On Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hălăucești, Romania, eight of the thirty-four friars who had made their solemn profession in the same church twenty-five years earlier celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving. The Mass was presided over by the Minister Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph, Spouse of the B.V.M. in Romania, Friar Damian-Gheorghe PĂTRAȘCU, together with other priests of the Province.
On that unforgettable day, these friars, following divine inspiration, dedicated their lives to God, placing them at the service of God, the Church, and their brothers. Their solemn profession was the culmination of their journey of discernment and formation, which had begun several years earlier in the Order’s houses of formation in Romania and abroad.
Those thirty-four friars shared the joy and enthusiasm of belonging to the first generation of friars of the Province of Romania at the beginning of the new millennium. They were living at a time when the Church and humanity were entering a new century, guided by Christ’s words to the Apostle Peter: Duc in altum! (“Put out into the deep!” Luke 5:4), an expression that Pope John Paul II would place at the heart of his 2001 apostolic letter Novo millennio ineunte.
Over the last twenty-five years, those thirty-four friars have truly “put out into the deep,” serving in various communities of the Province and the Order around the world, following the example of St. Francis of Assisi and the friars who came before them.
For this reason, the jubilee celebration was first and foremost a time to praise and thank God for the gift of vocation and fidelity. During the Mass, the friars commemorated three of the friars from their group of thirty-four who had already gone to the Father’s house. They also commemorated Friar Ion CIURARU, who served as Minister Provincial at that time and had received their profession, and the other formators and confessors who are now deceased.
The jubilarians invoked God’s help, together with the prayers and support of the friars and the faithful, so that they might continue to live out what they promised the Lord twenty-five years ago, for His glory and for the salvation of their souls, with the same faith expressed in the hymn of their profession:
“We are called to love,
we share the same mission:
to build together
a better world on earth.”
Special thanks to all who contributed to organizing and carrying out this celebration, namely, the Minister Provincial and the friars from the friary in Hălăucești.
May God bring to completion the good work He has begun in the friars celebrating their jubilee!
The jubilarian friars
