Naturally, many of you sense a great desire now to leave and become missionaries. Well, I can only tell you that if all of you were to be included in the group of missionaries, there would be places available for everyone and I would know exactly what assignment to give you. The reason for this is that the needs are great and the requests for missionaries are so many that the Bishops who make these requests are imploring us to help; and they also tell us that several missions, which have only just beguan, had to be abandoned for lack of missionaries. But for the time being, start by preparing yourselves for the missions by praying, being really good, being missionaries to one another, giving good example to one another and also by studying hard, carrying out your duties of study and school-work. Then you will see that with God's help you will be able to reach your goal and be loved by the Lord and by all people.995
The countless talks to the boys, the addresses delivered to novices and post -novices, the conferences for Salesians and particularly for Rectors, especially on the occasion of the feast of Saint Francis
Sales, and the interventions made at the General Chapters.... all were aimed at educating the young to
choose their vocation.
At meetings of Salesians holding positions of responsibility, Don Bosco became an educator among
educators in this matter to o. In order to cultivate vocations and make them attractive, Don Bosco
repeatedly recommended the practice of charity among the educators, and loving kindness towards the
young, in a word, fidelity to the practice of the preventive system.
996
Both the academ ic students and the working boys were repeatedly invited by Don Bosco to look at the
signs indicative of a vocation from God and were presented with the perspective of a broad personal
self -realisation, in the old and in a new world.
997
de
4. The pedagogy of the 'last things'
Death, Judgment, Hell, Paradise carry particular weight in educating the young to real commitment. This is the privileged way to bring about a serious education to fear and love of God, a way full of energy and initiative. A 'virtuous fear', may start off as being afraid, a servile kind of fear, but it evolves intentionally and rapidly into an initial filial fear which is the beginning of wisdom and the way that leads to grace and love.
Pedagogy of the 'last things' comes naturally to Don Bosco. He personally experienced it through his awareness of the superhuman responsibility a priest has for the salvation of others, which is the condition for his own salvation. Don Bosco’s preaching on the 'last things', therefore, could be nothing but a moving and persuasive witness, before being simple words or an advice or warning. The 'last things' are a source of concern, seasoned with love and Christian fear, for Don Bosco. There is a touching proof of this, amongst many others, in something he wrote towards the end of his life and found in the Memorie dal 1841 al l884-5-6:
"I know, my beloved children, that you love me. May this love, this affection, not come
downjust to weeping after my death. Instead, pray for the eternal repose of my soul. I
recommend that prayers be said, charitable deeds be performed, mortifications undertaken,
holy communions received in reparation for the faults I may have committed in doing good
and preventing evil. May your prayers be directed to Heaven with this special intention,
995G. Barberis, Cronichetta, quad. 3Bis, p. 36.
996Cf for example G. Barberis, Cronaca, quad. 19 instructions for retreat at Lanzo 13 and 14 Sept 1875, pp. 1-14, G.
Barberis, Cronaca, quad. 14, conference at the Oratory, 4 Feb. 1876, pp. 42-45; 19 March 1876, pp. 63-66; G. Barberis,
Verbale del Capitolo Superiore, quad II, at Alassio, 7 Feb 1879, pp. 73-76.
997Cf for example G. Barberis, Cronichetta, quad. 5, evening sermons 15 March 1876, p. 19; quad. 6Bis to the working
boys, 31 March 1876, pp. 14-17; G. Barberis, Cronaca, quad. 3, 13 May 1877, pp. 1-4.