The MUSEUM Issue 17 April 2015

CONTENTS Life at The Abbey a Story for the Year of Consecrated Life The Art of Joseph Pulo Annual General Meeting 2015 Liturgy and Architecture St Benedict’s Abbey, Vaals, Netherlands A Dream Unfolds The Foundation of the SDC To Sow the Seed of God’s Word Preca Community in Action Preca Community Website Cover: Artwork by Joseph Pulo

the MUSEUM

A Magazine of the Society of Christian Doctrine, founded by Saint George Preca No 17 April 2015 Contact: Society of Christian Doctrine - Preca Community Preca Centre - Forteviot 500 Sandy Bay Road Lower Sandy Bay 7005 ph 61 3 6225 1646 e-mail sdcpreca@optusnet.com.au This magazine is also available online at: www.precacommunity.org Design: Veritas Press, Zabbar, Malta

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“Our work is to pray, so we pray for the world”

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Life at The Abbey a Story for the Year of Consecrated Life

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en visitors enter the Jamberoo Abbey church, the first thing to strike them is the stunning h backdrop of full length glass windows behind the altar and tabernacle, bringing the beauty of God’s creation right into the heart of the church and allowing all who worship there to turn their prayer outward, for the world.

The impact of the windows is no accident, according to the Abbey’s guest mistress, Sr Therese, but is an integral part of the church’s original design.

“We are Benedictines and our work is to pray, so we pray for the world,” she says.

“The glass windows are a symbol of our prayer going out to the world and of the world coming to us, so we’re very connected with everything that’s going on out there. I try to assure our guests that even when they go home they can know that we are here praying for them and then I ask them to pray for us.”

Sr Therese says the life of The Abbey is ordered towards one goal – seeking God - and the whole structure of the day is focused on that seeking, both individually and together as a community.

“Our life is seeking God, with the Gospel as our guide and using the Rule of Benedict as our way of living the Gospel, with the underpinning of the vows,” she says.

In accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, there is a great focus on balance in daily life, with a schedule designed to provide time for prayer, work, leisure/community and rest.

The Sisters rise in the pre-dawn dark, and make their way to the candle-lit church for Vigils at 4.30am, the first of seven periods of liturgical prayer each day. They then have two hours for personal Lectio Divina/holy reading before Lauds and Eucharist. The rest of the morning is spent at work – either making candles for sale, working on the farm, giving spiritual direction, retreats,

or carrying out other tasks necessary for the hospitality of guests and the upkeep of the Abbey.

The work mornings are linked together with the praying of Terce at 11am. Then back to work until Middle Hour prayer and lunch (their main meal).

There is a time for rest or leisure before None at 3.30pm. Then more work until Vespers, supper and community time, and finally Compline at 7pm, before night silence descends.

Sub-Prioress, Sr Maureen Therese, says the way of life reflects an intense desire for God. “Because from the time you open your eyes in the morning until the time you go to sleep, your whole being is focused on God,” she says. “That’s what you want most of all.

“Our Abbess, Mother Mary Barnes, says that prayer is simply desire. And I think that’s a good way of describing our life here. It’s intense desire for God, and that reaches out to people in the world, all religions, all types of people.”

While their prayer reaches out to the world, the Benedictine Abbey at Jamberoo is an enclosed monastic community, which means that the nuns don’t leave the Abbey often, except on special occasions, or for more mundane reasons, such as buying supplies for the community or attending doctors’ appointments.

They live by the vows of Obedience, Stability and Conversion of Life.

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"our guests find the peace that is really there within themselves" Sr Therese says while at one level, Obedience means living under the authority of the Abbess, who “takes the place of Christ” (RB) in the community, it also has deeper implications.

“The way of my understanding and living Obedience is listening to what God is inviting me to at each moment and responding to that,” she says. “Because it’s not a servile,’ do this, don’t do that’ sort of thing – it’s about listening, and asking ‘what is God asking of me here?’

“Stability is a commitment to live in this place, with these people, for the rest of my life. So it’s very focused on living in community and our commitment to each other – to support each other, love each other, be there, be present, be Christ for each other. Because we’re on this journey together, and that vow really holds us together. It’s not always easy. But that’s what the call is. There are lots of positive aspects of that as well.

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“And Conversion of Life is, for me, the incorporation of living Gospel values authentically.

