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St George Preca https://darwin.catholic.org.au/daily_reflection/st-george-preca-3/ Today is the feast of St George Preca (1880 to 1962).

He was born in Malta and was a diocesan priest of that archdiocese.

He lived down the street from where my family lived in Ħamrun, Malta.

I had the privilege of meeting and speaking with him twice as a boy. He was an old man by then. For quite some time, he had already gained the reputation of being a very holy man.

I saw his funeral procession pass in front of our house when he died in 1962. I was ten years old.

I also had the privilege of concelebrating with Pope Benedict during his formal canonisation in Rome on the third of June 2007.

As a young priest, St George discovered there was a great need for the faith formation of people, and he set about doing something about it.

Eventually, he founded the Preca Community.

The Preca Community consists of a group for men and another for women who dedicate their lives to the faith formation of others.

They are not priests or religious, but remain consecrated lay people.

They are committed to lifelong learning about our Catholic faith and to passing this learning on to others, especially the young, but also to all people.

St George had a deep commitment to the Word Made Flesh.

This refers to the Incarnation of Christ, that is, the fact that Jesus, God, became flesh.

This is a fundamental truth of Catholic theology.

God deals with us as human beings and, through the Incarnation, connects with us in a special way. Being Christian is about being fully human, being the person I have been created to be. Jesus and His teachings guide us in how we can best become ourselves.

There is a great need for deeper faith formation in our time. There is much ignorance about the true understanding of the Christian faith. What people often reject is a misinformed and distorted version of what it is really about.

Pope Francis formally established the ministry of catechists in the Church.
St George was a pioneer in empowering lay people as catechists many years before Vatican II.

We need to be creative in our own time in supporting this very valuable ministry in the Church.

St George, pray for us!