lunch and dinner prepared by local helpers, in the Parish premises, together as one community.

The visit opened with an opening mass, celebrated by the Parish Priest which welcomed us, and gave us the mandate to start our mission – he gave each of us a Tau as a symbol of his blessing.

One of the aims of the visit, on the footsteps of our father and founder St. Francis of Assisi was to pray together and the spread the good news of the Gospel. Daily we animated and prayed the Morning and Evening Prayer in the Parish Church, animated the 8am mass with a homily for children which was said by one of our friars, and the 6.30pm mass with a homily for adults, also celebrated by another of our friars. We had home visits where we had time to meet, listen to and pray with many families in their own homes. Another new initiative was the Lectio Divina which was organized in 6 different families, each family inviting over relatives and friends for this moment of prayer and meditation. We also had encounters for adolocents, youths, couples planning to get married, and married couples, given by various friars, and sports activities with prizes for Children organized by the lay.

The other aim, which was also very important to St. Francis in his time, and is still nowadays was to invite people to the sacrament of reconciliation, and for this reason we had two Friars in the Parish Church thoughout the day for confessions.

The visit closed on Sunday with mass being celebrated by our Minister Provincial Fr. Sandro Overend. During this mass all participants gave back the Tau to the Parish Priest Mario Said as a sign that our mission has come to an end. Fr. Sandro also presented a crucifix of San Damiano to the Parish as a gift to mark our visit, which was our second visit as a Province, since the first one was held in Għaxaq in 1985.

I must say that this visit was a very positive experience for the Parish itself but also for us who participated. It was praised and appreciated by Parish Priest Mario Said, but also by all who accepted our invitation to participate.

Now is the time to continue our evaluation and start planning our next Franciscan Visit.

I would like to thank God for this moment of grace we lived together, the Parish Priest Fr. Mario Said, Fr. Nicholas Dimech, all helpers from Għaxaq that helped out, host families, all Friars for their great support and attendance and the Franciscan Sisters and lay, for their excellent collaboration – it was truly a feast of Franciscan unity and friendship.

May God continue to give us the strength we need to continue our work in his field.

Fr. Ramon Farrugia ofm