"A vast movement for the good of the young"
RM's address to the Salesian Family Spirituality Days

the seed has become a tree, and the tree, a wood

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all, and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches" (Mt 13: 31-32).

 

Dear brothers and sisters of the Salesian Family,

I greet you with the heart of Don Bosco, from whose zeal and pastoral charity our spiritual and apostolic Family was born. We are the most wonderful and prolific result of his total gift of himself to God and his passion that the young, especially the poorest, most needy and at risk, would achieve the fullness of life in Christ.
Following on from the Strennas of the last three years, with their challenges and suggestions resulting in a significant number of initiatives in the various Groups of the Salesian Family, the moment has arrived to take a further step in fidelity to Don Bosco's intuition and original idea. Don Bosco “always considered unifying Salesian apostolic forces: for him no group ever existed outside of this perspective of unity, stronger or richer than the distinction of three groups (SDB, FMA and Cooperators  then all the other groups coming under Salesian inspiration) which was reequired by Canon Law but unfortunately somewhat exaggerated over the course of history”.
This belief was reaffirmed in 1972 by the then Rector Major, Fr Luigi Ricceri: “In Don Bosco's mind and heart, the Salesian Family is ONE, a unity rooted in a common spirit and mission, at the total service of the young and the people. So it brings about, at a higher level, a true community where all the members are integrated according to each one's gifts, specific functions and different forms of life possible within the bosom of the Church”.
So here I am to offer you a Strenna which is even more stimulating, urgent, challenging and promising than those which have preceeded it. It has to do with our identity and mission. And effectively dependent on it are our more visible presence in the Church and society, and our more effective action in facing up to the huge challenges of today's world.
2009 should help us make more real still Don Bosco's conviction that the education of the young requires a great network of people who are dedicated to them, and a decisive synergy of interventions to achieve the aims the young expect and to be significant for society.  Therefore  in Don Bosco's name I ask you:

That we commit ourselves to making the Salesian Family
A vast movement of people for the salvation of the young

Two events which come together

There are two events which justify the choice of topic for this Strenna for 2009: the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian Society and our preparation for the bicentenary of Don Bosco's birth (1815-2015). In celebrating the first we begin our preparation for the second. We do so by recalling John Paul II's appeal during the Jubilee 2000: "Every religious family will live the Jubilee well by returning in purity of heart to the spirit of the Founder!"
This Jubilee celebration, then for us means a renewed and creative fidelity to Don Bosco, his spirituality, mission. There will be a “Salesian Holy Year”, during which we are called to relive and enthusiastically communicate experiences of life, ways of acting, spiritual traits which led Don Bosco and, first amongst many others, Mother Mazzarello, to sanctity.
In this sense, I cannot but recall what Don Bosco's experience was. Early on he consecrated himself personally, body and soul, to the salvation of the young whom he saw lost on the street; then he invited some to share his apostolic work, giving shape to a first kind of ‘Salesian Family’. But after seeing that so many abandoned him and after being left alone, or nearly so, he gathered a group of youngsters around him and guided them to form a religious family: thus the Salesians were born; following this, other groups came along, structured at a different level, but with the same apostolic aims. This quick glance at history throws light on what the Salesian Family is and its relationship with the core group of consecrated persons – SDB and FMA – whose heart and driving energy, like that of the entire Salesian Family, is the passion of the “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle”. This explains the spirit which must characterise all members and groups in the Salesian Family.

It seems natural to me that the more complete the consecration, the greater will be the responsibility for animation. This belief was confirmed by the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, in his Address at the audience given to Chapter members on 31st March 2008: "Don Bosco wanted the continuity of his charism in the Church to be made certain by the choice of consecrated life. Today too the Salesian movement can grow in fidelity only if there is the continuation within it of a strong and vital core of consecrated people".

