Clive Mifsud sdb

On the 8th of December, feast of the Immaculate, Matthew Alfino and myself will be celebrating our 3rd ‘complemese’ at the Salesian Novitiate in Pinerolo. It has till now been a great experience during which we are preparing ourselves for our first Profession which, God willing, should take place next September. We are living this experience together with 9 other novices: 6 from Italy, with the other novices coming from Romania, Austria and Slovenia. During weekdays, together with the rest of the community, we live our normal day-to-day routine while sharing moments of prayer, recreation and study. On the other hand, we spend our Sundays in apostolate at the Oratorio S. Pietro e Paolo and Parco del’ Valentino in central Turin.

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to attend for our Spiritual Exercises at Loreto, focusing on the journey made by the Patriarchs in the Old Testament, and how this was modelled by the lives of various Salesian saints. A couple of days later, we even had the opportunity to welcome Fr. Eric Cachia at the novitiate house, who visited us in view of the Curatorium meeting held on the 22nd of September.

While promising all of you our continuous prayers, we ask you to pray for us during this journey!

It is always a breath of fresh air when you come face-to-face with your own self … your true identity … and this year’s SPYS weekend has helped all participants to come in touch again with our Salesian roots. It started off by looking at SPYS’ vision statement. In a nut shell the aspect of holistic formation taken with optimism summarised all of our views with respect to SPYS vision statement that was first written way back in 1995.

SPYS weekend then revolved around the four Salesian pillars… school, home, playground and church. Some of us never heard about these four pillars at all, others have heard them being mentioned and for others, although familiar with the terms, have lost touch on how to apply them in our activities. Amidst all the energizers and activities, the four pillars were discussed in a way that each and every one of us could better relate to them so that we can better implement them in our different activities.

We all wished that there was more time to discuss further about certain issues but plans were made so as to continue building on this weekend. And amongst all the dates set and all the minutes taken, we also had time for some games and informal chats over a glass of wine and some chocolate.

Thanks to all the organisers for this successful weekend whereby new friendships were born and old ones were strengthened, established aims were reinforced and new ideas dreamt for our way forward for the coming years.

written by Ruth Zerafa