New parish calendar celebrates anniversary of Pisi's altar

The helpers who every weekend distribute the bulletin to our parish households, flocked to St George’s parish office last Thursday and Friday to collect their copies of the 2010 parish calendar, which was printed at Qala’s A&M Printing earlier last week.  The calendar is published at the start of every new year as a supplement to the parish bimonthly Il-Belt Victoria and is edited by the parish office team.

Retaining most of the original format, conceived by Fr Joseph Mercieca some ten years ago, this year’s calendar carries a new look in the presentation of the days of each month… now in a set of small boxes which show only the liturgical commemoration below the numbers, some of which also contain symbols representing the four moon phases.  A red column on the right-hand side has been reserved for special parish appointments of the month.  This slight change has been made to present the parish calendar of events in a more attractive style to those who want to know which are the main activities held at St George’s during the year.  In fact, the text itself is shown in a larger type.  On the other hand, being a religious calendar, this annual publication has sticked to providing the name of a saint or feast for each and every day of the year.  Many people still expect to know from such a calendar which commemoration the Church would be celebrating on that day.  The use of red indicates which are the “feasts” listed on the Roman calendar.

The “cover” of St George’s parish calendar, which is common to all months, highlights a theme or historic event which is important for the parish during that particular year.  This year it is the main altar, which on December 21 turns fifty.  It was on that day of 1960 that bishop Joseph Pace of Gozo consecrated the white-marble altar, designed by Prof. Carlo Pisi, which replaced an older altar maġġur, a very precious 18th century work of art, probably made by the Durante family of marble masons.  Two years before the Second Vatican Council deemed necessary that the altars in Catholic churches face the congregation, St George’s basilica already had such an altar, being the first in Gozo to anticipate such liturgical reforms.

So 2010 is the year of celebrating the altar’s consecration to God, rather than its making!  Pisi’s “new” altar, besides being a special work of art, suggests a deeply theological theme.  It shows four angels, wearing Temple vestments of the priestly caste, in adoration, bearing the mensola, which is the flat, horizontal surface of the altar on which the Holy Sacrifice is celebrated.  In Catholic liturgy the altar represents Christ himself, who is all together the table of sacrifice, the high priest who celebrates it, and the victim offered on it.  This theological theme of Eucharistic adoration makes the altar at St George’s one of the most remarkable in Gozo.  A beautiful photo by Joe Attard showing it, with the rest of the basilica’s main aisle in the background, evokes this significant meaning in a very particular way.  It is a reminder, affixed to the walls of so many parish households, of the importance of the altar in the life of the ecclesial community, also calling to mind this significant anniversary in its history.  The emphasis is, perhaps, summed up in the choice of the text which features at the bottom of the photo: “Nidħol ħdejn l-altar ta’ Alla, ħdejn Alla, ferħ u hena tiegħi”, taken from Psalms 43:4.  The parish office’s strategy for this year is to provide the community with further information as to the profound meaning of the altar in Catholic liturgy, using all means of information, including the parish bi-monthly Il-Belt Victoria.

This year’s parish calendar has, as usual, other relevant information about the parish life and structure.  This includes the Lateran liturgical calendar, public and national holidays, holy days of obligation and weekly meetings at the parish centre.  A list of all members of the parish clergy is also found on the inside cover.  A new feature, which was added last year, is the dates of all schedules of parish community radio Leħen il-Belt Victoria, which offers to listeners ten different schedules – five full and five reduced – during the year.

A week before the parish calendars were distributed together with the weekly bulletin, the traditional Strina envelope was also posted to each and every family.  A small contribution from each part would certainly help with the costs of the publication of the calendar itself, but also with other maintenance projects which are in store.

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