Just outside the University of Malta gate stands a house, Dar Manwel Magri, that has long been a Jesuit community residence. From here, ever since the early 1970s, Jesuits have offered their service to the University as lecturers and chaplains, while also welcoming countless people for spiritual direction and pastoral support.

Next month will see the house born again as a centre offering hospitality for young adults, while still serving as a Jesuit residence.

Newly refurbished and structurally altered, Dar Manwel Magri will offer a place where University students and their contemporaries can get together, study, discern, receive formation through organised programmes and offer their time and energy through voluntary work experiences – a centre of welcome, outreach and formation for today’s young citizens.

It will be a home away from home

The place will be an open house for students, young adults, professionals and lecturers, offering a fresh informal meeting space, meeting halls, IT equipment and connection with the University online services.

Dar Manwel Magri has been offered by the Jesuits to enhance the space currently offered by the University of Malta Chaplaincy which, although only consisting of a handful of small rooms, is teeming with life.

“Dar Manwel Magri will be a home away from home, where we can welcome young people and support them, host them, offer them a much-needed space where they will feel listened to, accompanied, and yes, where they can enjoy themselves. Here they can experience what it means to live in a community,” said Fr Patrick Magro SJ, one of the members of the Dar Manwel Magri Jesuit community, who is also Chaplain at the University of Malta and who is overseeing the project.

“We Jesuits will be present here to accompany young people – we are ready for dialogue, we offer a space for socialising and for reflection and assist them in their journey of emotional, educational and spiritual formation.”

‘Journeying with young people’ was only last week announced as one of the Jesuits’ apostolic preferences for the next 10 years.

Funding for the project was provided by FACSI – Fundus Apostolicus et Caritativus Societatis Iesu – approved by the Jesuit Superior General, and further funding was provided by the Euro-Mediterranean Province of which Malta forms part, as well as generated through fundraising events and donations.

Donors may send a cheque payable to ‘Maltese Jesuits’ and sent to Fr Patrick Magro SJ at Dar Manwel Magri, Triq Mons Carmelo Zammit, Msida. Or use the secure online donation facility: https://jesuit.org.mt/donate

Photo: Alison VellaPhoto: Alison Vella

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