Receive the Power!!! (WYD 08 theme based on Acts 1:8)

170 nations
450 youth festivals
Catechesis at 235 locations: 29 different languages
1000 Priests welcoming people for Confession.

100,000 young people sleeping in
400 schools and parishes.
Over 12,000 pilgrims in Sydney Olympic Park.
40,000 pilgrims hosted by Australian families.

8,000 volunteers
4,000 priests and deacons,
420 Bishops,
26 Cardinals
The Pope.

24 People Confirmed
by the Pope at the Final Mass.

235,000 faithful attending the night time Vigil
400,000 people attending Closing Mass
1 billion world wide viewers.

All children of God,
united in Jesus Christ
one in the Holy Spirit!

Why?
To be renewed in the Holy Spirit,
To be witnesses unto the ends of the world!!! :-)

It is our calling too!

“ You will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth!"
(Acts 1:8)

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statistics found HERE

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And here’s another lovely video:

Come Holy Spirit!

I think this is beautiful:

Come Holy Spirit

enkindle within us

the Fire of Your Love!

Fill us with zeal

for God's Holy Word,

that we may proclaim it

through deeds and words

with love!

Happy B'Day Chri! :-)

We’re pretty used to it: we are out and people are scratching their forehead trying to figure out how you and I are soooooo different! They look at me in shorts and t-shirt and I’m ordinary. Then they look at you all smart and dressed up and go: “Are you REALLY sisters?”

We have all been given Christian/Biblical names and yours, as you know, means “Beautiful Christian”. You couldn’t have been given a more appropriate name :-)

...Yeah we fight like cat and dog (and no it’s NOT always MY fault – on the contrary it is OBVIOUSLY always YOUR fault :-P) but, like you know, you are as loved as Faith and Talitha.

So this day, being your birthday, this post is for you :-) You are called “Christabel” because you ARE beautiful …not just in how you look but furthermore in that you are Christian and love God.

Happy Birthday

Christabel! :-)

Let no one disregard you because you are young,

but be an example to all the believers in the way

you speak and behave, in your love, your faith and your purity.

(1 Tim 4:12)

…and keep up your GREAT ART :-)

…we all know you paint beautifully!!!! :-)

I call you friends! (Jn 15:15)

6th Sunday of Easter (Year B)

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Jesus loves me this i know....

The above was the screen i found when i opened the laptop just 5 mins or so ago. Faith is our -my siblings and my- youngest sister. She is ten years and today, being sick, she missed school. She had been playing with the laptop and stuff and before she left she decided to pass a message i guess :-)

I know that God loves me - as he does ALL of us! Yet these are the words of a 10-year old trying to remind me ...just in case i did not know ...or ever forget! ;-)

Well Faith passed to me that messsage and now i pass it on to you who visit this little page:

KNOW AND NEVER FORGET!! :-)

Remain in Me! (Jn 15:4)

Every week i am blessed in that i get to prepare a simple powerpoint with all of Sunday's readings, to be used at Mass. It's a GREAT way for me to reflect upon and understand better the Word of God. Hopefully it also helps the children - and all at church - understand the readings better.

The presentation below is last Sunday's Gospel (in English - the original powerpoint is obviously ;-) in Maltese) I'm embedding it because today the Church, during Holy Mass, reads the same Gospel... :-)

5th Sunday Of Easter (Year B) Gospel In English

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May we truly remain in Jesus

that we may bear much fruit

...that God may be glorified! :-)

Behold Your Mother! (Jn 19:27)

Then Jesus said

to the disciple:

"Behold your Mother!"

From that

moment on

the disciple

took her

into his home"

(Jn 19:27)

Mary is

Our Mother!

Happy

Mother's Day

Mary Most Holy!

Malta's Second Apostle

...the ONLY declared Maltese saint!!!!!

I will not be writing much i'll just say a few things namely that:

This priest was expected to die about three times before he was ordained a priest! As a young boy, one time, he almost drowned. Another time, a young man - to prove how strong he was - arms outstretched held little George in air: from the "San Gejtanu" bell tower!!!

Few days before his Ordination, George was sooo sick that the doctor told his parents to prepare his clothes for burial rather than those required for the Ordination!

So: physically he was never the strongest. As a child NOT ONLY wouldn't the children choose him for games they'd give him "free" to other teams!!

...but well God uses the little! :-)

St. George Preca (1880-1962) lived and loved Christ with all his heart. Because he KNEW Christ he wanted to share Him and His teachings with everyone! He would speak with men about God at the "dockyards", he would teach in the streets, train people to be Catechists, gather children for catechism and work unceasingly to bring people to God!

It was THIS saint who started the M.U.S.E.U.M. ie: the society which, for the past decades has been the main/primary "agent" in Malta - concerning in the catechesis of children, young people and all those wanting to learn about God.

