There I was in the choir loft busily singing away with the Naxxar Choir when the whole thing dawned on me: the main celebrant of this third day of the Novena was none other than Bishop Nicholas Kujur, an Indian Jesuit who was announced from the altar as the head of the diocese of Purnea, a bit of news that must have meant nothing to the majority of the people gathered in the pews at Naxxar but to me it meant a lot.

For in 1965 I had been assigned to that mission station which was simply that - a priest's house or presbytery and a church where Mass would be said for the faithful few who would make it on Sunday for their dutiful obligation. I could barely believe it: This mission station, which at the time was a mere four walls - the confines of a room that doubled up as presbytery and dining room and kitchen - had become the seat of a bishopric; the Bishop's House (presumably with some additions).

Right there and then I made up my mind to meet this Bishop, which was not too difficult for he was staying at the Jesuit House next door (originally a novitiate with more than 100 members at one time but which now had become more or less a home for old and retired Jesuits). There was none of that laughter and joie de vivre that I remembered reverberating through these walls when I was a novice back in the 1950s.

The point is that I wanted to make an appointment to meet this Bishop and he was most obliging. In fact, he was due to go to Gozo the next day and he sent me word to ask if I would be ready to see him that very morning. Of course I would... And we talked; the talk seemed to go on endlessly - for he wanted to impress upon me in his pleasant and gentle way how far the city and diocese of Purnea had come since the time I spent there (in the previous century!).

I remember Purnea as a city that lay smack across a big railway connection from the Himalayas to Calcutta but it also lay smack against devastating torrents that would come in the monsoon time all the way from the Himalayas in the wake of which miles upon miles would be inundated and flooded, which was indeed happening right now. But Mgr Kujur mentioned all this without dwelling too much about it - I knew it all from first-hand experience anyhow. He was more anxious to talk about the Maltese missionaries working there at present and the recent ones who no longer were there, either because they had passed away or had left for other missions.

He was most proud of the many achievements that had taken place in the many schools and parishes that had cropped up since the good old day when I had left and the plans for expansion he had in mind, particularly one of them being a minor seminary where young people could be trained as future seminarians.

We went on talking about wonderful things of mutual interest - seeing that my 13 years in India found a lot of mutual ground we could cover. And one thing is sure: September 8 will be different for me. But even such wonderful experiences had to come to an end because of his heavy schedule. I feel, though, that we would be doing our bit - I did - if we were to send some of that extra euros we have to the bishop at his house in Purnea located at Maharajee Hata, PO & Dist Purnea - 854301, Bihar, India.