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THE SALESIAN MONTH OF JANUARY
The month of January is particularly marked by Salesian holiness, as
if to indicate the spiritual tone that should colour the flow of days
and deeds in the New Year. This Salesian holiness shines out in some of
the most important Salesian figures:
Blessed Luigi Variara (15 January), an example of a humble, brave
Salesian missionary who was determined to give a genuinely Salesian
approach to nursing the most marginalized sick people;
Blessed Laura Vicuña
(22 January), a shining example of Salesian education who rigorously
defended her dignity as a 12-year-old girl, as an offering for the
conversion of those dear to her;
St Francis de Sales (24 January), the Patron Saint of Salesians who
inspired Salesian virtues such as the gentleness and docility of Jesus,
the Good Shepherd;
St John Bosco (31 January), our founder, teacher and father, and
above all, our unexcelled model of holiness.
Like a complex prism with ever new facets and aspects, the year
gradually unfolds its days and months, enriching the gallery of Salesian
holiness with its most disparate interpretations.
The liturgy for the feast of Don Bosco calls him "teacher and father" to
the young (Entrance Antiphon), and rightly so, for Don Bosco was a
teacher, catechist, writer and founder of religious congregations
dedicated to the education of youth.
Certain aspects of Don Bosco's spiritual pedagogy that are
particularly appropriate today have been providentially treated in the
recent Magisterium of the Holy Father, John Paul II. We refer in
particular to the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, the
Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, and the Post-Synodal
Apostolic Exhortations Ecclesia in Europa and Pastores Gregis.
In them we discover the four pillars that sustained Don Bosco in his
pedagogy as a priest and Christian educator: devotion to Mary and to the
Eucharist, the anchorage or pillar to which we should moor the ship of
our existence; the virtue of hope that gives us joie de vivre;
ready obedience to and communion with the Pastors of the Church.
First pillar: devotion to Mary Help of Christians
For Don Bosco, the Immaculate Virgin, Mary Help of Christians, was
the ever-present Mother who helps her children daily, going to their
rescue and leading them to Jesus. "Be devoted to Mary Help of
Christians", he would habitually say, "and you will see what miracles
are!".
For Don Bosco, Marian devotion had an intrinsically ecclesial
dimension since he saw Mary as the powerful Helper who defends the
Church and the Pope from every kind of danger. This is why in the
Salesian tradition the daily recitation of the Rosary is not only an
element of Marian devotion, but above all the contemplation of Jesus in
the mysteries of his saving Incarnation.
Second pillar: devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist
The second pillar of Don Bosco's spirituality was devotion to Jesus
in the
Eucharist, which he saw as the heart of every Salesian house. He used to
remind young people: "If you want many graces, pay many visits to Jesus
in the Sacrament; if you want few graces, pay him few".
Don Bosco was a "vir eucharisticus", that is, a saint formed through
and through by the Eucharist. He was so passionate about the Eucharist
that he communicated his passion to the young people he carefully
prepared for communion with the Lord through the sacrament of
Reconciliation. For Don Bosco, Confession and the Eucharist were the two
sacraments that inculcated in young people the Christian virtues and
holiness.
On this topic he wrote in 1877:
"Frequent Confession, frequent Communion and daily Mass are the
pillars that must support an educational building that we desire to
protect from threats and scourges. Never force youngsters to receive the
holy sacraments, but only encourage them and make it easy for them to do
so" (John Bosco, Il sistema preventivo nella educazione della gioventù
[1877], n. 4).
The 15-year-old St Dominic Savio is a shining example of this
sacramental pedagogy which strengthened his virtuous habits and his
union with Jesus, witnessed by his Eucharistic ecstasies during Holy
Communion.
Third pillar: educational system based on joy, hope
The third pillar of Don Bosco's spirituality was his educational
system of joy and hope. Dominic Savio, who once said to Don Bosco: "I am
the fabric, you are the tailor; make me into a beautiful suit for the
Lord!", had fully grasped this when he suggested to his young
companions: "Let's make holiness consist in being very cheerful!".
