The author is a member of the Missionary Society of St Paul, which was established by Mgr Joseph de Piro in 1910.
But this book is not a hagiography of Mgr de Piro or a biography - books providing this already exist.
Instead, the book tries to understand from within the character, the spirituality of the founder - what lies hidden in his inner life, what inspired him, what gave him such a unique freedom of spirit to follow Christ.
De Piro, as the author says in his introduction, can thus be seen as no more than a window through which we may catch a glimpse of the One who called him to follow Him in such a radical way.
As the late Fr Peter Serracino Inglott says in his presentation of the book, Fr Cilia's book enables those who do not know much about Mgr De Piro to discover that the founder had anticipated the "invention of the everyday" made famous by the Jesuit Michel de Certeau.
Fr Cilia provides the readers with an insight into the unobtrusive originality of this outstanding man who made concealment of his exceptionality the characteristic of the heritage he passed on to his disciples.
The author's main responsibility is the formation of new members of the society in Malta. The more he came to know and understand what made the founder tick, the more he fell in love with his spirituality. So rather than tell us how this man who came from a noble and influential Maltese family lived his life, what interests him most is what lay hidden in his inner life which gave him such a unique freedom of spirit to follow God.
Basing himself on the standard texts such as the rules he drew up for his society, his three-volume correspondence, and various biographies as well as Mgr De Piro's diary, the author explores Mgr De Piro's charism, his missionary spirituality, his spirituality of prayer and his spirituality of ministry.
The book cannot be read as just any other book, but more like an introduction to the spirituality of the founder, so in a way it is almost like a prayerful seminar undertaken by those who have already been won over by the founder's acknowledged spirituality.
Fr Martin Cilia mssp
Found among Sinners
Missionary Society of St Paul Publications
2010
170pp