It involves things like chastity, poverty and so-on, but really, it’s living of the Gospel values, and that’s ongoing.”

For Sr Maureen Therese, the joys and challenges of community life reflect the joys and challenges of all the world.

“What I always remember when I look around the community is that every single person in the community reflects someone out in the world. We have the whole world in the community in the personalities, the characteristics, the difficulties, the good things, the bad things, the challenges.

So, it is very real. It’s not at all airy fairy. It’s about being together and supporting one another no matter how difficult it can be sometimes. We all came here for God. And that’s a very strong, deep bond.”

Hospitality is another characteristic of Benedictine life and the Jamberoo Abbey offers a peaceful, prayerful place for people to take time out of their busy lives and rest awhile with God. “That’s part of why we’re here. We’re here for the people,” says Sr Maureen Therese. “We’re here as a witness and as an ear, listening to them, providing space. I think that space and the silence is very precious.”

Sr Therese says she is often aware of how blessed the community is by the presence of guests.

“It’s really the presence of Christ,” she says. “To be present to another is really the way to receive the person, just as they are, to be open to them.

“I think when they come here, our guests find the peace that is really there within themselves.

Maybe the ambience, the beauty, and the silence, enables people to connect with that - the peace that is there, but is often stifled by the worries, the cares, the noise, the clutter that goes on. Coming here enables them to just go deeper within

themselves and to reconnect with who they are and who God is too, in their life.”

Under the guidance of the Abbess, the sisters have welcomed the Year of Consecrated Life as a time of thanksgiving and reflection on their vocation and on Pope Francis’ call for religious to ‘Wake up the World’, “I think that before I can Wake up the World I have to wake up myself,” says Sr Therese. “That’s where I have to begin and we as a community are called to wake up. It’s really the call to joy and to live with the awareness that we are the ones who bring Christ’s love, hope, faith and joy to others. We have to become Christ for each other, Christ for others, Christ for the world. That’s the great call. So my relationship with Christ is pivotal in all of this.

That’s what really matters.

“I think our gift to the world is really to live our life here at The Abbey authentically and faithfully, being ourselves, being who we really are.”

Debra Vermeer

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Joseph surveys a painting of St George Preca, St John the Baptist, Patron of the SDC, St Michael the Archangel, Defender of the SDC and St Paul, first Apostle of Malta 8

THE ART of

JOSEPH PULO J

OSEPH PULO, a resident of Malta is an artist whose main works

involve painting Christian themes and the local environment. His approach is minimalist style and his works reflect boldness. A distinct splash of colour which helps to create a ‘hard edge’ is Joseph’s approach to his work.

Since his first public exhibition in 1998, Joseph has continued with this technique drawing favourable comments from the press, art critics and the public.

In July 2012, Joseph held an exhibition on the fiftieth anniversary of the Death of St George Preca.

Joseph an unassuming man was ‘discovered’ by the SDC when he entered an exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the SDC in 2007. Since then, we have appreciated a rich and diverse deposit of paintings. Joseph has also been commissioned with paintings that draw on St George Preca and related topics for Australia and Malta.

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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

2015 Brompton also on 3 January and later joined us for dinner.

A workshop on Diet and Nutrition presented

by Estera Taylor, a Naturopath from Adelaide and a day excursion to the Barossa wine region was part of the programme for the four days of meetings.

Raymond Debono congratulates Joseph Martini on joining the SDC as an Associate

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e 52nd Annual General Meeting for 2015 h of the Society of Christian Doctrine - Preca Community was held at Aquinas College, Adelaide in early January.

The College is situated on Montefiore Hill where the statue of Colonel William Light stands. Light was responsible for fixing and surveying the site of the City of Adelaide in the summer of 1837.

Interstate Members gathered to reflect, pray and recreate. We also had the privilege of welcoming two guests from Malta, Carmelo Callus and Joseph Gauci. Before the AGM, Carmelo and Joseph spent some time in Melbourne, Victoria.

Carmelo and Joseph led us through a morning reflection based on Discipleship.

On Saturday afternoon, 3 January 2015, the SDC welcomed into its family two Associates, Cody Harwood from Hobart and Joseph Martini from Adelaide. The Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson presided at Mass held at Preca Centre, 10

Celebrating Milestones as Members of the SDC during the AGM were Carmena Farrugia - 65 Years, Joseph Cassar - 55 Years, Stan Drozdow 50 Years and Reno Gauci - 40 Years.

