On 3 January, the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, Fr. Eugenijus Markovas SJ and Fr. Mindaugas Malinauskas SJ solemnly professed their Final Vows in the St. Francis Xavier Church in Kaunas (Lithuania). Provincial of the ECE province Fr. Bernhard Bürgler SJ received the vows. The Holy Mass was presided over by Archbishop Emeritus Lionginas Virbalas SJ and concelebrated by Cardinal Sigitas Tamkevičius SJ, Fr. Bürgler and numerous Lithuanian Jesuits. Among the guests were many friends, collaborators of the Jesuits, members of the Christian Life Community, MAGIS youth and members of the Kaunas parish. The liturgy was accompanied by the festive singing of the Choir Exaudi.

Kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, Fr. Markovas and Fr. Malinauskas read the handwritten vows before the Provincial Fr. Bürgler and the assembly. In his homily Fr. Bürgler reminded both confreres and the community that the Society of Jesus bears the name of Jesus. According to Fr. Bürgler, this name had already provoked criticism when the Society was founded, because it was supposedly arrogant, "as if someone wanted to show off with the name of Jesus". There have been attempts to persuade St. Ignatius to change the name "for the sake of peace", but he had stuck to his decision because the name had deeper roots. For Ignatius, the Provincial said, the name of Jesus was connected "with profound experiences, mystical encounters with God on his way, in Loyola, in Manresa, in the Holy Land, in Paris and in Rome". "Jesus was everything to him," Fr. Bürgler emphasised.

The Provincial also pointed to the seal of the Society of Jesus, in which the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, IHS, are engraved. This means that the name of Jesus is not only imprinted on the most important documents of the Society, but also "on the Society as a whole, on all its members". "We Jesuits are to be imprinted with Jesus. We are to be marked by him, by his person, by what he was, said and did, and we are to be marked more and more," Fr. Bürgler said. He compared the vocation of Jesuits to the soft wax in which the seal stamp is pressed: "We are Jesuits and we – still and more – become Jesuits. We were formed in and through our formation and we must continue to be formed. For this to happen, it is important that we are soft, like the sealing wax. Touchable by the word and example of Jesus."

At the end of the Holy Mass, Fr. Markovas said that he had experienced a true retreat in writing the vow formula himself. He compared the Last Vows to married life: "It is like affirming after 20 years of marriage (that is how long both Jesuits have been in the Society): 'Yes! I want to continue to live with you!'" Fr. Markovas asked the community to continue to pray for the two confreres and to remind them of God's love in difficult times.