children; you will greet them all on my behalf”.666 "Extend my most cordial greetings to all our dear youngsters and tell them that I love them very much, that I love them in the Lord, and that I bless them”.667 "Tell all our dear youngsters and confreres that I work for them and that my last breath shall be for them. But they should pray for me; they should be good, and avoid sin, so that we may all reach salvation for all eternity. All of it!”668
As we can see, Don Bosco's love was shown equally for the young and their teachers who were also ‘his children’. We have frequent and affectionate references to his children’s teachers also. "Yesterday, (13th) we had had a theatrical performance. The play was the famous debate between a lawyer and a Protestant Minister. It was a brilliant performance. Mino sang the Il figlio delle esule and it was brilliantly successful but the thought that the very author of the music was far away has deeply moved me; and so, all during the song in the performance I did nothing but think of my dear Sons in South America”.669 "You left me and you have really racked my heart. I picked up courage, but I suffered and could not sleep the whole night. Today I feel more relaxed. May God be praised “.670
Don Bosco's thinking was always accompanied by the particular tone of his educative love, cheerfulness and an emphasised cheerfulness for sake of the youngsters who came from poor families, often underfed, and often attracted by the promise of festivities in the dining room, the theatre and the playground. Amongst many, the following example will be proof enough: "Speak like this to your children: Don Bosco loves you always, with all his heart, in the Lord. Don Bosco will remember you in a special way during his Mass on the Feast of St. Joseph. Since he cannot be present among you, he promises that there will be a party the first time he has the chance to visit you”.671
3. Everything for God
It is self-evident that Don Bosco's huge amount of activity is deeply rooted in and motivated by Christian and priestly fundamentals, the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity and every thing they entail: a constant reference to God, as our final objective, to our neighbour whom we love because and the way God loves him. This kind of talk leads necessarily to what we call interior life and, ultimately, to authentic holiness.672
The motto which perhaps best expresses and sums up the core of Don Bosco's deeply inspired personality and activity is the one repeated several times: “ibi nostra fix sunt corda, ubi vera sunt gaudia”, translatable as: God loved and served, Salvation, Eternal Happiness, Paradise. The ibi-ubi (there-where) is considered and lived as 'an end' and at the same time as the source whence Don Bosco's inspirations and energies came.
In the Christian Economy, all these are goods the believer hopes for and obtains through the mediation of Jesus Christ, Our Savior, and finds extension of in the Church which, in turn, announces His Word and is open to his Saving Grace which we call on continuously in prayer.
Fundamentally, Don Bosco remains faithful to the message which announces the ultimate meaning of
666 Letter to Don Rua, 27 Dec. 1877, E III 254.
667 Letter to Don Rua, 25 Fe. 1879, E III 447.
668 Letter to Don Francesia, 12 April 1885, E IV 323.
669 Letter to Don Cagliero, 14 Feb. 1876, E III 19.
670 Letter to Don Costamagna, 12 Nov. 1883, E IV 240.
671 Letter to Don Bonetti, 16 June 1870, E II 97; cf. again: letter to Don Ruffino, Rector at Lanzo, 22 March 1865, Em II
117; to Don Rua from Rome between Jan and Feb. 1870, E II 71-72 (‘I will try to help you be happy. The following
Sunday on my arrival we will have a big feast on honour of St. Francis de Sales’); to Don Bonetti, Rector at Mirabello
Monferrato,9 Feb. 1870, E II 74; to Don Francesia, Rector at Cherasco, 10 Feb., 1870, E II 75; to Don Ronchail,
Rector at Nizza Marittima, 12 Jan. 1878, E III 270-271; to Don Rua, 21 Jan. and 25 Feb. 1879, E III 440 and 447. 672 Cf. profile of E. Ceria, Don Bosco con Dio, (Turin: SEI, 1929), 221 pages (extended 2nd edition, Colle Don Bosco
(Asti): LDC 1946), 392 pages; P. Broccardo, Don Bosco ‘profeta di santità’ per le nuova cultura, in M. Midali ed.,
Spiritualità dell’azione. Contributo per un approfindimento, (Rome: LAS 1977), 179-206.