Albert Fenech
I am now entering my 80th year – not a time to be so curious and not a time to ask so many questions and wonder why this was that and that was this!
Yet, this is what my brain is doing and struggling to understand why in my past I could and should have asked many questions which today remain unanswered!
I still think of my parents Frank and Pauline every day. I am NOT a religious person, but if there is an afterlife I hope they are enjoying it but my question is when they were alive and my brain was in thinking mode, why oh why did I not ask questions which remain unanswered and are still a mystery to me today?
My mother Pauline nee Mallia was a homely housewife who died 15 years ago aged almost 90. She had left school aged 14 – a normal custom for a girl in those days – to help her mother Giovanna who had six children and a husband to feed and take care of and also to gain working experience for her future marriage.
By standards in those days she must have been intelligent because she was highly literate and responsive to her environment and remained likewise throughout her life.
She was not a highly religious woman but a person who did her Roman Catholic faith duties as required, attending Holy Mass when necessary and ensuring that my brother Edward and I did likewise without fail. She also sent us to an RC school administered by the nuns of the Sisters of Egypt.
I clearly remember that her two uppermost religious venerations were The Redeemer and St Rita of Cascia – for which we had effigies at home.
Why these two? That is my Why oh Why lack because I never, ever asked her why but took them for granted.
Later research showed me that both these characters represented human suffering but endured deep sorrows to help others.
The Redeemer was not an actual person but a carved effigy of Jesus Christ which is to be found in the Senglea Parish Church, a figure of Jesus suffering under the weight of the cross and from being beaten as he crawled up Calvary Hill to be crucified.
My dear mother had an affixation on this and without fail at Easter time we paid a visit to Senglea – across the other side of Malta – to venerate the effigy. In those days, crossing from one side of Malta (in this case Gzira/Sliema to Senglea) was most unusual and beyond the thoughts of many!
The effigy holds a long and significant history. Built in 1742 by sculptor Saverio Laferla and placed within the Oratory of the Holy Crucifix, it became a focal point of devotion, especially during a plague outbreak in 1813. The statue is revered in Senglea and throughout Malta, attracting thousands of devotees all year round but particularly during the annual processions where it is carried along the streets of Senglea.
My dear mother’s greatest devotion was to St Rita of Cascia, an Italian nun known as The Powerful Devotion for Impossible Cases and is often known as the “Saint of the Impossible,” and is one of the most beloved saints in the Catholic faith.
She is known for her unwavering faith, perseverance through suffering, and miraculous intercessions. Many believers turn to the Prayer to St Rita when facing challenges that seem insurmountable
.From the thousands of effigies and histories available, why did my dear mother turn to these as the most which satisfied her religious beliefs?She never suffered from basic material wants in life, never suffered physically from the burdens of life, never suffered hunger and deprivation and she was happily married throughout her life – barring the occasional hiccup in every marriage.
So, why did she choose these, and through my deep ignorance and stupid mental development, did I never ask her why?
Today, after much reflection I would place her devotion as being due to her thankful overall status but continual reflection of what it means to suffer physically and mentally and how humans should be protected from such burdens.
With my father Frank, these preoccupations were much clearer and did not need clarification. As a young Maltese (British) airman in 1944, he was posted to Foggia in Italy as the Allies spread their speedy way up the Italian peninsula to bring about Italy’s surrender.
His religious reverence was drawn to Padre Pio, the lone monk known for his frequent self-bleeding as a means for pleading to God to enable many hundreds of military personnel from suffering physical wounds and damaging. He had a number of prayer meetings with him and the nuns who looked after him.
Based on Padre Pio, my father dedicated his future life propagating his religious future love and prayers to those engulfed in the horrors of wars and the avoidance of pain, suffering and death to all creatures – whether human or animal.
By ALBERT FENECH
