From March 26 to April 2, Fr. Pedro Castillo, Sub-director General, made a short animation visit to the JMV of Lebanon, which presently has approximately 1000 members and 150 advisors, distributed in 10 centers, mostly in schools run by the Daughters of Charity.

Last Saturday, March 27, he met with Fr. Zihad Haddad and Sr. Rania Azzi, national directors, and Denisse El Khouri, national president. Their discussion was basically about the proposal presented by the National Council to the International Council to host the Second General Assembly. He made an ocular inspection of the school of the Vincentian Fathers in Beirut, St. Joseph Technical School, which can accommodate 200 persons, and the St. Joseph Theater which has a 600 seating capacity.  Afterwards, he did a courtesy call to the Provincial Visitor and a small group of 12 JMV leaders in St. Charles School. Fr. Pedro, Sr. Rania, Sr. Latife and Denisse had lunch in Saida and visited the Our Lady of Maghdouche Shrine, an hour’s drive from Beirut, overlooking the port of Sidon. In the afternoon, he met with 30 college members of the JMV of Beirut gathered in the JMV National Secretariat, to whom he gave a short talk about the objectives and the internationality of the Association.

On Sunday, he visited a Daughters of Charity community and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, where about 4,000 young people from the different parts of the country gathered to make a pilgrimage and a day of prayer. The activity was facilitated by the Provincial Visitor of the Carmelite Fathers. Late that afternoon, he also met with all the members of the National Council (8 sisters, 6 priests, and 25 young people) in the Provincial House of the Daughters of Charity in Beirut. Aside from extending the greetings in the name of the International Council, he gave a short power point presentation prepared by Yasmine and Gustavo entitled “Challenges of the JMV in the Third Millennium.” Next, a group workshop was made to evaluate the actual situation of said National Council:  the groups have grown spiritually through the constant practice of the Lectio Divina and constant deepening of the Marian dimension.  They are bringing about a good formation program which emphasizes on catechetical and technical training. There is the need to improve communication with the Secretariat in Madrid and on being more aware of our internationality as well as do more apostolic works in the form of projects rather than regular activities. Afterwards, Denisse worked with the group the preparation for the Marian Walk to the Harissa Shrine on May which gathers around 600 young people. The day ended with a dinner by the sea, with typical Lebanese food, music and dance. Theirs is a Council very united, dynamic and responsible.

The day after, Fr. Pedro went to St. Joseph School in Zouk and moved up to the northern part of the country to see the Dar En-Nour School where Sr. Rania works.  He met with a small group of JMV leaders in the pre-adolescent level and then with the International President Gladys Abi- Said Dib, who is now resting as she is expecting a baby girl. With Gladys, he discussed the latest information on member countries, the JMV Asian Encounter and the preparation of the agenda for the next International Council meeting.