there. But, notice: the bees do not pick all the pollen they find in one flower, but go to this flower, then another flower, and they take from the flowers only what helps them produce honey.

Getting to the application of the image, Don Bosco made these remarks:

The honey stands for the good produced by everyone working together, with their piety,

study and cheerfulness. The entire result is guaranteed by 'obeying their queen', namely, by

obeying the rules and superiors.

The fact that many live together increases cheerfulness; it serves as an encouragement to bear with the hardships of study; it serves as a stimulus by noting others' progress; there is a mutual sharing of acquired knowledge, ideas and that is the way learning from one another takes place. The fact of living together with lots of others who do well, becomes an inspiration for us to do well, without even being aware of it.1093

The same image was published by a correspondent in a Parisian newspaper, Pèlerin, following an interview with Don Bosco in May 1883. The small hospice started in 1847 had become, for quite some time, a great complex of buildings with 800 boarders.

We have seen the preventive system in action. In Turin, the students form a huge boarding

institution: they do not know anything about moving by rows since they move from one

place to another, family-style. Groups of youngsters surround their teachers without too

much noise, irritation, or conflicts. We looked with admiration at the faces of those boys

and we could not restrain ourselves from crying out: Here is the finger of God.1094

The picture is slightly forced as the description provided by Don Bosco's first biog rapher. At any rate, it could be more faithfully tied back to the initial phases of the hospice atValdocco.

1095

The biographer himself had already mentioned the introduction of moderate and gradual regularisation.

In those days the boys enjoyed much freedom because they lived like in a family. But, as

soon as a need arose or a disorder crept up, Don Bosco gradually restricted the amount of

freedom with some appropriate rule and so, one by one, over time, disciplinary norms were

established and now form the Rules for the Salesian houses.1096

In a large family -like boarding institution, obviously real tensions may arise and gradually grow, between the fundamental climates of spontaneous, fatherly, brotherly and filial relationships and the inevitable demands of order and discipline. This is reflected in a sermonette Don Bosco delivered at the beginning of the scholastic year 1863 -1864:

I do not want you to consider me so much as your superior but rather as your friend. And

therefore, do not be afraid of me, have no fear of me, but rather trust me, for this is what I

wish from you and this is what I beg of you, this is what I would expect from true friends...

let us all form but one heart! I am here, ready to help you in any circumstance. Be of good

1093 MB VII 602. Lemoyne says it is an address recorded in a diary along with others, but without giving a date. 1094 Quoted from MB XVI 168-9.

1095 A more realistic view of the Oratory, a large community of more than 800 with two sections, students and working

boys, is offered by J.M. Prellezzo in «Ricerche Storiche Salesiane» (1989-1992), in the already quoted Valdocco

nell'Ottocento tra reaòe e ideale; cf also P. Stella, Don Bosco nella stroia economica e sociale, especially Chaps. VIII-

XII (pp. 175-288).

1096 MB IV 339.