Hajja Salesjana January-March 2021

H AJJA S ALESJANA A brief introduction of yourself, your family and your studies. I was born in Victoria, Gozo, in 1959 in a family of seven. A memory that I also carry and cherish is the sense of peace and happiness that somehow has marked my family experience. I had the normal course of studies: kindergarten, primary and secondary school in Victoria, Gozo, and then started the higher secondary as a seminarian in the Gozo Seminary. I stayed in the seminary until the end of the 1st year Philosophy. 1. How did you come to know Don Bosco? The familiarity with Don Bosco was already part of my family story before I was born. My father, George, was the only lay catechist at the Don Bosco Oratory since the beginning, 1949. All my brothers frequented the Oratory which was run by the Salesians until 1965. Fortunately for me and for so many other young people, the person in charge of the Oratory, Dun Karm Mercieca, continued following the same Salesian experience that was already in place. To be honest, at the age of six, when I started frequenting, I was not aware of the difference that was taking place. Don Bosco remained alive as ever before. I firmly feel and believe that these have been the furnace of my vocation, the example of my father, that of the priest in charge, especially Dun Karm, were part of God’s plan for me. The fact that after the first year of Philosophy I joined the Salesians, that is in 1978, I see it now as a natural outcome of what was lived all those years of childhood and adolescence. 2. Fr. Fabio Attard SDB Mill-album tal-Familja Salesjana 14