CELEBRATING OUR MINISTRY IN 2014 A highlight of the AGM was a presentation made by each Centre of the highlights of the year. Through these presentations, we further realised that the Preca Community is facing an ever-changing landscape. We are discovering new ways to do ministry so as to be effective in making the gospel a living reality by words and action.

These presentations not only provided a lookin as to what other Centres were doing but enabled us to look closely at how our missionary dimension can form and take shape in various regional and cultural settings.

A NEW ERA - THE ASSOCIATES of the PRECA COMMUNITY Cody Harwood from Hobart and Joseph Martini from Adelaide received the badge and were initiated as Associates of the Society of Christian Doctrine - Preca Community. Both have had considerable involvement in the work and spirit of the SDC and have chosen to join as Associates for which we are grateful.ยง

Jubilarians Stan Drozdow, Joseph Cassar, Carmena Farrugia, Reno Gauci

The Associates of the Society of Christian Doctrine are women and men, single or married.

This network of committed Christians come from all walks of life. They are people who value the particular contribution of the Society of Christian Doctrine based on the spirit of St George Preca, our Founder to the Church and want to be associated with these. The aim for the Associate is: “To unite with the Preca Family in its life of prayer and its task of proclaiming the gospel, and to grow in the realisation of one’s own role in that ministry.”

1. As brothers and sisters in Christ we are inspired to be Christ-like especially by being loving, meek and humble wherever we may be.

2. In the spirit of the SDC we strive to grow in virtue through prayer and by continually nourishing our spirituality

John Micallef Australian Delegate, Cody Harwood and Joseph Martini new Associates

especially through formation provided by the SDC. 3. True to the charism of St George Preca we commit ourselves to support the SDC ministry in making Jesus known and loved.

4. Faithful to the SDC tradition and to the Catholic Church we will always treasure the bond of love that unites us as one.

We pray that their time with us will be one of grace for them and their families.

The SDC has always had cooperative groups associated with our spirit. More recently the Associates are those who are further immersed into our mission and spirit, working side-by-side with us as we bring the Gospel to a reality for all those who are open to this invitation.

Joseph Gauci, visiting Member from Malta dons a traditional Australian hat with corks known as a hobbly-bob to ward off insects.

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LITURGY and ARCHITECTURE St Benedict’s Abbey, Vaals, Netherlands

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he community of the Benedictine Abbey of Vaals in the Netherlands was founded in an unused monastery in 1951. The Dutch monks pray “The Hours� eight times a day in Latin. They learn Latin on joining the monastery. This sense of unchanging in the daily pattern of the liturgy is also expressed in the architecture of the monastery.

The Benedictine Abbey was designed by German architects Dominic Boehm and Martin Weber. It began as a simple abbey with two towers and was left unfinished.

In 1968, Dutch architect Dom Hans Van der Laan (1904-1991) designed the main church, crypt which is used for large gatherings and an atrium. Later on and completed in 1986, Van der Laan designed the library; a sacristy and an open arcade around the cloister.

The designs of Dom Hans Van der Laan, a Benedictine who lived in the monastery are a perfect example of the Benedictine harmony between liturgy and architecture. Van der Laan developed an architectural language that was strongly driven by his Benedictine sentiments. He also condemned liturgical meaning through symbolism. Long before the Second Vatican Council, he made several plans to alter churches in order to enhance the celebration, stripping them from all ornamentation. He had much opposition in regard to his concepts.

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The abbey is simplicity in its form, consisting of square windows, unadorned pillars covered in grey paint. All the furnishings throughout the abbey are wooden built and echo the structure of the building. Even the sacred vessels, vestments and habit of the monks have a unified theme.

The absence of the Ambo in the main church is noticeable. The current Abbot, Dom Adrian said that Van der Laan was not convinced of its placement in the scheme of things so opted for a moveable lectern instead. Perhaps the moveable lectern was Van der Laan’s way of allowing liturgy to ‘come alive for us’. What is significant in the planning is the concept of two spaces, an inner and an outer. This becomes even more evident in the sacred vessels.

During the 1960s Van der Laan came across the works of Maurice Blondel (1861-1949), a French philosopher. Blondel who promoted the ‘new theology’ played a significant role in the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council.

