On Saturday, October 1, 2022, just three days after the Solemnity of St. Francis, Friars César Antonio EUCEDA CHAVER and Alejandro María ALDAVERO ROMERO, members of the Province of Our Lady of Monserrat in Spain, professed their solemn vows. It was a day of fraternal joy and gratitude to the Lord.

The celebration took place at the Conventual Franciscan Church of Santa Clara in Madrid (San Buenaventura Friary, the headquarters of the Provincial Curia). The Minister Provincial, Friar Juan Antonio ADÁNEZ SILVÁN, presided.
A good number of friars from the friaries of the Province attended along with some priests and relatives and friends of the newly professed. The faces of both friars showed the emotion of the moment and gratitude they felt to the Most High and Good Lord for calling them to follow in the footsteps of the Poverello of Assisi in our Order.
In his lively homily, the Minister Provincial stressed the enormous courage of these two friars in a difficult time like ours, the age of the “metaverse,” a place where people try to live an alternative reality without commitment and dedication. Or to put it another way, without leaving one’s own room or comfort zone. He also encouraged them to follow the path traveled by St. Francis and all our saints, to be a light in the midst of darkness and a palette of colors, to help the people of our time to look with the eyes of Christ and see beyond appearances. For us Conventual Franciscans, the key to mission has been and continues to be our poor, humble and truly fraternal lives.
Let us thank God for the lives and vocations of Friars César and Alejandro M. Let us pray that they receive an abundance of gifts from the Holy Spirit, so that “inwardly cleansed, interiorly enlightened and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, [they may] be able to follow in the footprints of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. A Letter to the Entire Order) “cum grande humilitate” (cf. Canticle of Brother Sun). May St. Mary of Montserrat, patroness and guide of the Province of Spain, cover them with her mantle of light and mercy.

Friar Abel Jesús GARCÍA-CEZÓN ROLDÁN