A new Publication in memory of Cardinal Prospero Grech O.S.A.

"In Te Domine Speravi" is the title of a book published by the Order of St. Augustine in remembrance of the late Maltese Augustinian H. Emm. Mons. Prospero Grech who went to meet the Lord on December 30, 2019 at the venerable age of 94. The title of the book is in fact taken from the motto that the same cardinal chose when he was ordained a bishop in St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

In the last years of Cardinal Prospero Grech's life, there were several attempts with the Cardinal himself to write his biography. Meanwhile, the Italian writer, Mr. Ivan Marsura, had recorded some interviews with him with the intention of serving as memoirs and maybe material for a possible biography in the future. Unfortunately the sudden death of the Cardinal stopped this project. However, Mr Ivan Marsura continued to work on the texts of the interviews he had conducted and the collection of other material, in particular photographic material, which had been entrusted to him by the Augustinian Community of Santa Monica and the Augustinian General Curia in Rome.

All this was compiled into a wonderful 230 page publication published by the Antiga Edizioni publishing house in collaboration with the Augustinian Order. The publication contains not only transcriptions from Mr. Ivan Marsura's interviews, but also a number of texts by various people who wrote about him, including the text of the funeral homily by H.E. Monsignor Charles Scicluna, and experiences of His. Emm. Cardinal Mario Grech and Augustinian Provincial Fr. Leslie Gatt O.S.A. The book also contains a large number of color photographs, both of various episodes from his life, but also photographs taken by the same Cardinal who, as we all know, had a great passion for photography.

The book, which is in the Italian language, will now be on sale in Malta for €25 and can be obtained from Emmaus Bookshop, Preca Library, Millennium Chapel Bookshop and the Augustinian Province of Malta.

On November 6, the Augustinian Family celebrates the remembrance of the departed Augustinian brethren.

On Tuesday 9th November at 10am the Prior Provincial, together with several friars, celebrated a mass in the Chapel of the Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery commemorating the deceased friars. In his reflection he spoke on: the beautiful memories that all these brothers have left us; the sense of gratitude that we should all express as we celebrate what our predecessors lived and accomplished; and above all, the faith and hope that should fill our hearts as Christians who are still going through the walk of life. After mass those present paid their respects by visiting the provincial graves.

Between November last year and this year the Province lost Fr Xavier Mifsud who spent most of his life in service to the Universal Church abroad.

On Friday, November 26, 2021, Fr. Leslie Gatt was once again elected Prior Provincial of the Maltese Augustinian Province. The Maltese Augustinian friars, in the recent weeks voted to elect a Prior Provincial for the next four year term. The Augustinians have been in Malta for over 600 years, but this will eventually be the 67th provincial mandate since the founding of the Maltese Augustinian Province in 1817.

Fr. Leslie, who is ending a four-year term, will renew his mission as Prior Provincial in the upcoming Ordinary Provincial Chapter of the Maltese Augustinian Province which will officially open on March 15, 2022. This is a process that the Province holds every four years in which it will evaluate its realities and challenges, and renews its commitment in the Church and the Maltese society for the coming years.

Fr. Leslie was born in 1978 and was baptized in St. Augustine's Parish Church in Valletta. After various years of discernment, in the year 2000 he began the Novitiate in the Order of St. Augustine in Italy, and a year later he made his first profession of religious vows. In 2005 he was ordained a priest in St. John's Co-Cathedral by H. E. Mons. Joseph Mercieca, then Archbishop of Malta. He studied Maltese language, Philosophy and Theology at the University of Malta, and later continued his specialization studies in youth ministry and catechesis at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome.

Back in Malta, Fr. Leslie served in the Community of Rabat, in formation and youth work, and at St. Augustine College in Tal-Pieta and Marsa. Between 2014 and 2018, he served as rector of the same College and in 2018 he was elected Prior Provincial of the Maltese Augustinian Province.

We ask the Lord to bless Fr. Leslie in this mission that the Province is once again entrusting to him. We pray above all for the Maltese Augustinian Province at this moment of renewal which will be particularly celebrated in March and April 2022.

In a letter sent earlier this month, the Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, Fr. Alejandro Moral Anton, OSA, encouraged all the members of the Order to participate in the Synodal Journey of the Church formally opened by Pope Francis on October 9 and 10 2022

To animate the Order’s participation in this Synod, the Prior General created an international commission composed of friars, sisters and lay people: Fr. Enrique Martin Sanz, (Coordinator, Spain), Fr. Nolasco Msemwa, (Tanzania, Vice-Coordinator), Fr. Juan Francisco Costanzo (Chile), and Fr. Victor Gonzaga (Philippines); two Augustinian sisters, Sr. Fulvia Sieni (Italy) and Sr. Maria de la Eucharistia Figueroa Serra (Spain); and, 2 laities, Dr. Enilka Hernandez (Dominican Republic) and Dr. Joseph T. Kelley (United States of America).

In his letter to the Order, Fr Alejandro Moral Anton, quoted H. Emm. Cardinal Mario Grech’s homily on the feast of Saint Augustine last August in Rome, referring to the Augustinian vision of a ‘Synodal’ Church recalling that “for St. Augustine the idea of the Church as a community is inclusive and not exclusive, it is welcoming and open without distinctions or differences: its catholicity expresses a vocation to totality. Augustine’s ecclesiology not only confirms the synodal witness of the ancient Churches but is also a stimulus for the Church of today, which is called to engage in the synodal journey. The Church is not truly founded, nor does she fully live her mission, nor is she a perfect sign of Christ among us, until she has the ecclesiological profiles highlighted by the one who has been defined as – post apostolos onium ecclesiarum magister – the teacher of all the churches after the apostles: St. Augustine!”

The Prior General also invited the members of the Order to reflect on this synodal journey within the Order asking questions like: “How does this “walking together” take place today within the Order (friars, nuns, laity)? How do we live our participation in the Church, both local and universal? How do we enrich the ecclesial reality with our charism, and how are enriched in walking together with other charisms and vocations? What steps should we take to grow as a synodal Church? What does the Spirit ask of us today, what does the Spirit urge us to do?”