This day was characterised by the precence of the Archbishop of Malta Mgr Paul Cremona OP. The day began at 9.00am with moments of prayer before the assembly came together. The roll call was held and was followed by the reading of yesterday’s minutes. These were both read and approved.

A talk by the Archbishop was the next item on today’s agenda. The main element of his talk was based on the expectations that the Church has from the Franciscans here in Malta. His main thesis was based on what Saint Franicis was for his time; and what the Franciscan should be for the world of today. He explicitly stressed that we have to be of more service to the Church; while he
moved on to highlight four very important fundamentals. These being:

1. That the Church does not interact as a church per se; but from the ‘Love’ that Christ radiates towards and for ‘His’ church.
2. That what is indeed specific in the Christian Religion is that the consecrated, individual person knows that he should be and is Christ-centred.
3. That the Church is the visible sign through which the community grows and knows its basis in order to continue to exist.
4. That we do not have to consider how we give Glory to God; but rather that ‘we’ have to be the Glory of God.

A short break followed the Archbishop’s talk; after which all friars gathered to form four workshops to discuss, one of the four, salient and important imputs that the Archbishop had offered for our reflections, individually within each working group.

After an hour of group work, the four groups gathered together to share and discuss the outcome of their discussions. Each group had to come up with one practical affirmation to offer to the whole assembly.

The Session concluded at 12.30pm