does happen at times that they be found corrupt at that age, that happens rather because of thoughtlessness and not because of sheer malice. These youngsters really need a kindly hand, someone who takes care of them, nurtures them and guides them towards virtue and keeps them away from vice. The main difficulty lies in finding a way to gather them together, speak to them and teach them moral behavior.751

Following a more analytic and largely theological consideration we could place the field -forces on four levels : the young person as an individual, the environment, the religious world, the mediation provided by education.752

First of all, Don Bosco speaks of and writes about a general positive readiness of the young to reach

moral and educational maturity when nurtured on time, thanks to the commitment of educators and

thanks to the young person himself. We cannot afford to lose tim e: “Young people are greatly loved by God”, because they still have “time to perform many good deeds”. They are at “a simple, humble and innocent age and, in general, have not yet become the unfortunate prey of the infernal enemy”.753 Besides and also because of this, “the salvation of a small child depends ordinarily on the period of his youth”.754

Don Bosco wants to express this idea in God's words: “Adolescens juxta viam suam etiam com senuerit non recedet ab ea”: if we start off with a good life when we are young, we will continue to be good into old age and our death will be a good death and mark the beginning of eternal happiness. On the contrary, if vice gets us in its grip when we are young it will likely continue to have a hold on us throughout life and until death.755

A young person's human potential and natural disposition are helpful, despite even though they may lean in different directions, more often good, ordinary or even indifferent. Intelligence, the faculty of truth, holds prime of place, then will, the faculty of good, with the freedom to act that follows on from it. Don Bosco gives it a great importance if we think about his insistence on the good resolutionswhich characterise his pedagogy on the Sacrament of Penance.

What distinguishes man from all the other animals in a special manner is the fact that he is

gifted with a soul which thinks, reasons, knows what is good and what is evil.756

God has given us a soul, namely that invisible reality which we feel in us and which continuously tends to raise itself up to God; this intelligent being thinks, reasons, and will not be able to find happiness here on earth. Therefore, even in the midst of the riches and pleasures of this world, it will always feel restless until it rests in God, for God alone make it happy.

can

God gave our soul freedom, namely the faculty to choose good or evil assuring it of a reward if it acts well, and threatening it with punishment whenever it chooses to act badly."(79”757

751Introduzione to the Piano di Regolamento... in P. Braido (Ed.) Don Bosco nella Chiesa..., pp. 34-35.

752For a deeper analysis of the anthropological elements cf J. Scheppens, Human nature in the educational outlook of St

John Bosco, RSS 8 (1989) 263-287).

753G. Bosco, Il giovane provveduto... pp 10-11, OE II 190-191.

754G. Bosco, Il giovane provveduto... pp 12-13, OE II 192-193.

755G. Bosco, Il giovane provveduto... pp 6-71, OE II 186-187; cf also G. Bosco La forza della buona educazione... pp 62-

63, OE VI 336-337. It is one of the “ALMOST OBLIGATORY TOPICS IN ASCETIC READING FOR YOUTH” (p.

Stella, Valori spirituali nel Giovane provveduto... p. 52)..

756G. Bosco, Il giovane provveduto... pp 10, OE X 317-319

757G. Bosco Il mese di maggio consacrato a Maria SS. Immacolata ad uso del popolo. Turin, G.B. Paravia & CO. 1858,