1.      The Salesian Family as it was then

The 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Salesian Society is a privileged opportunity to reflect on Don Bosco's original idea and on the concrete foundation of the original groups which he raised up and nurtured: the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Association of Salesian Cooperators, the Association of Mary Help of Christians.

At this point it seems necessary, enlightening and at the same time moving to read the minutes of the Act of foundation of the Society of St. Francis of Sales:

"In the Year of Our Lord eighteen hundred and fity nine, on the eighteenth of December in this Oratory of St. Francis of Sales at 9 in the evening. the following gathered in Father John Bosco's room: [Fr John Bosco] himself, Father Vittorio Alasonatti, the Seminarians Deacon Angelo Savio, Subdeacon Michele Rua, Giovanni Cagliero, Gio. Battista Francesia, Francesco Provera, Carlo Ghivarello, Giuseppe Lazzero, Giovanni Bonetti, Giovanni Anfossi, Luigi Marcellino, Francesco Cerruti, Celestino Durando, Secondo Pettiva, Antonio Rovetto, Cesare Giuseppe Bongiovanni, and the young man Luigi Chiapale. All [present were] united in one and the same spirit with the sole purpose of preserving and promoting the spirit of true charity needed for the work of the Oratories on behalf of neglected young people at risk. For in these disastrous times of ours such young people are liable to be corrupted and plunged into godlessness and irreligion to the detriment of the whole of society.

The Gathered group then decided to form a society or congregation with the aim of promoting the glory of God and the salvation of souls, especially of those most in need of instruction and education, while providing the members with mutual help toward their own sanctification. The project met with unanimous approval. Hence, after a short prayer and the invocation of the light of the Holy Spirit, the group proceeded to elect the members that would make up the central body of the Society and would lead this and future communities,if it should please God to grant increase.» .

I maintain that in this text we have the basis not only for the Salesian Congregation, but for the entire Salesian Family: communion of spirit and charity of service for the’ “work of the Oratories on behalf of neglected young people at risk”; the need “to form a society or congregation”; the seeking of “their own sanctification”, achieved through their carrying out of their mission: “the glory of God and the salvation of souls”; in a specific field “instruction and education”; already thinking of the possibility of “new communities if it pleased God to grant increase”.
So then, taking as a starting point the parable which Jesus used to explain the Kingdom of heaven and its dynamics, I hazard to say that the seed sown by Don Bosco has grown into a leafy, strong tree, a true gift of God to the Church and the world. The Salesian Family has in fact experienced a true springtime. Under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, other groups, with specific vocations, have been added to the original groups, and have enriched communion and broadened the Salesian mission.
It is evident to everyone today how the Family has increased and multiplied the work achieved and everything we have dreamt about; the field of activity for the benefit of young people and adults has extended beyond limits. We are grateful to the Lord for this and are aware of our huge responsibility, precisely because every vocation, including that of the Salesian Family, is at the service of the mission, in our case the salvation of youth, especially those who are poor, abandoned and at risk.

1.1    The charismatic “seed”.

His spirit, mindset, pastoral experience, view of Church and world led Don Bosco to certain convictions and corresponding initiatives:

• the universal mission of the Church, to be taken on in a fully supportive way, for the salvation of all human kind, all human beings. Within this mission his sons and daughters and followers would be distinguished for their preference for the young, the poor, the yet-to-be evangelised;
• the unity, indeed the urgency and pressing need to be spiritually united and working together concretely in activities which respond to the aforesaid aim;
• the possibilities given him by the spirit had to be lived in various states of life; a contribution by gathering all “good people” for the Church's great mission, and being part of that with Salesian “priorities”;
• foundation of the first groups: coming together spiritually around the oratory experience, as mission, style, method and spirit:

-  having various bonds with the Salesian Congregation (original core),
-  of different associative weight,
-  of varying levels of public 'Christian' involvement as a requirement of their belonging.

•   The historical function of the SDBs, FMAs, SCs.

