J.A. says:

Fr. Gauci,

With regards to the first part of your comment, I agree with you 100% since the liturgical feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is held on 15th September although I must point out that next Friday’s feast is by far more popular than September’s feast. As a result, there is nothing wrong with the phrase ‘ popular and devotional feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.’ It would have been wrong if the phrase said ‘liturgical feast day.’ But this was not the case.

However, with regards to the second part of your comment, I disagree totally. You are giving the impression that the Xaghra Parish has invited the Nativitas Choir to participate in the Holy Week celebrations in Xaghra and the Choir did not accept. This is definitely not the case. The choir’s administration has been insisting several times with the Parish to involve it in various celebrations held in Xaghra but the appeal was turned down year after year. Therefore, as a choir, we had no more option than to participate in other churches in Gozo which, unfortunately, do not have their own choir. You can verify this on your own.

With regards to the last paragraph, you must know that the Victory Band Philharmonic Society was informed of its Easter services after the people of Xaghra themselves were informed. This is an insult to the committee which is working hard to strengthen this musical society. I also hope that common sense and human understanding bring all parts together – however, I expect also that common sense and human understanding come from both sides and not someone expecting the Victory Band of Xaghra to say ‘yes’ for everything.

Fr. Jesmond Gauci says:

A community is made up of different parts that make the whole. I think one has to respect the other even if we are different. In many situations one has to clarify things out. From the comment that I have send, as an opinion of mine, it is interesting how our friend J.A. tone down voices which are by far much more universal than parochial. Liturgy is more than a religious march. With respect, I am saying this because Our Lady of Sorrows devotion, for a really few, became a feast. In fact this distinction has been left by our friend since underneath everything, religious marches are being played in Xaghra for this devotional and piteous procession (something which our forefathers didn’t do) something the majority of our community feel that in it there is no significance at all. If it is really a devotional and piteous procession you could have asked, what significance has your service to our community in this procession? Hope it is not for self-indulgence or something else. This I leave to your common sense and human understanding. For me it comes more easily if the Society organizes a programme of religious marches as has been done in the past in the band club hall. Like that the society can introduce the new religious marches not during a devotional and piteous procession but in a programme where we can enjoy and esteem more our community’s talents, not during prayers and penance. I heared that the society’s committee is thinking and revising in these terms.

About the second part of your comment with regards to the Nativitas Choir, first of all what I want to say is that I appreciate everyone in our community, also the services of this Choir and the Xaghra Philarmonic Band. I am sure that even our beloved Parish Priest knowing him also in Qala, not only appreciates but encourages each and every part of the parish to be a real community. If you talk to him, you can see from what you get. Unfortunately your words revealed your significance of service and teamwork with others. Why I am saying this?

You tried again in this second part of your comment to deviate our public attention to something which for me and hope for you also, means lack of teamwork and service to and with other parts in the community. When in my comment I said that “you are leaving the Parish when going with a group of people from Xaghra somewhere else” in this question I was not giving any impressions at all, I was clear. With that gesture I was saying as a state of fact, that you are leaving our community.

About invitations – One has to consider many facts in a community. First of all an invitation comes from others. It comes from the outside. This means that others have the pleasure and space to invite you to join in. So an invitation doesn’t come from the person to be invited, but comes from the person that invites… I am making this distinction because you said “The choir’s administration has been insisting several times with the Parish to involve it in various celebrations held in Xaghra but the appeal was turned down year after year.”

I am saying this because I personally am very concerned about the word ‘insisting’ you used, dear J.A. For me this is lack of respect to different parts of the community and to the Xaghra Community itself. This is because in your case you are pretending something from our Parish Priest that cannot be given because with you in the same community there are other choirs, with reference to our parish Choir which, our Parish Church is his home, most especially in this time of the year. Let me explain briefly, if someone during the village festa takes your part in singing the ‘L-Innu l-kbir’ which is your home, don’t you feel excluded from the community? So here today you confirmed what you are trying to do to others. And for me and for this community you make part of, this is not teamwork. This cannot be granted. If you really want to be part of this community you could have understood this just from the beginning. As far as I know something really encouraging that I have learned about the Nativitas choir in this parish, was that during the village festa, this choir joined in with the ‘piccolo clero’ choir. So please join in as part of our Parish Choir also, and everyone will keep his boundaries in this large community. Like that every choir has got his identity, his home, but teamwork not self-affirmation and differences, has to be the main characteristic that makes us a whole community. For me it is a concrete fact that when someone don’t respect others, don’t respect himself also and here from what you have written Dear J.A., this is not just a lack of respect to others but also a lack of respect to yourself because by all this you meant, you are not feeling part of the Xaghra Community. And I say this with a very sad tone. I am sure that this comment of yours Dear J.A. is not coming from an official of the Xaghra Philarmonic Band Club or from any official of the Nativitas Choir, keeping in mind also dear J.A. you are hiding yourself under two abbreviations which says it all.

In a Community as ours communication is one of the basic instruments that can build or destroy different parts. Going back to my psychology books, Communication is essential in a community. Regarding your last paragraph in response to my first comment, which has nothing to do with the Choir, but was mentioned the Victory Band Philharmonic Society, you have implied that “the Victory Band Philharmonic Society was informed of its Easter services after the people of Xaghra themselves were informed.” Here again with respect, but with a state of fact you have denied again our community at large. At our parishioners houses today April 8th 2011, we have received an A3 picture of Jesus scourged , our beautiful Lecce Statue, with the programmed activities of the Parish’s Holy Week for this year, included there is also the services that our Philharmonic Band is going to perform. Here I ask again, So how come that the Xaghra people has been informed before you have been ‘informed’ about your services, while the programme was published and this article was written today? On the other side of the coin, is it you or the committee that has to be informed about the band services? I hope you are implying something which is not. My question goes further down if you please. How come you deny your community by reporting to the public something which is not? Moreover, you have implied also the committee of the Xaghra Band Philharmonic Society by saying “…the committee which is working hard to strengthen this musical society” My suggestion to you goes – If you want to strengthen the Xaghra Band Philharmonic Society you have to understand that you have to learn how to serve not to be served, because you are not living in an island entire of itself.

After all, I know at the end that many in the Committee, the leaders of the Nativitas Choir and most of the other parts of this Community don’t share these same thoughts of our dear J.A. I know also and have seen this many times in different circumstances especially difficult times, that the Xaghra Band Philarmonic Society and the Nativitas Choir has worked hard to serve, with our Parish, with all the other parts of this community and altogether being of service to the Xaghra Community. I am sure that human understanding and common sense prevailed and prevails always in this our beloved community. At the end hope that J.A. more then fervor implies sense of belonging and sense to a community in his statements. I am sure that J.A. at heart is different from what he has written in his comment.