Salesian holiness is the fruit of a pedagogy of joy based on
Christian hope in the eternal joy of paradise. Hope, which the Holy
Father has insistently asked the European Churches to recover, was for
Don Bosco the virtue that spurred him to embark on the most adventurous
undertakings, such as the construction of the Church of Our Lady Help of
Christians in Turin and of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome, and
the foundation of two religious congregations with barely a penny in his
pocket, overcoming unspeakable trials. He placed full trust in the
Lord's provident presence in the history of the Church and in his own
life.
He often used to say that the saints, while taking the final judgment
seriously, lived in supreme joy because they trusted in the goodness of
a Father who has infinite good things in store for his faithful
servants.
If Francis of Assisi made nature holy, Don Bosco made joy holy,
remembering' what Philip Neri had said to his young followers: "Run,
jump, amuse yourselves as much as you like, but for pity's sake, don't
sin!".
Like hope, which is a disposition given by God, joy too was not so
much a methodological expedient but rather a form of life, an
evangelical constant that gives rise to happiness and optimism. He felt
that there was an affinity and harmony between serene young people and
Christian life
— a
mutual appeal:
"The young person who feels he is in a state of grace with God
naturally experiences joy in the certainty that he possesses a good that
is completely within his reach, and he expresses this state of pleasure
in cheerfulness" (John Bosco, Vita del Giovanetto Savio Domenico,
in Opere Edite, XI, p. 236).
For him, Servite Domino in laetitia was the 11th commandment.
Fourth pillar: devotion to Church and Vicar of Christ
Don Bosco's fourth and last pillar is his devotion to the Church, to
her Pastors and especially to the Holy Father. His love for the Pope was
extraordinary and is an integral part of the Salesian formation and
apostolate.
Vivere in Ecclesia, sentire cum Ecclesia et agere pro Ecclesia
vividly captures the spirituality of Don Bosco.
With regard to the sentire cum Ecclesia that Don Bosco lived
with a special reference to devotion to the Supreme Pontiff and his
Magisterium, his second successor, Don Paolo Albera (19101912), wrote:
"Let us remember that in following in the footsteps of the saints,
and especially in those of St Francis de Sales, Don Bosco was not
content with a submission of the intellect restricted to ex cathedra
definitions, but wanted sincere submission to any teaching of the
Pope imparted in any form. Nor did he merely follow his orders and have
them followed, but regarded as law and as a gentle command every
announcement, every piece of advice, every desire of the Vicar of Jesus
Christ, and he wanted his sons to do likewise" (P. Albera, Lettere
circolari ai salesiani, SEI, Turin, 1922, p. 102).
"Knowing, loving and defending the Pope" was the gift of 1949,
written by Don Pietro Ricaldone (1932-1951), the fourth successor of Don
Bosco.
Francis Desramaut, a French historian, synthesized this Salesian
ecclesial dimension, a living legacy of Don Bosco, in the following way:
"The Salesian mingles unostentatiously with Christians who can speak
lovingly of the Church, 'judging her fondly, almost as though she were a
mother'. They are aware that they have received the life of the Holy
Spirit in the Church and through the Church. They may well know her
limitations, her wrinkles and even her scandals, but attach little
importance to them. Instead, they duly evaluate the advantages of her
presence for each person and for humanity: the beneficial energies she
spreads, the experience of God expressed by the holiness she offers as
an example, the wisdom that emanates from the Word of God, the love that
unites and inspires solidarity beyond the boundaries of nations and
continents, the sense of life she offers, the values she defends and the
prospects of eternal life that she unfolds. The Salesian family loves
and admires the Church of Jesus Christ" (Francis Desra
maut, Spiritualità
salesiana, LAS, Rome, 2001, p. 151).
Preventive system: based on reason, religion, tender love
With these four spiritual indicators, Salesian education offers to
society and to the Church good Christians as well as honest citizens.
The climate in which this educational project is put into practice is
the so-called "preventive system", which attempts to prevent rather than
to repress, and is based on the famous triad: reason, religion,
affection.
These three words show that education is a task founded on sound
reason, on the grace of Baptism, and above all, on the good, transparent
heart of the educator.
May Don Bosco help us to preserve his precious heritage and to
promote it with creativity in the cultural context of our day.
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