The sacred mount of La Verna, where Saint Francis received the seal of the stigmata, was the setting for a day of celebration for the great family of the Friars Minor. In this place imbued with prayer and memory, eight friars made their temporary profession of the evangelical counsels, after completing the year of novitiate and officially entering the Order.

They made their vows:

• Br. Tochukwu Peterjames Ejimadu, Br. Leo Chukwunazom Ogoh, Br. Hagop Arabatlian, Br. Walid Yuhanna Daher and Br. Joaquim Fortuna José for the Custody of the Holy Land,
• Br. Siro Cappanera for the Province of Lazio, Abruzzo,
• Br. Eduart Daka for the Custody of Albania, Montenegro,
• Br. Peter Bakheet for the Province of Egypt.
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The liturgy was animated by a spirit of communion expressed in the words of the homily delivered by Br. Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, who presided over the celebration. Br. Ielpo invited the friars and the assembly to rediscover the heart of consecrated life: not a project built by man, but a response to the gift of God. Quoting the letter to the Colossians, he reiterated that "the initiative is always God's", because it is He who reconciles and calls, giving the Spirit that enables a life conformed to Christ.

The custos strongly reminded that the purpose of religious profession is not first of all doing, but becoming holy. Holiness, he explained, is not the privilege of those with extraordinary gifts, but of those who allow themselves to be transformed by Christ to the point of being able to say with Saint Paul: "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me". To preserve this desire, it is necessary to remain firm in faith, through study, prayer and silence before the Eucharist, and to be unwavering in the hope of the Gospel, lived without compromise, thus showing that "even today the Gospel can be lived".

Br. Ielpo then recalled the experience of Saint Francis, emphasizing that there is no authentic worship of God without concrete love for one’s neighbor. The fraternity that the friars have embraced with the vows is not an abstract idea, but a living reality, made of faces and stories entrusted by God Himself. It is in this daily life, with its limits and its riches, that each one is called to seek and encounter the Lord.

The celebration concluded in an atmosphere of shared joy, making tangible the message of the homily: God continues to call, holiness is possible and the Gospel lived in its radicality remains the force that renews the world.