Greetings from the Mdina Carmelite Community. In our last newsletter contact for Holy Week and Eastertide we announced that this year, starting from April 2, Carmelites around the world will be commemorating the 450th anniversary of St Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi’s birth. In the past months, at the Priory we have commemorated this occurrence with a liturgical celebration in April 2 as well as with talks and distribution of booklets, provided by the Carmelite Maltese Province, containing a short biography, prayers and meditations of the saint. We are also half way through the Jubilee year of Mercy. In the last months our Church and Priory hosted groups of people who stopped by for a moment of prayer and perhaps to listen to a talk on Mercy, before proceeding to the Holy Door at the Cathedral Church. During these visits texts and prayers of St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi are used around the theme of mercy.
At the Priory our schedule of events proceeded mainly with intense liturgical celebrations proper to Eastertide. These celebrations included the Seven Joys of Mary popularly known as L-Erbgħat tal-Madonna tal-Karmnu. Other special occurrences included the monthly retreats for Carmelite friars and lay Carmelites, the Eucharistic week from Corpus Christi to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, professions in the Third Order and quite a good number of devotees enrolled in the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Other events include also courses, lectures and seminars, lectio divina groups and the monthly Titus Brandsma Circle meetings. Some weeks ago the programme for seminars and courses organized by the Carmelite Institute Malta, the Faculty of Theology and the Priory has come to an end. On this level it was a fruitful and successful year having quite a good number of participants for these courses. For those interested details of the upcoming MA Programme of Studies in Spiritual Theology are already online. In the coming weeks the Programme of Studies for the Courses offered by the Carmelite Institute Malta will be online.
We are still carrying on with maintenance work on the Church’s electricity system damaged by a lightning. This is quite and expense but hopefully we will manage to cover the costs and finish work in the following months. We apologise to visitors for any inconvenience.
Festa is approaching! This year the Novena starts on July 14th. The whole Carmelite Family observes the feast on the 16th of July. The feast-day proper in Mdina falls on July 24th. We encourage you to participate in the celebrations. This year we are blessed to have in our church from the 23rd to the 24th of July the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel worn by Pope Saint John Paul II.
While extending our best wishes for the Summer Season we hope to welcome you at the Priory for the upcoming events.
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