Back in 1990, when Pope St John Paul II visited Malta for the first time, he, of course, had a full schedule of events, meetings, Masses, visits to historic places and so much more crammed into a week. But there was one special moment when he was visiting the town of Rabat. And this was recorded in a photo which I’ve been searching for a long time – I finally found it in the same church, hanging in a frame in the sacristy.
What happened was that the Pope was supposed to talk to a large crowd outside the church, and as thousands of people waited for him in the warm May sunshine, he had to visit the cave where St Paul supposedly had stayed in during his shipwrecked journey. 
You can see him here touching the statue of St Paul in the second photo. But the one moment that touched many people was when he decided to stop in the main aisle of the church, and stepped inside one of the pews. He stayed there for a pretty long time, oblivious of the thousands of people waiting for him. But this gesture taught all of us a big lesson. He stayed there focused on the Lord, looking at the beautiful altar and tabernacle, where Jesus resides daily. Nobody dared to tell him to move on to speak to the people, but when he felt it was time, he did. Maybe he was tired and wanted a little rest, but most importantly, he wanted to show us where our priorities should be.
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