They are 41, 37 and 44 years of age. They studied computer engineering, the Chinese language and political economy. Their profound questioning and their desire to be fulfilled gradually led them to join the Society. As the ceremony of the ordination terminated a few hours ago, we are retracing the journey they travelled, a journey full of gratitude and responsibility. Davide is 41. He came in touch with the Society of Jesus in 2006, in Bologna, at the "Villa San Giuseppe" retreat house, during the time when he had finished his university studies in Computer Engineering. "I felt a strong and constant desire to respond to an experience of an encounter I had with God," he says, "which I was experiencing in a new way, after a few lukewarm years. I enjoyed contemplative prayer which I began to practice again regularly. It made me imagine my future life given to service, dedicated to making others aware of the gift of encountering the Lord. He joined the novitiate in 2010.“In those days I became aware how much the Lord had worked in me during all these years, through so many people. I received a gift that carries great responsibility. But I can rejoice and feel I can continue to walk safely. The Lord is present and invites me to follow him”.

"I have always been searching in my life. But I didn't know that God was also taking part in this search,” Federico, 37 years of age, confesses. "I became aware of this during the years that I was working, after studying Chinese at the University of Venice". He was a scout leader. "I joined as a nonbeliever and left a transformed person due to the service I gave the boys, desiring to follow the Lord. I felt the Society of Jesus was the right place. My teachers had always spoken to us about Matteo Ricci as a friend, a missionary willing to recognize what was good in their culture, without demonizing it and without pretending to have the whole truth in his pocket”. He joined the novitiate in 2011. Now he is in Naples for a Licentiate in Biblical Theology. “I have just finished a lesson on the prophet Elijah. The ordination ceremony will take place in a few hours, and I hope to be the humanity of God, weak but similar to Him ".

Born and raised in Rome, Guido, 44, is a graduate in Political Economy. He continued his doctorate in London and New York. But it was in Rome that another desire surfaced. "Pulled by some friends to the catechesis on the Ten Commandments, I stopped to listen to a proclamation of the Gospel that addresses my desire for fulfilment, and which embraces my poverty and confusions". Then in London, in a small parish in the centre of the city, he met "an extraordinary priest, Fr. Alan. Speaking to him, listening to his homilies and and seeing how he interacted with people, I recognised the strength, intelligence and beauty of God's love. I began to wonder if this was the way for me too ". In Bologna, in 2011 he frequented Pietre Vive. So, after spending 3 years in the seminary of Rome, in 2015 he joined the Jesuit novitiate. “I have received and continue to receive so much grace and mercy: I pray to put these graces more and more at His disposal. It is with this gratitude and with this desire that I receive the gift of celebrating the Eucharist and of being a minister of His mercy ".

The celebration took place on Saturday 19 February at 3.30 pm in the Church of Sant’Ignazio in Rome. It was presided by Mons. Daniele Libanori SJ.