Seminarians hooked me to the virtual. I hope that’s not because they got tired from hearing me for real. So here I am to welcome you to the Seminary reality. What are we about?

The lauching of the website comes in the middle of many activities at our Seminary in Rabat (Malta): signing the collective agreement with our employees, a splendid Christmas village organized by the Minor Seminary school commnity, an evening of reflection, humour and food with family members and benefactors of seminarians and a fundraising meal on Saturday. But why all this? What are we about?

In this business I managed to find some time for reading and music. What I found there could give a good voice to what I cherish. In a theological commentary on Tolkien’s The Hobbit (in Thinking Faith) Alison Milbank notes: “I’ll quote from the novel what Thorin, the head of the dwarves, says to Bilbo when he dies: ‘I go now to the halls of waiting… Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth, I wish to part in friendship… If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.’” I read this while listening to OneRepublic – one of the contemporary pop groups in the music scene:

“Lately, I’ve been, I’ve been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
But baby, I’ve been, I’ve been praying hard,
Said, no more counting dollars
We’ll be counting stars.”

And when you discover the beauty of counting stars you recognize the star that leads you to the manger – to the child, God-with-us. There you see what is essential, what we should be about: simplicity, presence, goodness. He sends us back to the person in front of you for REAL. Be present to him/her and practice goodness. This is what we are about: learning to be human.

Fr Jimmy Bonnici