 

1.2    The seed beneath the snow: silent growth

These intuitions developed according to the understanding that Don Bosco's followers were able to have in the context of a certain view and way of life of the Church. We note such development:
-   in the continuation and extension of the groups founded by Don Bosco;
-   in the updating and periodical revision of organisational and spiritual elements;
-   in teh sense of vital rapport these groups maintained amongst themselves.
Meanwhile other groups arose in various continents with similar features, since they were founded by Salesians.
The Volunteers of Don Bosco were certainly one group which emerged, as a translation of the Salesian spirit into consecrated secularity, which was also a novelty in the wider Church.
The new circumstances created by Vatican Council II (Church as communion, renewal of Institutes of consecrated life, return to the original charism, emergence of the laity) brought discovery and highlighted the nature of the charismatic “family” the constellation of groups which had arisen could find. It also resulted in them formulating concrete guidelines in reference to this: communication amongst the groups, expressions of communion, the animating role of the Salesians, the Rector Major as significant point of reference, common elements of spirituality.
This new mentality, nevertheless, still needs to pass from paper to real life in every group and in each member of each group, until the Salesian Family can be experienced as a dimension of their vocation. “Without you we would not be who we are!”

 

1.3    The tree and the wood: a rigorous development

Certain factors have accompanied and sustained the Family's development:

• Public and formally recognised belonging has been required of any groups coming after Don Bosco's death. The total number of groups recognised today is twenty three:
•  The Society of St Francis of Sales (Salesians of Don Bosco)
•  The Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
•  The Salesian Cooperators Association
•  The Mary Help of Christians Association
•  The Past Pupils of Don Bosco Association
•  The Past Pupils of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Association
•  The Institute of the Don Bosco Volunteers
•  The Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
•  The Salesian Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
•  The Apostles of the Holy Family
•  The Sisters of Charity of Miyazaki
•   The Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians
•   The Daughters of the Divine Saviour
•  The Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
•   The Sisters of Jesus the Adolescent
•   The Damas Salesianas Association (Salesian Women)
•   The Volunteers With Don Bosco
•  The Sisters Catechists of Mary Immaculate and Help of Christians
•  The Daughters of the Queenship of Mary
•  The Witnesses of the Resurrection 2000
•  The Congregation of St Michael the Archangel
•  The Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection
•  The Congregation of the Sisters Announcers of the Lord
• Other groups have also come about, awaiting the development ofcircumstances under which they can be formally recognised as members of the Salesian Family; meanwhile the ground is being prepared for other groups to express themselves.
• The Salesian Family has reflected abundantly on its identity (cf. AGC 358), on the elements regarding its consistency and unity, its organisation for communication (cf. Common Identity Card and Common Mission Statement).
• Each Group has sought to strengthen itself through Statutes and Regulations, guidelines for formation of its members, summaries of its specific Salesian spirituality, and by being commited to improving its organisation and finding ways and opportunities for growth and development.
• A common effort has been made for a deeper understanding of possibilities and defined ways of communion amongst all groups; an important reference in the first place has been the Common Identity Card, then the Common Mission Statement, which both need to be more widespread, studied and put into place.

 

2.     In the third millennium: mankind and tomorrow

 

