Association of the Members of theu3e

Association of the Members of theu3e NEWSPAPER POST No 1/2016 Marzu 2016 May your Easter basket be full of Joy, Happiness and Peace Today and Always

Marzu 2016 EDITORJAL L-GĦID 2016 President Martin Diacono Editorial Board Editor Martin Diacono Publisher Martin Diacono Assistant Publisher Lino Bartolo U3E Offices Catholic Institute Floriana Tel: 2124 3202 Email: diacstef@onvol.net Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 9.00 am to 11.00 am. Members of the Association Who wish to publish articles, Suggestions, comments, etc. In the Newsletter are asked To submit them to the Editorial Board for approval. Design and Print Five Star Printing & Design Ltd. Triq l-iskultur Qormi QRM 3580 F nofs dan ix-xahar inkunu temmejna t-tieni tri-mestru li jfisser li diġa kwazi ghaddew sitt xhur mis-sena akkademika u nibdew inħarsu lejn il-gimgħa Mqaddsa u l-għid. Dan huwa zmien ta meditażżjoni u ġabra fejn wiehed jidhol fl-ispirtu tal ġrajja tat-tbatija u mewt ta Sidna Gesu Kristu li joħrog rebbieħ fuq il-mewt billi jirxoxta. Bil-festa ta l-għid nkunu qed niċċelebraw dan il-fatt. F Malta joħorġu bosta proċessjonijiet fejn naraw li barra li jkun hemm ħafna devożżjoni jkun hemm ukoll l-ispettaklu tal personaġġi u l-kostumi ta dawk li jieħdu parti. Tista kważi tgħid li dawn il-proċessjonijiet iktar qed isiru pageants milli espressjoni ta devozzjoni u sobgħa kif kien ikun snin ilu. Naraw bosta postijiet f Malta u Għawdex li jarmaw palketti bis-siġġijiet għat-turisti li jikkonkorru f numru kbir. Insomma tista tgħid li l-propċessjonijiet tal-gimgħa l-kbira saru attrazzjoni turistika oħra fil-kalendarju turistiku Malti. Meta nerġgħu nibdew il-lectures wara l-waqfa ta l-għid bosta mis-suġġetti li ġibdu attendenża kbira ikunu waslu fl-aħħar. Iżda s-suġġetti li jmiss wara dawn m humiex ta inqas attrazzjoni għallmembri tagħna, bl-lecturers ta isem bhal Dr Austin Bencini li ser jitkellem dwar id-demokrazija u d-drittit Umani Fondamentali,, Ms Charlene Vella dwar l-arti u l-arkitettura Medjovali, ir-rev.dr Rene Camilleri li ser ikellimna dwar Żmienijietina mil-lenti ta l-iskrittura u il Professur Joe Friggieri bis-suġġett tiegħu il Filosofija Politika. Mill-Milied l-hawn, apparti l-ħarġa ta l-ewwel ġimgħa ta kull xahar, ma kellniex ħarġiet kulturali u dan mhux għax is-sotto kumitat ma ħadimx imma għax l-postijiet fejn ippjanajna li nzuru ma kienux disponibbli fid-dati li kellna f moħħna. Għax-xahar ta April għandna kkonfermata żjara fl-impjant tar-reverse Osmosis f Pembroke. Billi kif dejjem jigrilna f tour bil-gwida n-numru ta membri li nistgħu naċċettaw ikun zgħir, ser ikollna żewg mawriet għal dan il post, fit 8 u fit-22 ta April. B hekk nkunu nistgħu nikkontentaw 70 membru. Inheġġeġ lil dawk interessati li meta toħroġ iċ-cirkulari tgħaġġlu biex tapplikaw. Nagħlaq billi nixtieqilkom l-għid it-tajjeb. 2 U3E NEWSLETTER MARZU 2016

