On the 17^th November 2018, four novices of the Near East and Maghreb Province, who finished their second year, and are now doing their Juniorate in Beirut, pronounced their first vows. These were Oussama Halim, Houssam Suleyman and Michael Ghobrial from Egypt and Mike Kassis from Syria.

Fr. Dany Younes, the Provincial, presided the Mass assisted by Fr. Mourad Abou Seif who is the Master of Novices and Fr. Roney Gemayel, their present Superior, and a number of other Jesuits priests. The Mass was celebrated in the church of Our Lady of Salvation (Sayedet el Najat) at noon.

During the homily, Fr. Dany spoke of four main points: a) our vows express our gratitude towards God the Father and Jesus Christ; b) beware of the grace you ask for, because if you ask for love of neighbor, you know the price of love, and if you ask to follow Christ you know where this will lead you, definitely to the Cross; love costs and glory is the ability to strive hard with joy.

After the Mass, Fr. Roney Gemayel presented them with a cross. Then those presented we invited to a festive lunch.

In the meantime, two other Novices, are doing their second year long experiment in Aleppo and Damascus.