Advent time last year gave birth to the idea of presenting a three-minute reflection on the Sunday Gospel on the Franciscan Friars’ Facebook page by Fr Guardian Marcello Ghirlando, OFM.

Fr Ghirlando said Covid-19 necessarily made it more difficult for the faithful to attend Sunday Mass in small churches.

“Social distancing measures limited greatly the number of people who could attend. So, I decided to deliver a three-minute reflection on the Sunday Gospel,” Fr Marcello said.

The slot has popularly become known as Tlett Minuti mal-Patri.

“I try to present it as short and sweet as possible,” he added.

Fr Ghirlando said he records the short speeches on his laptop and upload them early on Saturdays. He said his aim was to bring the gospel message in a simple and very Franciscan way.

The Tlett Minuti mal-Patri is also uploaded on laikos.org, the Laity Website for the Church in Malta, and on the Facebook page of the Gozo Diocese.

“This is a concrete way of actualising popular Antonian devotion and piety,” Fr Ghirlando said.

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