We students (Joseph Ciappara and Walter Vassallo) have been longing for such an experience for quite a while. Thankfully our province presented us the opportunity to do a hermitage for a second time after the one we had done at Gozo by Fr Noel Muscat ofm on the Hermitage rule by St. Francis. This time this experience was to be done in Sicily. As it was expected, this was a very good experience and we benefited a lot from it.

It gave fruit and we believe will continue to give. We lived very beautiful moments of prayer, contemplation, meditation and fraternal joy. We Maltese where the first to arrive at Ispica, which was a good thing, because we got to settle down beforehand and start to enter into the rhythm which the hermitage demands.

This Hermitage experience was led by two friars, fra Grazziano a deacon and fra Alberto who will be ordained deacon next June. As a programme it was very freely set. We were free to add any suggestions or change anything according to the needs of each of us. As an official programme we started the day with the Office of the readings, meditation and Morning Prayer. Then off to prepare and have some breakfast, after which we would gather and read the Gospel. After the reading of the Gospel, fra Alberto gave a brief explanation of the Word just proclaimed, and then everyone would retire somewhere to meditate the Word. That was till a quarter to noon, after which we would pray the Midday prayer.

Then we all helped out in the kitchen to cook food and prepare the table. All meals always lasted more than usual, since it was always a fraternal moment and an opportunity to share experiences. After settling the kitchen one was free either to continue meditation, to do some manual work or to go and rest for a while. The next meeting was always at half past four, when fra Graziano gave a Franciscan outlook, based on the writings of Saint Francis. After that we had an hour or so of meditation till half past six, after which we would go to celebrate Mass. Since the hermitage experience was all based upon the proclaimed Word, we celebrated Mass in the evening so that the Word which was proclaimed would have already been meditated upon and prayed. After Mass we would return to the hermitage to pray Vespers and have a moment of sharing, where we would share how that particular day was experienced or what the Word actually told to one’s being. After vespers we usually all gathered in the kitchen, prepared some food, ate and talked. It was a very familiar environment and the way which the programme worked out was very clever.

The structure of the Hermitage was freely organized to accommodate those who had to go to work during the day. We where only five of us, who officially where doing the Hermitage all day. But then we where open enough to accommodate others who could not make an entire day. In fact far Alberto used to repeat the explanation in the afternoon for all those who could not make it in the morning. This was a very positive thing, because this meant that anyone could attend the Hermitage and this made it even more enriching, because each would share how the spiritual life is lived in the different states of life. We really were of great example to each other.

This was in short our experience. We would like to thank the Lord for this intense moment where we could stand alone in silence and in His presence and for the persons that He gave us to meet during these days. It was a huge spiritual benefit to us and hope it will also be to the fraternity that we live in.

by Joseph Ciappara OFM