DAY OF RECOLLECTION 2016 For this year s Lent period the Association has held its annual Day of Recollection on Friday 4th March,2016 This time the event was held at the Qawra Palace Hotel in Qawra as our usual venue, the Ramla Bay Hotel was closed for refurbishment. Ms Maria Ciantar, a member of the activities subcommittee co-ordinated the event with the hotel management. As for last year, attendance by U3e members was a very good one. The day started with the celebration of the Holy Mass by Father Mario Borg from the Sanctuary of St Theresa, Birkirkara. At the end of the Holy Mass the members enjoyed a coffee break The first talk by Fr Borg had as its theme the Indulgences and the Year of Mercy which was instituted by Pope Prancis. The audience was encouraged to give its opinion on these two A section of the restaurant with the u3e members enjoying their lunch. topics and the audience did not keep back and contributed with its feedback. At the end of the talk everyone proceeded to the restaurant for a buffet lunch where the members present enjoyed a good spread., Conversation did not suffer as it was kept ongoing at each of the tables we occupied. The members returned to the hall and were given another talk by Father Borg who dealt with the topic of the family. Contributions from the floor were continuous. After a suggestion from the floor Father Borg dealt with the topic of Poverty in Spirit as its culmination. The event was brought to an end with our members enjoying a second coffee break. Martin Diacono A section of the audience during the talk by Fr Mario Borg. NOTICE BOARD U3E NEWSLETTER MARZU 2016 President Association of the U3e Line Dancing Keep Fit Another course of Line Dancing for U3e members spread over eight weeks, started on Monday, 7th March, 2016. As usual, the sessions start at 11.00am as soon as the lecture for the day ends. The fee will be Euro 8 for the whole course. Of course, if you join after the course has started you will pay pro-rata, that is,1 Euro per session left from the course. If you are interested you may wish to call at our office and book your place. The Association s co-ordinator for this activity is Ms. Mary Rose Attard. Another course of keep fit sessions will start on Tuesday 12th April, 2016. The course will consist of eight consecutive sessions, and the sessions start at 11.00am immediately after the lecture for the day ends. This is a chance to embark on physical activity tailored for senior citizens.. The fee will be Euro 8 for the whole course. If you are interested you may wish to call at our office and book your place. The Association s co-ordinator for this activity is Ms. Michelle Zammit. 3

The Good Friday processions came at the time of the Battle of Lepanto of October 7, 1571. When it was all over, the Turks had been defeated. The Rosary had won a great military victory It was at this time that the Rosary, as a powerful prayer, reached new heights it had won a great military victory at Lepanto. Following this victory, Pius V declared that henceforth a commemoration of the Rosary would be a part of the Catholic Church s Mass every October 7. His successor, Gregory XIII (1502-1585), went further; in 1573 he established the feast of the Most Holy Rosary, which was to be celebrated in all churches which had specific altars dedicated to the Rosary. It was only in 1342 that the Franciscan (Minor) friars were granted the custody of the Holy Land by Pope Clement VI. We know that by the end of the 16th century, the lay confraternity of St Joseph attached to the Franciscan friary (Ta Ġieżu) in Rabat, Malta, was, perhaps, the first on the island to organise a Good Friday procession on the island. This was followed, some years later, by its counterpart attached to the Valletta friary in 1645. All this goes to show that although the Franciscans were involved in the spreading of this devotion, the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary were at the very centre of these processions. This applies also to neighbouring Sicily, where Passion statues are still referred to as I Misteri again, an allusion to the Rosary s Sorrowful Mysteries. We know that Good Friday processions were already being held in Vittoriosa around 1700, Żejtun in 1742, Qormi in 1764 and Luqa in 1795. The tradition of holding processions on the Fridays in Lent dates from the time of Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585). These started with his Bull of August 6, 1573, Pastoris Aeterni. These processions were at first without statues they were introduced later. In Valletta, in 1778, the stational churches were of a permanent nature and the statues of the Passion were carried there annually. There was a time when such processions, in some places, started being held on the first five Sundays in Lent. One of the Good Friday Processions in Malta. In the past, at Qormi, for example, the Passion statues, representing the five sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, used to be carried in procession one at a time through the streets on each of the first five Sundays in Lent. Thus, on the first Sunday in Lent the statue of the Agony in the Garden was taken to the chapel of St Mary of Qrejqċa; on the second Sunday, the Scourging at the Pillar to the chapel dedicated to St Peter; on the third Sunday, the statue of the Crowning with Thorns to St Catherine s 4 U3E NEWSLETTER MARZU 2016

