Carmel is a late vocation. Born at Floriana forty eight years on. He married, lived for 23 long years in the UK working with the Postal Services, and returned to Malta for good after losing his wife to cancer.
Always deeply religious, widower with no children, Carmel sought the kindly light for life ahead. Eventually he discovered hope and challenge in the parish of Ta’ Xbiex near his elderly parents’ home at Gzira. He read and discussed Carmelite spirituality with the then pastor and provincial and eventually asked to join the Order. His postulancy took ten months in between stays at Ta’ Xbiex and at St Teresa’s in Cospicua. Then he was off to Genoa, where he completed his mandatory novitiate year at the venerable Varazze ‘desert’, the first such Carmelite institution on Italian soil.
Tuesday, 13th September 2010, was his great Carmelite day so far. At St Teresa’s church Cospicua, Brother Carmel of the Holy Spirit, that’s his full religious name, professed his vows as a Carmelite of St Teresa of Jesus. Flanked by his spritely father and some of his immediate family and friends, Brother Carmel was all radiant seeing that his fond dream was coming true. His joy was shared by a sizeable number of his adopted religious family.
Brother Carmel’s remaining formation in religious and priestly studies will take him to the Order’s international Teresianum in Rome, where he will follow regular courses at the Beda English College. His friends wish him all the best.
