* During Lent, a national pilgrimage enriched by the meditation on the fourteen Stations of the Cross, will be held in Rabat, Malta on the 8th April 2009. This Lenten meeting, led by his Grace the Archbishop of Malta, Mgr. Pawl Cremona, will start from St. Mary of Jesus Church. The Friars will animate the meditations with reference to the Pauline writings of the New Testament.

* In May-June 2009, The Minister Provincial Fr. Sandro Overend, will be also attending the General Chapter of the Order of Friars Minor to be celebrated in Assisi in this special year.

* In September there will be various celebrations organised by the Franciscan family in Malta to commemorate 800 years of Franciscan presence in the Church.

* On the occasion of the 800th Anniversary of the founding of the Order of Friars Minor by St Francis of Assisi, all the Friars of the Franciscan Province of St. Paul the Apostle in Malta (OFM) will celebrate the event on Sunday, 4th October 2009 in the Church of St. Mary of Jesus Church, in Valletta where the actual Provincial Curia is situated.

On this day, at 17.30 hrs, there will be a con-Celebration presided by his Grace Mgr. Mario Grech, the Bishop of Gozo. All the friars of the Province will gather together to thank the Lord for their “vocation in the heart of the Church”. { cfr. Ven John Paul II post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Vita Consecrata” – In effect, the consecrated life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission, since it ‘manifests the inner nature of the Christian calling’ and the striving of the whole Church as Bride towards union with her one Spouse (VC 3)}.

More news on the Pauline year and the 800th Anniversary of the Order of Friars Minor will be given in the near future.