younger. Except for San Agustin, they were all established in the 20th century In Granada, the brotherhoods are much younger. Except for San Agustin, they were all established in the 20th century Today, members of brotherhoods consist of religious laymen only. They have their own symbols, traditions and habits thus reflecting their religious and social background. The Brotherhood of the Holy Cross Salamanca, Spain. church; on the fourth Sunday, that of Jesus falling under the Cross to the old Qormi cemetery church; and on the fifth Sunday, the statue of the Crucifixion to the church of Our Lady of Victories. A detailed study of these processions held in Valletta is given by Fr Ġorġ Aquilina, OFM, in his book Il-Ġimgħa l-kbira tal-belt (1986). This, again, goes to prove the direct link between the Rosary and the Passion statues. However, most probably, Good Friday processions started with a Crucifix, then the statue of Jesus laid to rest. Both were used during the old Good Friday liturgical service. To these, some time later, five statues representing the sorrowful mysteries were added; then Our Lady of Sorrows and the Veronica statue. The first important date for Spain was 1240, where Salamanca s first cofradia, or brotherhood, was formed. Originally called Los Hermanos de la Penitencia en Cristo (The Brothers of Penitence in Christ), this religious group later became the Cofradia de la Santa Cruz (Brotherhood of the Holy Cross), a brotherhood that still takes part in the Holy Week celebrations today. The oldest brotherhood of Seville, El Silencio (The Silence), was created in 1340, but most of the brotherhoods were formed in the 16th century by clergy, noblemen, guild members, or racial minorities. In Granada, the brotherhoods are much In 1521, the Marques de Tarifa returned from the Holy Land to Salamanca with a whole new perspective that he was anxious to spread. Feeling inspired and religious after his journey, he institutionalised the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) and mandated that it be commemorated each year with a procession. The single procession held on one day each year eventually broke up into various processions, each depicting a scene of the Passion. This began to spread out over the course of the Semana Santa (Holy Week), while the simple crosses and altars evolved into the elaborate group statues that we see today. All this goes to illustrate that the Good Friday processions, with the easiest statues, representing the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, very likely originated at the time of the Battle of Lepanto of 1571. Bibliography. The Sunday Times March 24, 2013, by Antoine Agius Photos: Courtesy of www.alamy.com Edited by Martin Diacono The El Silencio Brotherhood- Salamanca, Spain. U3E NEWSLETTER MARZU 2016 5

MALTESE PERSONALITIES OF TIMES GONE BY Joseph Calleja: The Actor Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja [3][4][b] was born in Notabile on August 4, 1897. His father was an architect. Calleia studied at St. Julian s and St. Aloysius Colleges. At age 12 he used the English pound given to him for Christmas to buy two dozen harmonicas, and organized a local band whose performances were soon netting 100 a week. Sent by his father to London to study engineering, Joseph employed his good tenor voice in music halls, performing ballads of the Scottish Highlands dressed in a kilt. He took the stage name of Joseph Spurin, using his mother s maiden name due to his father s disapproval. In 1914 Joseph Calleia joined the British Merchant Navy. After cruising the world for twoand-a-half years, his ship was torpedoed in the English Channel. Hospitalized for three months, Calleia was awarded a campaign medal and was honourably discharged. He traveled to the United States in 1917 Unemployed, he sang for the Red Cross and armed services, and volunteered for the Tank Corps of the American Expeditionary Force. Joseph Calleia began his stage career on Armistice Day. After World War I he found only limited success in vaudeville. He earned his living stoking the furnace at a department store, and got a night job washing and repairing New York City streetcars. By day he haunted theatrical booking offices. The Henry W. Savage agency sent Calleia to Denver, where he made his stage debut singing in the chorus of the musical comedy, Have a Heart. The following season he had a bit part in Pietro (1920), an Otis Skinner vehicle that played six weeks on Broadway and 40 weeks on tour. Calleia supplemented his salary by working as assistant stage manager and repairing trunks at $3 each. Calleia s first speaking role on the stage was in The Broken Wing (1920), a Broadway comedy starring George Abbott and Louis Wolheim. He understudied all of the parts and appeared as a Mexican peon (peasant) who played the guitar and sang a song called «Adelai». Joseph Calleia composed the tune, and asked Abbott to write the lyrics; the song was published and eventually brought each of them royalties of as much as $2,000 a year. The Broken Wing was a hit and after the play s New York run Calleia and Thurston Hall were carried over in a London production. After four months the show closed and Calleia visited Malta, where he and his father reconciled. At his father s request he began using his real surname, and was billed as Joseph Spurin-Calleia. On February 14, 1925, Calleia made his concert debut at the Town Hall in New York City, accompanied by pianist Ferdinand Greenwald. «He proved to be the possessor of an agreeable high 6 U3E NEWSLETTER MARZU 2016