He was a humble priest but one who would not stutter where Truth was concerned. He knew Truth and would not compromise it ...he was firm and would shout if need be too ;-)

A Museum is a place where valuable and priceless items/artefacts are kept and treasured. St.George named this society such because it's aim was - and is - to share the Word of God with all people and he would say that there is nothing more precious than the Word of God. :-) For this reason he spoke to the people about this Living Word of God and had all those teaching wear a badge with the words: "Verbum Dei Caro Factum Est" ("the Word of God took on flesh" - John 1:14) ...which they do unto this very day! :-)

Malta is very small but God never forgot the smallest of people. He would not allow st.Paul to have his own way (see Acts 27:10) and so he was made to come here! (see Acts 28)

Now centuries later he had sent to us another "apostle" to remind us of God's love and proclaim His Word yet again only this time it will not be JUST for us but also for others!

Today the Society is spread all over the world! It's members have opened schools and Museums (of Catechesis) practically everywhere! They go to most countries spreading the Word of God and serving. They continue to serve even the poorest of people in third world countries!!!

This holy priest's wish and prayer had come true:

M.U.S.E.U.M.

Magister Utinam Sequatur Evangelium Universus Mundus!

(Master, that the whole world may follow the Gospel!)

I am a Maltese Catholic and

i am thankful to God for this MALTESE Saint! ;-)

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St. George Preca was called "Blessed" (ie: Beatified)

by Pope John Paul II, in Malta, on the 9th May 2001

and was declared a saint

by Pope Benedict XVI, in Rome, on June 3rd 2007.

You can read about him by clicking HERE :-)

Shepherd's Care. (Jn 10:11-18)

4th Sunday Of Easter (Year B) Gospel English

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u din bil-Malti: (Il-Qari kollu tal-Jum :-)

4th Sunday Of Easter (Year B)

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"Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to me.” (Mk 3:35)

This morning I was a little mad at myself.

The painting you see above is one we have in our church and when I look at it I can stare at it for ages – I love it: I think it is beautiful!

I was kind of mad with myself because I couldn’t figure out WHY and HOWCOME I hadn’t taken a photo of it beforehand – to post on my blog for today! …but anyway… now I have taken a photo of it so i’m not mad at myself all that much ;-)

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We (rightly) place lots of importance on Mary but sometimes Joseph gets a little bit of a side bench: he is sooooooo very quiet that it’s quite easy to “forget” him – I often do anyway – and it takes a day like this to actually stop and think and go: OH YES ... ST. JOSEPH WAS A GREAT SAINT!

The Gospels do not record a SINGLE word of what Joseph ever said and yet I doubt he was mute! (…it’s just that his lines never made it to the final text I guess ;-)

Joking apart though, we can, from the Gospels conclude that st.Jospeh was a good worker for people identified Jesus as the son of “the carpenter”:

" Isn’t he the carpenter’s son? "

(Mt 13:55a)

The Church today remembers st.Joseph the worker and as we do, It also teaches us also about the dignity of human work.

He isn’t much spoken of in the Gospel but when he is he's one portrayed as an obedient child of God:

He is the one who "plans" to leave Mary “in all secrecy” because "in no way did he want to discredit her" (Mt 1:19) ...let alone have her stoned!

He is the one who furthermore accepts her lovingly and humbly when asked by the angel to do so. (Mt 1:24)

He is the one who accompanies Mary and the (unborn) child Jesus to Betlehem. (Lk 2:4,5)

He is the one who is caring for the both when this Holy Family is fleeing from Betlehem. (Mt 2:14)

He is the one who comforts Mary as they look for the missing boy Jesus. (Lk 2:41-45)

Indeed st.Joseph must have been a great worker but he was a GREATER worker in that he sought and did his very best to love and serve God. He is one spoken of as "an upright man" (Mt 1:19) in the Gospel...

…and sure enough he is “the carpenter” (Mt 13:55a) who works silently in his little workshop providing for his family!!

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If you read my blog you’ll notice that so far I often gave links by typing out the whole loooooooooooooooong adress. Well two days ago – after 6 months PLUS of 'blogging' – (man I am REALLY slow sometimes!) I discovered that there’s this magical function ;-) which enables me to just type a word and link it rather than put the whole loooooooooooooooooong link! So today I’m using it:

Click HERE to read what the Church teaches on human work.

and/or HERE to go to - and read - a lovely booklet about st.Joseph (published by the Catholic Information Service :-)

and this below, is a video I just found (today) and one which I liked:

This you tube was uploaded/is property of Ipitube)

...or click HERE to view it full screen! (see that is another "thing" I unexpectedly found: you take ‘a’ line out of the “embed” script and - lo and behold - it gives you the video in FULL screen ...magics!!!! ;-)

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…anyway the bottom line is this:

many dads are (unknowingly) holy and for those who are still working on it/continue to work towards holiness st.Joseph’s example is ideal:

he served

quietly and lovingly! :-)