Blondel provided Van der Laan with an awakening awareness on the process of cognition. This form focuses on the knowledge of the concrete and of the singular reality.

It was Van der Laan’s aim to define his architecture through this intertwined relation between mystery and matter, between intellect and senses.

Van der Laan’s book: The Play of Forms - Nature, Culture and Liturgy explains his method and the harmony he believes that should exist between liturgy and architecture. Applied to liturgy, it makes sense - in the liturgy we move among what is visible to make the invisible real. Throughout the abbey this was clear, that everything is integrated; thus creating an ‘expressivity of forms’, based on harmony.

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A DREAM UNFOLDS

THE FOUDATION

of the SDC P a rt 2

Part 1 may be found in the October 2014 issue of The MUSEUM - online at www.precacommunity.org

A Friendship Strikes Up

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r ior to being ordained a sub-deacon, George Preca befriended a group of young men specifically to guide them in holiness. This group met in the front of the parish church of Ħamrun enjoying each others company. Occasionally they would play football in an abandoned field just across the street.

This friendship started with George approaching these lads, asking for a cigarette in a pretext to start a conversation which gradually became spiritual, focusing on God, Christ and his Passion, and the Last Things.

This was a providential friendship. Some of these young men would be among the first Members of the Society that George Preca would found in a few years time. Prominent among these was Eugenio Borg, six years younger than George. He was also an apprentice at His Majesty’s Dockyard with good prospects of being employed as soon as his apprenticeship was successfully over. Entry into such an apprenticeship was possible through a competitive examination. At that time employment at the dockyard was one of the most desired because of its stability and a good wage at least by local standards.

Eugenio’s charisma made his friends refer to him as ‘Mr Eugenio’. Even George noticed his qualities and chose him as his closest confidant calling him by the endearing name of ‘Ġeġè’. He started inviting him for walks in the countryside outside Ħamrun on Sunday afternoons. For Ġeġè these were formation walks as they always included biblical exegesis under the shade of a tree. George used to explain an extract from an English bible which Eugenio had bought from the flea market in Valletta. These walks strengthened the bond between these two people, forging a master-disciple relationship which would bear fruit in the future and lead to sainthood.

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George Falls Ill

Weeks before George’s ordination to the priesthood, the meetings with his friends came to an abrupt end. Not even Eugenio could find him. They thought that he had abandoned them because his ordination would eventually make them unworthy companions. But the reason for the ‘disappearance’ of George was that he was seriously ill. He had a severe lung disease and one of his lungs was not functioning. The consultant gave him six months to live and advised George’s father not to make extensive preparations for the approaching ordination. But then the unpredicted occurred. On 22 December 1906, George managed to make it to St John’s Co- Cathedral in Valletta to be ordained a priest. For Fr Preca it was a ‘miracle’ that he attributed to St Joseph, whom he often prayed to.

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Time of Discernment

After his ordination Fr Preca spent a month at home going out only for daily Mass. He needed rest and quiet time to regain his health and to discern what God wanted him to do as a priest. An upper room on the roof of the house - the roofs in Malta are flat - served as his meditation cell. With January 1907 coming to a close, with his health recovered and his discernment complete, the newly ordained priest came out from his retreat determined to gather a community around him to educate others in faith.

He was convinced that this was God’s will for him.

His awareness of the ignorance in matters of faith among the Maltese and his experience as a catechist in his altar boy and seminarian years must have contributed to the decision. But to this we can add a mystical experience.

While he was a student at the Lyceum, George came to know Fr Louis Galea, known for his holiness and wisdom and who lived close to the grammar school. The young student chose him as his confessor and his spiritual director. He continued as his confessor in his seminary years as well. In April 1905, while George was sub-deacon, Fr Galea died at the young age of 54. George was stunned by his death. He couldn’t bear that he had lost him for ever. Eventually he met him one more time in a mystical way. It was an encounter that remained vivid in Preca’s mind ‘till his death and narrated by him many times. In a dream George saw Fr Galea approaching, wearing a cassock. They conversed and before he left George, Fr Galea delivered him this message, “God has chosen you to teach his people.”

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"And what you heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will have the ability to teach others as well."

t M h e ESU U 2 T i m oth y 2:2

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George used to say that he had almost forgotten about this experience but this must have been for a little while.

It must have come to mind in January 1907 and influenced his discernment and decision.

