This summer 5 young people together with Fr Mario Abela osa will go to Kenya to do missionary work together with the Augustinian Friars. We asked them how they found out about this experience. Thank you for this choice to spend part of the summer for others in poor countries like Kenya.

Mireille Gauci: For me this is the first experience of voluntary work that I will do. I have always had the desire to help others who are in need. This opportunity came by chance because a person close to me saw the advert on social media and knew that I have the desire to go and help in the mission. I am an early years teacher and as a job I look after and teach very young children.

I have always had the desire to help children who are in need. When I am teaching I remember children who are perhaps not so fortunate and who do not have the opportunities that the children I am teaching have. Since this will be my first missionary experience I don't know what I will find there but I think I will find poverty that we have never experienced. I encourage young people to do this experience that will definitely serve them for the rest of their lives and learn from it.

Antonio Chetcuti: I had been seeing stories of people going on a mission for these last years, and a year and a half ago I approached a person who was part of the Amigos group. I quickly spoke to Fr Mario, but that year we did not have the opportunity to go. This year God willing we are going to live this experience in communities in Kenya where people are living life with a different dynamic than maybe we are used to. I had the impression that the mission starts the moment you arrive there, but in reality it starts a long time before! Thanks to the help of people who have already done the experience before us, work is being done to collect funds for these communities. Many thanks to you too, who always give your help to make this mission a success

Raisa Mifsud: The Amigos group gives me the experience to discover this area of volunteering, both locally and abroad. I have always liked to keep myself involved in the field of volunteering because apart from giving me the opportunity to give a little of what I have, it also gives me the chance to get closer to myself and discover more the value of life. Each experience is unique and brings you face to face together with different personalities and situations. Together with my friends of Amigos we look forward to work together in three villages in Kenya.

Mariana Grima: I wasn’t sure whether to make that phone call to go on missionary work in Kenya or not as I was afraid of the commitment involved. However, in the end I called Fr Mario and from then onwards we have worked as a group to get as much funds as possible to help the poor in buying food, medicines, stationery for school children, building wells and houses. Please pray for us so that we show them love, happiness and help them freely and unconditionally. A big thank you to everyone who participated in the activities we did and to those who donated. It is thanks to you that this work is possible.

Nicholas Ferry: Every year I feel that the Lord calls me to do a missionary experience and this year I chose to go to Kenya. This decision came after I realized that I wanted something more from the experiences I had done before in Malta, and when I discovered that there was someone I knew going with the Amigos I made more courage. Thank you very much for your support and I assure you that your contributions will go to people who are truly in need.

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There is an ongoing and significant need for donations to support our mission work, and we would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to continue assisting us in our efforts. Kindly consider sending your donations through one of these channels:

Bank Transfer: MT58VALL22013000000040010188817

SMS:

50617357 għal donazzjoni ta’ €2.33

50618085 għal donazzjoni ta’ €4.66

50618905 għal donazzjoni ta’ €6.99

50619206 għal donazzjoni ta’ €11.65

Cheque addressed to:

Fr Mario Abela OSA

Patrijiet Agostinjani,

Kunvent San Tumas minn Villanova,

Triq J. Zammit Tabona,

Pietà, PTA1331

Revolut: +35679255936

Over two weekends, the 'Amigos' missionary group organizes a fundraiser event for their mission by selling Maltese Traditional Figolli during the Lent period. The Figolli were sold by volunteers, including a group of five young individuals who will be embarking on a missionary experience in Kenya next summer. This activity took place on the parvis of various churches, which warmly welcomed the group and collaborated in this initiative.

Despite the significant amount of preparation required for this activity, such as calculating the quantity of Figolli and arranging for their distribution and sale within the churches, the joy on the faces of these young volunteers as they collect each donation is indescribable, a unique experience that can only be derived from volunteer work. It is worth noting the hundreds of individuals who purchased Figolli during the activity, a testament to the continued support for the mission and those in need.

There is an ongoing and significant need for donations to support our mission work, and we would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to continue assisting us in our efforts. Kindly consider sending your donations through one of these channels:

Bank Transfer: MT58VALL22013000000040010188817

SMS:

50617357 għal donazzjoni ta’ €2.33

50618085 għal donazzjoni ta’ €4.66

50618905 għal donazzjoni ta’ €6.99

50619206 għal donazzjoni ta’ €11.65

Cheque addressed to:

Segretarjat Missjonijiet Agostinjani

Patrijiet Agostinjani,

Kunvent San Tumas minn Villanova,

Triq J. Zammit Tabona,

Pietà, PTA1331

Revolut: +35679255936

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.

The feast of Saint Rita is celebrated these days in all Augustinian churches and also in several other churches. In the Parish Church of Saint Augustine in Valletta and in the Church of Saint Augustine in Victoria Gozo , it is celebrated precisely on its liturgical day on May 22. Apart from various celebrations along the day, a devotional pilgrimage will be held in Valletta at 5.45pm and mass will than follow at 7.15pm. The devotional pilgrimage in Victoria Gozo starts  at around 7.15pm after the 6.30pm mass.

Meanwhile, on a general request, the Maltese Augustinian Province published a new edition of the book "Santa Rita minn Cascia" by fr. Peter Paul Cachia. In it you will find the life of Santa Rita according to new historical findings, as well as various prayers to Santa Rita, including the prayer for the fifteenth Thursday, the Kurunella and the Litany of Santa Rita. The book, of more than 160 pages, and containing various photos is published in full colour.

A new publication with the text of the first three books of the Confessions of Saint Augustins was launched during an enjoyable evening held at The Santa Rita Priory Saint Julians on April 21. The Publication brings to light once again a wonderful Maltese translation of the first three books of the Confessions of Saint Augustine by fr. Ugolin Gatt O.S.A. and Karmenu Vassallo. These translations had actually appeared for the first time in the Augustinian journal "Santa Rita" between the year 1956 and 1963. In this Publication, the Editors Mr. Ivan Said and Rev. Dr. Jonathan Farrugia are presenting these texts together for the first time, adding to them a study on the same Confessions of Saint Augustine and on the translators themselves. It was actually their friendship, and the admiration they both had for Saint Augustine, which years ago led Professor fr. Ugolin Gatt O.S.A. and Poet Karmenu Vassallo to collaborate together on the translation and notes for the Confessions. Unfortunately this work had only reached the third book of the Confessions.

As the Prior Provincial wrote in a short message in the publication, this book "should serve both to provoke the desire and love  for the texts of Saint Augustine and particularly the Confessions, but also to shed light on the two Maltese scholars P. Ugolin Gatt O.S.A. and Karmenu Vassallo who made a valuable contribution in their respective fields." Special thanks to Mr. Ivan Said who initially thought of this project and to rev. Dr. Jonathan Farrugia, Head of the Department of Patrology in the Faculty of Theology, who collaborated with him so that today we can have this text in our hands. This text, adds up to the series of studies and texts of Saint Augustine published by the Maltese Augustinian Province in the Maltese language.