18th October – Mission Sunday

In 1922 Joseph De Piro started publishing the “Saint Paul, Almanac of the Institute of the Missions”. He continued doing this until his death in 1933. There are no signed articles in the Almanac, and so none bearing the name of Mgr De Piro, but we know from one of the first members of his Society that probably the Servant of God wrote most of the published material. Except for the first number, the publication always carried the nihil obstat. This publication was interspersed with formative material related to the basic truths of our faith. Several other articles dealt with the Maltese migrants and their living abroad. But the main aim of the publication was the missionary animation of all Maltese. Here we share with you a report about what was done by De Piro himself on the first Mission Sunday:

The first Mission Day
According to the order of Monsignor Bishop, on Sunday 23rd October we also gathered, those of us who could, in the church at saint Joseph's Home and tried to celebrate as best as we could the first Mission Day.
In the morning the Blessed Sacrament was solemnly exposed and we began an hour of Adoration in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord of the vast estate of the Missions. Through our insignificance we asked him as much as is possible for us to help those poor missionaries, who for him left their country, their people, and went far, far away to enlarge and extend more and more the Kingdom of His beloved Heart and to set on fire the hearts of the pagans with His love. The guest for the sermon in the afternoon was the Rev. Prof H. Dandria. With his powerful word and full of zeal he moved us and everybody. He managed to help us conjure the majestic figure of the Nazarene, Jesus, while we felt His voice wandering throughout the world, " Volo omens salvos fieri". I want that every man finds the salvation of his soul.
From this point , therefore he began explaining how it is our grave duty, we who had this great luck to be among the first to embrace the Christian faith, to think also of our brothers who are still in darkness so much that they adore stone and wood.

	“Through our insignificance we asked him as much as is possible for us to help those poor missionaries, ...”

Everybody must help. Everybody should do something. One is called to donate his work. Another is called to donate something of his wealth. Yet another is called to offer his prayers at least. And to fulfil the bishop's order, at that same instant we held a collection in favour of the missions. Although the temporal collection did not amount a lot, the other (collection) of Spiritual oblations was very abundant. Many were the institutes which came and many were the children ready to throw their paper in the collection bag. Some of the Sisters brought with them also other collections which they made at home. Therefore this spiritual harvest bore its fruit and the good God won't abstain from pouring his grace on these institutes which strove with so much eagerness for it. When all was counted, we found that there were 26,933 Masses heard- 5,140 Communions - 59,619 Spiritual communions - 9,793 Rosary- 5,968 Via Sacra - 122,488 small prayers- 254,200 Ejaculatory prayers - 13,913 sacrifices- 2,977 holy hour- 7,933 school hours - 33,463 work hours- 8,693 recreation hours.
This first Mission Day then ended by the recital of the prayers for the propagation of the Faith and Sacramental blessing. This day has left us a sweet memory and the wish that not before long we will have some other one.

Reference: San Pawl: Almanakk tal-Istitut tal-Missjoni, 1928, pp. 199-200.