2.1    On the way to communion

The Church has entered a new phase of communion, marked out by the Continental Synods and the Universal Church, ecumenical dialogue, the inter-religious movement, global solidarity, a commitment to reconciliation.
Characteristics of this communion are:
-   revisiting the basics,
-   greater extension,
-   more adequate understanding of the circumstances,
-   greater visibility,
-   greater apostolic and missionary practical effort,
-   its reference to mission: “Communion generates communion and essentially takes the shape of missionary communion” (ChL 32).
Even if our Family is prevalently apostolic, by dint of its being family it necessarily finds its roots in the Mystery of the Trinity, the origin, model and goal of every family. By contemplating the God-who-is-love, God-who-is-communion, God-who-is-family, we understand what the mission means for us (“to be signs and bearers of God's love”), and what a spirituality of communion, being family, mean for us.
The Father calls us to an expansiveness of heart, by which the members and groups of the Salesian Family welcome and recognise each other as brothers and sisters, men and women who are loved by Him: called personally by Him to work in his field for the same aim. The meanness of the human heart can raise barriers, create distance and separation, cause us to seek – as happened amongst the Apostles – the first places, to the detriment of the Kingdom. At times we have our fears and reservations about our very unity, which produces similar results. A heart, like the Father's, means real and deep affection for the young and those who spend their lives for them. It translates into warmth, appreciation of each and everyone, recognition of what each can and does achieve.
The Holy Spirit indicates a second attitude for building up the family: a free and joyful acceptance of diversity. Many languages, different charisms, different members of the one body are a manifestation of the Spirit. There are billions of human beings, each one singularly formed as a child of God. The Spirit does not make repeats, does not produce series.
Don Bosco was a master at making unity flourish from diversity of types and temperaments, circumstances and abilities. This sensitivity was less evident in his time. Today however diversity has become an educational and pastoral challenge for human coexistence, witness of the Church and for the Salesian Family.
Diversity means an abundance of relationships, variety of strengths, fertile fields and fruitfulness without measure. What an incomparable opportunity for dialogue, exchange of educational and spiritual experiences are on offer in the Salesian Family: men and women, consecrated and secular, priests and laity, husbands, wives and children, young people, adults and the elderly, workers, professional people or students, people from various races and cultures, at the height of their powers or weakened by illnes, saints and sinners!
For sure, unity in diversity is not the fruit of nature; and it was precisely because we do not have the strength to overcome our own selfishness that Jesus prayed: “That they may all be one!” (cf. Jn 17: 11).
Jesus the Lord, the Son who became our companion on the journey, who reconciles all things, things in heaven and things on earth (cf. Col 1:15), who has taken up all things in God, shows us a third attitude: the will to walk together towards a shared goal, locating ourselves in place which is not at all ethereal, the Kingdom; forming a recognisable community of disciples who take up his mandate together: "Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good News to all creation" (Mk 16:15).
Here then are the three essential elements for growth in communion: expansiveness  of heart, acceptance of diversity, the will to walk together towards a shared goal.

2.2    Communion in and for the mission

 “Communion begets communion and essentially takes the shape of missionary communion” (ChL 32). Now in the third millennium our principal goal is that of expressing, more evidently, communion in mission, taking account of the following criteria:

• Following the constant elements of the origins and development of the Salesian Family:

One thing has remained constant, as a precious inheritance: the passion for education, especially for poor youngsters whom we help to become aware of their dignity as persons, and the value and possibilities their life has for God and the world.
“Da mihi animas”! This is Don Bosco's motto which we make our own! We look at the young, their spiritual dimension, and our concern is that they reawaken their vocation as children of God and be helped to make it a reality through the Preventive System, that is by reason, religion and loving-kindness. This implies a detachment from anything that can distract us from giving ourselves to God and the young. This is the meaning of “cetera tolle”, the second part of our motto.

• According to the circumstances of today's world:

A world unified by communications, featuring complexity, “causes” crossing many boundaries, networking possibilities, offers a new scenario for a Christian, educational, youthful mission of development.
The Salesian Family, together, seeks to give weight to its presence in society and the impact of its educational activity: there is the problem of the young, life to be protected, poverty in its many forms to be lessened; peace to be promoted; declared human rights to be made effective; Jesus Christ to be made known.

• As a fruit of more recent strennas:

The Strennas over the last three years have highlighted the urgency of education, commitment to family, promotion of life, preferential option for the poor, global solidarity, new evangelisation.
This new phase of the Salesian Family will be distinguished by a practical and zealous charity, replete with imagination and generosity: what made Don Bosco into a mirror of the Good Shpherd, recognised by simple youths and people of his time. We, the Salesian Family, are called today, in the 21st Century, to model our poor and sinful hearts on the heart of Jesus in whom God showed himself to the world as the One who gives life, so that human beings may be happy and have life in abundance (cf. Jn 10: 10).

