shepherdess”.950
According to Don Bosco even Francis Besucco “nourishes a special affection for Mary Most Holy. During the novena for her Birthday he demonstrated particular fervour towards her and then spelled out his filial expressions towards her”.951
Don Bosco gave his boys a prayer he had written forthem at the Marian shrine at Oropa:
"Mary, bless our entire house; keep even the shadow of sin far away from the hearts of our
youngsters. May you be the guide of all our students; may you be the seat of True Wisdom
for them. Let them be yours, always yours; consider them always as your children and
always keep them among your devotees.952
Mary, sometimes by extraordinary means, calls back the more obstinate amongst the boys, to do
penance, and keeps God's punishments away from them.
953
The Novenas, especially the Novena to the Immaculate Conception, are days of grace and times when ‘verdicts’ are being passed and there is a 'cleansing' going on in the house: “Our Lady is the one who chooses the youngsters suited for the Oratory or the youngsters who should leave or be expelled from the Oratory”954
Discussion of Mary becomes more intense when Don Bosco begins the building of the Church of Mary Help of Christians in Turin (1863-1868).
The privileged devotional practices are the daily recitation of the Rosary and the devotions during the Month of May.
9. Initiation to a 'sensus ecclesiae' and fidelity to the Pope
The Sensus Ecclesiae, and fidelity to the Pope hold an important place in Don Bosco's pedagogy. He considers them to be essential to a full and complete Christian faith.
They are given different emphasis
the first focuses on the salvific reality of the Church
the second focuses on the structural reality of the Church
Oral and written catechesis, apologetics and pedagogy.... all converge on the need to impress upon the young the belief that only the Catholic Church possesses the means of grace and salvation: Revelation, in its integrity and truth; the Sacraments, administered in the fullness of validity and grace; orderly communal living in charity, guaranteed by the harmonious coexistence of the two dimensions, the hierarchical and the fraternal.
No salvation outside the church is not up for argument. Don Bosco's Church History, Advice to Catholics, The educated Catholic, along with his various apologetic works all converge on that belief. It comes from a catechesis which was presented orally long before it was written down.
The holiness of the Church prevails over other of its features, including the unity of the Church, although this latter is a fundamental structural feature.
950G. Bosco, Cenno biografico sul giovanetto Magone Michele..., Chap VIII Sua divozione verso la B. Vergine Maria, pp.
39-40, OE XIII 193-194.
951G. Bosco, Il pastorello delle Alpi..., pp. 115-117, OE XV 357-359.
952Letter to the “Dear students” of the Oratory, 6 August 1863, Em I 594.
953G. Bonetti, Annuali II (1861-1862), evening talk tot he boys of the Oratory on Sunday 12 January 1862 after a ball of
fire had appeared in two of the rooms, pp. 6-9.
954Cf. D. Ruffino,Cronaca dell'Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales No. 1 1860, 27 Nov. 1860, p.27; Idem, Cronaca 1861
1862 1863, words in June 1862, p. 95; G.B. Lemoyne, Cronaca 1864ff, 2 dec. 1864, pp. 32-35, and 4 Dec. 1864, pp. 36-
37; 11 January 1865, after talking about Our Lady's apparition at La Salette e “signs” in Chioggia, Vicovaro, Spoleto,
pp. 69-70.