“Here I am, Lord!” With this response to the call of the Lord, our brothers, Filippo Di Maio and Michele Pressano, stipulated their pact of love, through their solemn profession of the evangelical counsels. The newly professed, belonging to the Neapolitan Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Italy) of the Order of Friars Minor, consecrated themselves forever to the Lord in the Pontifical Minor Basilica of Sant'Antonio di Padova in Afragola (NA).
The Eucharistic celebration, presided over by Fr. Carlo Maria D'Amodio, Provincial Minister, and attended by a large number of confreres of the Province, by a representation of the other Provinces of Campania, Basilicata and Calabria, by confreres of other religious families, by the family members of the newly professed and by a large number of faithful, was carried out in an atmosphere of prayer, recollection, and deep emotion: everything spoke of the greatness of God's love.
In thanking those present in his own name and on behalf of Br. Michele Pressano, Br. Filippo Di Maio shared what he kept in his heart, stating that saying "yes" to God was not only a choice, but a total abandonment, a letting oneself be loved to the end and then pouring the same love to the thirsty world. The presence of God, His Love and His tenderness has pushed them to recognize Him in smallness and fragility, giving them the courage to open, without fear, their heart to Him. In the "yes" expressed with joy and full donation they have found the most authentic joy, the one that nothing can extinguish, because it is rooted in the One who is eternal.
To Br. Filippo Di Maio and Br. Michele Pressano, the confreres all wish them to follow Christ faithfully and with perseverance, in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi, to become brothers among brothers, instruments of peace and witnesses of the beauty of a crazy love that never ends.
In the following days, the Province celebrated its Provincial Chapter, which confirmed Br. Carlo Maria D'Amodio as Provincial Minister; elected provincial vicar, Br. Giuseppe Sorrentino; and provincial definitors: Br. Giuseppe Palmesano, Br. Mario Folliero, Br. Adriano Pannozzo and Br. Vincenzo Baldo.