2.3    Some requirements for continuing the journey

Some requirements emerge immediately for continuing the journey of growth and reaching the goal of communion in mission proposed to us:
-      Deepening our understanding of the likely common areas and the practical features of mission.
This all means looking at, reflecting on, dialoguing over, studying, and together praying so that we find the right road to take in a spirit of communion. This is the sign of love expected by the young and for which we will certainly feel an impact and benefit.
-      Putting spirituality at the centre to urge us to communion for mission, in conformity with the Church and circumstances of religious experience today; from this follows the urgency of forming our members and involving others.
Holiness: the source and energy from which comes "a vast movement of people who in different ways work for the salvation of the young". (C. SDB 5): the Salesian Family. We cannot imagine that this will be the result of perfect organisation or refined techniques for coming together. It comes from the Spirit and continues to live in Him.
I make a pressing invitation to this Family to acquire a new mentality, to think and act always as a Movement, with an intense spirit of communion (concord), with a convinced desire for teamwork (unity of intention), with a mature capacity for networking (unity of planning). In the Salesian Cooperator Regulations Don Bosco wote: "Every age saw the need for uniting good people to help them achieve good and keep evil at bay… weak forces, when united, become strong and if a string on its own breaks easily, it is difficult to break three of them tied together. Weak forces, united, become strong: Vis unita fortior, funiculus triplex difficile rumpitur». We must never forget that we were founded by a Saint known for his social charity, Don Bosco (cf. Deus Caritas Est n. 40), who was aware, however, that educational and pastoral work needs a charity achieved together, and that the Holy Spirit raises up charisms to make this happen.
-      Ensuring that groups posses the autonomous capacity for their own development, the formation of their members, their apostolic initiatives.
-      Experimenting with simple forms of collaboration: “thinking globally, acting locally”.
-      Examining further the Salesian experience in lay terms.

3.     Guidelines for the future

The fruit of this Strenna, therefore, ought to be a combined effort that is more visible and also more practical in the area of the mission..
 There are many proposals to check out, keeping certain priorities in mind and how life is evolving. We have as terms of reference the Common Identity Card and the Common Mission Statement of the Salesian Family. While the first of these indicates the elements that characterise our charismatic identity, the second is a declaration of intent and aims. The aim of both is, firstly, to create an awareness, shape a mentality, give rise to a “culture of Salesian Family”. Both should lead each member of all the different groups to feel that they are not who they should be without the others and that, consequently, they must produce many and varied synergies, and not all of them institutional in nature. It is my fond hope that one of the fruits of the Strenna will be a Spirituality charter, something I have spoken of many times. Spirituality is the basic motivation and most powerful dynamic in the commitment of each member of the Salesian Family, something that can guarantee greater effectiveness and impact on our educational and evangelising activity.