There was also an inspiration from the Bible. As Fr Preca acknowledged, 2 Tim 2, 2 was fundamental for the founding of his ‘community’, “And what you heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will have the ability to teach others as well.” We do not know when this verse inspired him. What we know is that during his self-imposed retreat in January 1907, Fr Preca was divinely inspired to choose youth and instruct them so that they will have the know-how and enthusiasm to catechise others. There is no doubt that such an inspiration fits the Pauline verse quoted above and so it can be appropriate to place the biblical inspiration to found the SDC in January 1907.

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Early Thoughts About His Society Fr Preca had an original Society in mind. It was not a carbon copy of another one. And most probably in January 1907 he began to write a rule for it, called Regula Eptangelorum, ‘The Rule for the Seven Angels’. He wrote it in Latin with the intention to send it to Pius X for his approval.

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Regula Eptangelorum is about a society under the authority of a Superior General with parish-based communities set up to educate the parishioners in faith. It was a Society of solely adult males for the benefit of boys and men. Each community was meant to be made up of seven deacons — ‘the seven angels’. They were to be deacons with a difference. Their formation was not given in a seminary and was not the same as that in the seminary. The Seven’s community was also a religious one with the usual vows of chastity, obedience and poverty and another unusual one of never seeking the priesthood and of renouncing honours. As a religious community they were to have their communal residence which apart from being a place of prayer and instruction, was to serve also as a working place for the deacons and a seminary where the Seven could train twelve young and celibate lay men as collaborators in the transmission of faith to the parishioners. The Twelve never took vows and led a secular life. The original name for the seven deacons was Petridi, ‘the sons of (St) Peter’, while the Twelve were the Pawlidi, ‘the sons of Paul’.

These two groups, especially the latter were undoubtedly the result of the inspiration from 2 Tim 2, 2.

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Before taking the necessary steps to put the inspiration into a reality, Fr Preca consulted Monsignor Louis Attard, his confessor.

He went to him for confession late in January 1907. They met in the Oratory of the Immaculate Conception at the Jesuit Church next door to the Lyceum. When Fr George explained his catechetical plans to the Monsignor, the latter’s reply was brief and precise, “Go and begin and make the necessary means.”

Eugenio B org

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t M h U e ES U M

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Meetings Begin With the approval of the parish priest of Ħamrun, that was what Fr George did. Fr Preca embarked on his first meeting with the future Members of his community. He recruited them from a bar. He went in, distributed holy pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and invited them to meet him on 2 February, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple or Candlemas, in a small chapel a couple of minutes walk from the parish church.

Those invited must have been a small group because the chapel, known as Ta’ Nuzzu by the locals, is small. They were to meet once a week.

Among these young men were some from the group Fr Preca had met in front of the Ħamrun church before his ordination. Ġeġè was one of them.

Nine years later, on 10 March 1916, while he was explaining the beginnings of his Society to the Diocesan Commission set up by the Archbishop to investigate the SDC, Fr Preca made it clear that he approached these young men to help them become holy and instruct them in theology so that they can help him in the parish catechism with which Fr Preca apparently had been associated with before 1907. We have evidence that some of these young men did help him out in the parish catechism during the meetings at Ta’ Nuzzu. It may have been also his undisclosed aim to realise his Regula Eptangelorum through them.

The meetings at the chapel took place only in February. On 7 March the group moved to a small house just a few metres away. It was rented by Fr Preca at 6 Fra Diego Street - and it soon became known as the Number Six or in an Italianised-Maltese form In-Numru Sej. Why did the Founder change venue?

Was the chapel too small? Or did he opt for a house under his complete control to have the necessary autonomy? Or did he opt for a house to serve as a residence and a teaching base for the seven Petridi?

It is difficult to give exact answers to these questions. What we do know is that the daily sermons at In-Numru Sej began attracting many, with the approval of the parish priest. All the boys, or at least most of them, that Fr Preca and his young men instructed at the Church, had their catechism lessons transferred to this house. Fr Preca had opened his first house for the catechesis of adults and young people.

