Four Jesuits from four countries in Lebanon

Impressive celebration in the Church of our Lady of Deliverance, in Bikfaya, Lebanon on Sunday, 24th June. Frs. Alexis Doucet from France and working in Ankara, Turkey, Ghassan Sahoui, from Syria, finishing his doctoral thesis at the Oriental Pontifical Institute in Rome, and taking care of the our Marian sanctuary in Taanayel, in Lebanon, Ronney Gemayel, from Lebanon, rector of our scholasticate and director of the CERPOC in our university in Beirut, and Zeljko Pasha, from Croatia, who teaches at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, made their solemn profession in front of the Provincial, Fr. Danny Younes. Most of the Jesuits in Lebanon were present, together with some Jesuits from Egypt and Syria, and the Provincial of Croatia and the rector of the Oriental Institute in Rome.

The ceremony, which took place at 4 pm was followed by a cocktail for all those present, and later in the evening by a festive supper on the terrace of our Jesuit residence in Bikfaya, for all the Jesuits and members of the family of Alexis Doucet, who had arrived from France for the occasion, and Ronney Gemayel. The supper on the terrace allowed us to enjoy the fresh air and the beautiful panorama from the mountain, plus a splendid sunset over the sea.

From left to right you have Fr. Ronney Gemayel, Fr. Ghassan Sahoui, Fr. Dany Younes (Provincial), Fr. Alexis Doucet and Fr. Zeljko Pasha

Three French fellow Jesuits in the St.Ignace Church in Paris

On May 21, Pentecost Monday, the Saint-Ignace church in Paris was once again celebrating! It is not one, but three companions who took their last vows together.  

Guilhem Causse (Paris-Blomet) is professor of philosophy at the Centre Sèvres. L’Arbre du Pèlerin (The Pilgrim Tree) is the title of the novel that Guilhem has just published.

Jacques Enjalbert (Paris-Assas) is chaplain of Political Sciences and of the Christian network of the “Grandes Ecoles” in Ile de France.

Xavier Roger (Vanves) is currently national chaplain of the “Mouvement Eucharistique des Jeunes” in France.

Coming back from Amazonian Guyana to Britain

Please remember in your prayers Fr James Conway SJ who professed his Final Vows at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm St, on Friday 8th June - feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Final vows are traditionally made on a feast of particular significance to Jesuits. Devotion to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus was originally championed by the Jesuit Saint Claude La Colombiere.

In his homily, principal celebrant Fr Provincial Damian Howard SJ focused on the call to transformation invoked by the Sacred Heart: “the Divine Heart astonishes us by not only calling us to join Him in the outreach of His loving but enabling us to do so. To bear the embrace of mercy to others. To host His love in our freshly humbled hearts, now made supple and real and strong. In all humility, we set out at last as active participants in the love that changed our lives.”

Fr Damian reminded the congregation that Christ’s Passion and the agony in the garden of Gethsemene is central to the original call to the Sacred Heart and commented on the fitness of the feast for Fr James’s final vows of dedication:

“It is entirely suitable that we are surrounded by a spiritual impulse which welled up in the groves of Gethsemane as we celebrate an act of definitive self-offering to Christ and His People. Jim has done his fair share of wrestling with God’s will over the last twenty-four years…. But in a few minutes’ time, he will kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and pronounce his final “yes” to the Lord. And it’s good that we are all here to celebrate that because it is a real victory, and just as we are called to share in the Lord’s agony, so we are invited to participate in His glory, in a modest way, even in the here and now”

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