A succession of acclaimed performances in successful Broadway plays followed, including a shiftless newspaper reporter in The Front Page (1928), a convicted murderer in The Last Mile (1930), and the chauffeur in Grand Hotel (1930). [12] Calleia became a star with Small Miracle (1934) a Broadway production described by The New Yorker as «a very satisfactory melodrama with Joseph Spurin-Calleia as the pleasantest murderer you ever saw.» [21] What an actor Joseph Calleia, said Orson Welles, who directed and performed with Calleia in Touch of Evil (1958): The National Board of Review recognized Joseph Calleia s performance as the detective Slimane (right) in Algiers (1938) voice, which he used with much skill in Italian airs,» wrote New York Times music critic Olin Downes, including that of Rodolfo from Puccini s La Boheme and others from Verdi s Trovatore and Rigoletto. In recital at New York s Steinway Hall on February 21, 1926, Calleia displayed a voice of pleasant and attractive timbre in a program that included works by Scarlatti, Paisiello,Schumann, Gounod and Leoncavallo, as well as two of his own compositions. Calleia was cast as the Spanish ambassador in the Broadway production of Princess Flavia (1925), [3] Sigmund Romberg s musical adaptation ofthe Prisoner of Zenda. While he was waiting for the elaborate production to be mounted he sold pianos, with such success that the store owner offered him a store of his own if he would stay. [12] In 1926 Calleia was given his first prominent stage role, in George Abbott and Philip Dunning s smash hit, Broadway. He played a shuffling, coinjingling waiter in the melodrama that New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson later called a «noisy, bustling cyclorama of backstage life [that] remains a landmark in the American theatre. Calleia also acted as the company s stage manager and, working for producer Jed Harris, he supervised some ten duplicate productions of Broadway in the U.S. and abroad. I fell in love with him as a ten-year-old boy. I saw him in a play in New York [c] a very wellstaged melodrama which was an enormous hit for about a year it was made as a movie later with somebody else. He had the leading role, and I never forgot him. And through the years I d seen him in movies little things. And I could never forget that performance of his. He s always played very stereotyped parts in pictures but is one of the best actors I ve ever known. I have such respect for him. You play next to him and you just feel the thing that you do with a big actor this dynamo going on. Calleia had made three feature films on the East Coast in 1931 32; [23][24][25] the acclaim he received from Small Miracle brought him a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He quickly made his mark in Hollywood, playing the role of a criminal in Public Hero No. 1 (1935), followed by Riffraff (1936), with Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. In 1936, Calleia co-wrote the screenplay for Robin Hood of El Dorado. In 1943, he played El Sordo in For Whom The Bell Tolls. Calleia retired in 1963 and died in Sliema, Malta, on October 31, 1975, aged 78. He was interred in the family vault at Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery. Bibliography: www.wikkipedia.com Edited and abriged by Maria Diacono. U3E NEWSLETTER MARZU 2016 7

Tifkiriet sbieħ minn l-imgħoddi Sikwiet jerġa jieħdu l-ħajja Tgħid li trid issajjar,taħsel Ma tistax mument titlajja L-Ulied telqu sabu darhom Xi uħud qrib oħrajn l-bogħod Hi ħawn għada dewden dwarhom Issa ma tmenin sew tgħodd Kultant tisma l-għajjat tagħhom Minkejja li għaddew is-snin Jgħib l-baħħ d-dar timtela B dawk il frieħ disa mqarcin Tifraħ kull meta jżuruha Lura trodd kemm ħajr u sliem Ħarsa ħelwa mingħajr fruha Raġġ ta dawl għalkemm għajjien Tixhed il-grazzja tal-ġabra Tant valuri u twemmin Wiccha jixgħel tant bil-ħerqa X ħin tkun tiutlob lill-bambin Nanna kompli hekk sa l-aħħar Agħti glorja lill-ħallieq Ibqa tbissem ħa tferrahna Bħal ward tari qalb l-għollieq Id-dellijiet ta żmien l-ingħoddi Jixxabtu ma ħitan twal Biex iressqu iż-zagħzagħ tagħna Lejn valuri għonja u kbar. Mary Montebello