Read below the message delivered by Auziliary Bishop Joseph Galea Curmi during the SDS Seminar: ‘Discovering and Caring for the inner self – 10 years of Prayer Spaces’ at Dar San Ġużepp in Sta Venera.
Thank you very much Fr Reuben, Phil, Fr Paul, Silvana, Ben, Glen and all of you for taking part in this event.
My homilies are short, and this message will be short too. First of all, a word of gratitude to all those who have started and developed this initiative of Prayer Spaces over the years. When we look back, we see how much God has worked through so many people who have helped the students pray. Students have many questions. Prayer Spaces can help them understand the real deep questions they have in their lives. More than necessarily providing answers, Prayer Spaces can help them make the right questions. So, first of all, a word of gratitude – thank you very much to all those, over the years, who have worked and who are still very much active and involved in Prayer Spaces in our schools and communities.
Together with gratitude, a word of encouragement. You have shared your good experiences. These are experiences of best practice. I want to encourage in this. You are doing something which is very positive, very helpful for students; and also, as you mentioned, for their parents, their families. Ultimately, it’s good for all the community, because it is not just helping a student to go in his or her inner self, but also linking this to the community. So I want to encourage you to continue with this positive experience.
Finally, a word of hope. In our work, we plant seeds. It is always like that in education. We do not immediately see the fruits of those seeds, maybe at times we might never see the results. I want to quote words attributed to Saint Oscar Romero – though they were not really his words but explain the way he carried out his mission. I think these words sum up what you are doing – I see in them what I am trying to do in my ministry. This is the quote: “This is what we are about: we plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation realising that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”
May these words be a source of inspiration to all of you involved in Prayer Spaces. Do work with this spirit. Thank you very much.
✠ Joseph Galea-Curmi
Auxiliary Bishop of Malta