readiness for conversion.1003
Ah my dear children, whoever has not yet taken ad vantage of it should not waste it. Dum Tempus Habemus, as long as we have time... we all have to take a long journey... Ibit in domum aeternitatis suae, He will go to the eternity which is due to him.1004
The pedagogy of the 'last things' is also found in man y of the 'dreams' which recall the drama of
salvation and one's personal responsibility for it. Particularly significant are the accounts made by the
boys to Fr Cafasso, Silvio Pellico and Count Cays; the stairway to heaven; the slopes of the seven hills;
the way of perdition. There are various images of the difficult journey toward salvation which happens
to be the earthly pilgrimage of every human being per sanguinem, aquam et ignem, through blood, water and fire. In one way or another, the boys are called to fix up their consciences, not without a visible showing of anxiety and a general recourse to confession.1005
"We ploughed a treacherous sea" are the words of a hymn introduced into the final edition of the
Companion of Youth and explained in another verysymbolic 'dream' narrated by Don Bosco to the boys on January 1, 1866. In that 'dream', life is depicted as a dangerous trip by raft on storm-tossed floodwaters covering a huge land surface. The sixth and seventh commandments are more at risk than the others. Don Bosco urges his boys to be docile and obedient.1006
The dream about hell, described on 3 May, 1868, and handed down to us by Fr Joachim Berto,
concerns a shipwreck from which there is no salvation. There are youngsters who rush headlong into
that pl ace of eternal punishment and remain there, petrified. They are heard to cry out: “We made a stupid error”. They are not yet damned yet but they would be were they to die at that very moment. Don Bosco sees the following words written somewhere: “sixth commandment”. Even those who are attached to earthly goods, are disobedient, proud or victims of human respect all risk hell.1007 Beyond the dreams, Don Bosco makes any number of predications of death. The chronicles of the first
years, the 1860s, handed down t o us by Frs Ruffino, Bonetti and Lemoyne, make a point of it. Fr John
Baptist Lemoyne is the most accurate of them, since he took up a painstaking process of verification to
ascertain whether or not the predictions came true.
Sometimes Don Bosco, who is mo re than attentive to the psychology of the young, seemed concerned
about what was spiritually useful for their souls, according to the well -defined principle: “When something turns out to be good for souls, then it certainly comes from God and cannot come from the Devil”. Then he also added: “I have a unique bit of news to tell you, namely, that the Devil has been defeated in this house and if we continue this way he will be forced to declare bankruptcy”.1008 On several occasions Don Bosco would justify his procedure calling it a duty which he performs for the salvation of the young.1009
“Healthy fear”, seriousness, resonsibility characterise the pedagogy of the 'last things' that Don Bosco insistently practised amongst the young. In principle, this type of
1003 G.B. Lemoyne, Cronaca 1864ff, Good Night 2 Dec. 1864, pp. 34-35.
1004 G.B. Lemoyne, Cronaca 1864ff, Good Night 5 Dec. 1864, p. 40.
1005 Cf. D. Ruffino, Cronache dell'Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales, No 2 1861, Good Night 31 Dec. 1860, pp. 2-6; G.
Bonetti, Memoria di alcuni fatti..., pp. 65-69; D. Ruffino, Cronache dell'Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales, No. 2 1861,
Good Night of 12 and 15 Jan 18612, pp. 6-8, 13; D. Ruffino, Cronache dell'Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales, 1861,
1862, 1863, Good Night 7 April 1861, pp. 2-22; G. Bonetti, Annali I, pp. 17-34; G.B. Lemoyne, Cronaca 1864ff Good
Night 22 Oct. 1864, pp. 4-8.
1006 A brief fragment in G. B. Lemoyne, Cronaca 1864ff, p. 157; developed in Documenti and MB VIII 275-282. 1007 G. Berto, Cronaca 1868-2, pp. 9-20.
1008 D. Ruffinom Cronache..., No 2 1861, Good Night of 17 Feb. 1861, pp. 14-15.
1009 Cf G. Bonetti, Annali II (1861-1862), evening talk of 25 April 1862, pp. 68-69; D. Ruffino, Cronaca 1861 1862
1863 1864 Good Night of 11 Jan and 4 Feb. 1864, pp. 14-15; G.B. Lemoyne, Cronaca 1864ff, Good Night of 18 Dec.
1864, p. 53.