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The Founder Moulds the Early Group

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At first there were no constraints on the men attending the group at the chapel and at In-Numru Sej. Everyone could attend. But Regula Eptangelorum required celibacy from those keen to lead a radical evangelical lifestyle. It didn’t take very long to make this clear. It was demanded of all married men to leave the group. Some of these were undoubtedly shocked and were reluctant to leave but the Founder was adamant. Then Fr George dared again to announce that his group was only for those who kept their hair really short, who did not wear ties and bow-ties and did not smoke. These practices were extremely countercultural. For it seems that in Malta of that time only prisoners, orphans and extreme people had hair that short. To dress without a tie or a bow-tie meant that you were never up to standard or that you were shabbily dressed while not smoking meant exposing yourself to be considered a nobody or that you haven’t really grown up. Abiding with these rules meant risking yourself being called ‘insane’ as those who accepted them eventually were. Undoubtedly some of the group left. They must have felt these practices more difficult than celibacy. To remain celibate is one thing, and to appear dim-witted, insane and appertaining to the lower dregs of society is another thing. This move by Fr Preca was radical indeed.

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To understand why the Founder insisted on such practices one must appreciate that he founded ‘his’ Society not solely for instruction in the faith but also to be prophetic, a visible sign of the beyond this life so that God may be glorified. He wanted them to be counter-cultural for the sake of the Kingdom. It was not only just a matter of appearances (and identity) because the Members were to be also prophetic inwardly, at the heart, modeling their lives on the greatest prophet of all times, Christ Crucified. To help them become disciples of this sort he initiated them in meditating the Crucified One through a booklet he had written since the early years of the Society, The Great Book, containing about fifty short but profound reflections on Christ on the cross. He also obliged them to pray and celebrate the Beatitudes through his Mons Domini, literally ‘the Mount of the Lord’, to assimilate them and in doing so assimilate the spirit of Christ, the most Blessed One. One would ask what drew young men to flock to Fr Preca to embrace such an austere way of life! We can presume that in the young priest, they met God’s Spirit who helped them acquire a new vision of life and convert their Catholic religiosity into authentic faith. Through Fr Preca they became convinced that this austere Evangelical life would bequeath them peace, because Christ’s spirit gives peace. And when in the early years the Members sought to give a name to the Society, Saviour Muscat proposed ‘Museum’ because museums conserve and value precious artifacts. So does the Society. It conserves and values the most precious object of all, peace. So the Society became known as the MUSEUM. It was more of a nickname but in Malta it held and continues today.

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TO SOW THE SEED OF GOD'S WORD Young people from Melbourne with their swimming instructors during a long weekend excursion to Apollo Bay

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Children from Preca Centre, Altona Meadows pray and dramatise the Stations of the Cross at Queen of Peace church, Altona Meadows.

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SDC Member, Michael MacDonald alias Henry VIII drops into the AGM in Adelaide

Fr Augustine Lape Okoth, a Catholic Priest from Mombasa Kenya addressed Members and young people from Preca Centre, St Albans on 13 April.

Fr Augustine, an enthusiastic preacher strongly believes that people are healed through the Word of God.

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RCIA Rite of Election

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Let Us Pray

St Patrick’s Cathedral Parish of Laverton Sunday 22 February 2015

Faithful God, you always work to save us and now we rejoice in the great love you give your chosen people.

Protect all who are about to become your children through baptism, and those who now seek full communion with us.

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Continue to bless all who are already baptised. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Rite of Election Opening Prayer

Ashley Dumesny (elect), Melissa Dumesny, Cathy Orelli, Zoe Paul (candidates) along with Damien and Enza Vujicic, Marianinha Vaz, Teresa Knap (godparents and sponsors), Fr John Healy (Parish Priest), Raymond De Bono, Michael Sammut (RCIA Team), family and friends.

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Launch of New Website www.precacommunity.org

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he Society of Christian Doctrine in Australia has recently launched a new website. The website which may be found at www.precacommunity.org was launched on 7 March 2015.

Features of the website include PRAYER REQUESTS and NEWS & EVENTS. ‘The Watch’ a prayer manual of hourly prayers compiled by St George Preca may be found on the website.

The term ‘Preca Community’ in referring to Members of the Society of Christian Doctrine is a term ad experimentum. It is not a rebadging of who we are but another way of expressing ourselves.

While we experiment with our name, our mission remains the same and that is to ‘sow the seed of the Word of God’.

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“The glass windows are a symbol of our prayer going out to the world and of the world coming to us, so we’re very connected with everything that’s going on out there. I try to assure our guests that even when they go home they can know that we are here praying for them and then I ask them to pray for us.”