The month of December is synonymous with celebration of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. During the time of Advent and Christmas the Church not only reflects on the coming of our Lord in the event of the incarnation, but also on his glorious coming at the end of time.
This season in the Church’s year is also a special time for the Seminary. The premises don many Christmas decorations. The community’s daily programme is slightly altered. During Advent, the seminarians and their formators meet in the Chapel earlier in the mornings, at 6.10am, to pray together the Office of Readings. Also, during this brief liturgical time the formators daily share a brief homily during mass. From the 15 December onwards, the community celebrated the Novena in preparation for Christmas. Each day during mass, one of the seminarians shared a reflection about different figures in the crib. This theme was the same one adopted by the Diocese of Gozo on the occasion of the 800 anniversary from when St Francis made the first crib in Greccio.
During advent the Seminary community also organised a vocational meeting for the altar servers above age 13. This moment of prayer and adoration took place on Tuesday 12 December. Those who attended were then invited to dinner at the Seminary. On Wednesday 20 December, the seminarians spent an afternoon together as a community at Manresa House in Victoria, doing a fraternal correction under the guidance of the spiritual director Rev. Tony Calleja SI.
The first term at the Seminary came to closure on the 22 December. In the evening, at 6.00p.m., H.E. Mgr Anton Teuma, Bishop of Gozo, celebrated mass at the Seminary chapel, together with the formators, the seminarians and their families, the Franciscan sisters, and the members of the association ‘Aħwa-ħbieb tas-Seminarju’. After mass, all present gathered for a reception in the refectory to exchange their wishes for this festive season. Later in the evening, the seminarians went home with their families for two weeks of Christmas holidays. They will return back to the Seminary on Monday, 8 January 2024, to commence the second term.