Synergy in the mission

Reference to the Common Identity Card and the Common Mission Statement offers us the chance to reflect on possible forms of synergy in the mission. We should bear in mind above all that we already have a common mission and are carrying it out. It is the mission inspired by the Holy Spirit in different services and initiatives, in different kinds of intervention, however, with a convergence of aims, content and method, as we read in all the constitutions, rules or statutes of the various groups. This has been the work of the Holy Spirit, when new shoots have sprung from the trunk and grown with their own specific features. This should help us understand that the first condition for communion and common mission is for each group to carry out its own vocation and mission with the greatest possible effort. This will blend vitality with creativity and fidelity. The Spirit has already organised us into men and women, consecrated and lay, present amongst the young, the sick, people yet to be evangelised etc. If each group, with the spirit and aims declared in its statutes and which are consonant with Salesian spirituality, achieves this aim, we have already achieved the Salesian mission.
The first great help and the best way to carry out the Common Identity Card and Common Mission Statement is, then, the awareness of our complementarity in the service of a great mission, from which must follow an openness and availability on the part of each group to support and sustain the common mission.
The times we are living in, however, permit and indeed demand new expressions of the common mission. Nowadays as we have emphasised in the Strennas in recent years, there are transversal causes such as the family, life, education children’s rights, peace, the question of women, safeguarding the nature environment, that can see us involved together. Above all there is global solidarity expressed in many forms and which seeks its adherents, public declarations, and pressure on those bodies which guide the lives of nations and the world. There are also new possibilities for networking and communication; this leads to various kinds of interventions and to synergies that were not previously possible. We want to benefit from as yet unexplored possibilities in the Salesian mission and profit from the opportunities our times offer, bringing together acquired abilities and creative innovations.
I am convinced that the Salesian Family will be credible within the Church and pastorally, spiritually and vocationally fruitful for the young if we succeed in working together for them, as a true Movement. We must not forget that Movements feature strong key ideas and common spirit. More than statutes, it is in spirit and praxis that the members of different groups in a movement converge and find themselves. It is more a vital than a formal kind of belonging! From this point of view the Salesian Movement is much wider than the Salesian Family, since it includes the young themselves, parents, collaborators, volunteers, those in sympathy with Salesian work, benefactors, non-Christians, as we find in various parts of the world, especially in Asia, but not only. We are talking of those who play some part in the mission or Salesian charism. These are the “Friends of Don Bosco”. It is within such a great Movement that we find the Salesian Family as its animating core.

Resources

What are the resources we need to concentrate on?

• In the first place on the formation of people and the strengthening of the communities of groups.
• However, we also need to develop and to acquire a shared charismatic culture or mentality in which the Common Identity Card and Common Mission Statement play their paart.
• The support provided by an organisation is certainly useful, but it has only a secondary value and needs to be adapted to the needs and to practical circumstances.

We continue to believe that the Salesian Family, first of all is something charismatic, whose greatest resources are the Spirit and creativity. We need to share responsibility for the mission.
But with regard to the mission there is another aspect to be considered. We say that we share responsibility for the mission. However we must bear in mind that the mission, which refers to various fields (areas, dimensions), with common aims and spirit, does not necessarily imply shared responsibility in every single initiative or in every single place. Gradually we come down from the wider view of mission to its concrete realisation, and we say that it may need bilateral, trilateral collaboration, without limiting oneself before hand to any single global structure. Having a clear aim and following what life and real circumstances suggest is what we need, as we have oft repeated over the past six years when talking of global thinking and local acting, giving strong vitality to cells, essential bodies, intermediary bodies, then finally, to the ultimate structure.

 

Areas for collaboration

The young
We are all trying to work with the largest number of young people in various enterprises. We see that among the young themselves youth groups are being formed, especially in more recent times, with a view to growing in faith and as human beings according to the Preventive System, which – we know – is not the only method but certainly one for understading the content. Leaders are formed in these groups, those we call animators, accompaniers etc. The Salesian Youth Movement is being consolidated (SYM), in which the youth groups with origins in the Salesian Family who want to take part converge. This possibility is offered to all. So far there has been close collaboration between the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.. I hope that in the future the involvement of the Salesian Cooperators and the Past Pupils will be greater by fostering the SYM in their own youth groups.
This too is an agreed-upon initiative amongst the more closely-knit branches of the Salesian Family, those who are more involved in the youth area. FMAs and SDBs, in fact, share long experience, many works and active bodies for animation already over a long period. But this participation is open to all the others. The participation happens when we start from a platform developed for each meeting or event.
For youth groups it is useful to have a common platform for human formation, faith journey and vocation ministry, because all of this brings about Don Bosco's educational concept.
So there is already teamwork in place and possibilities are open to others in the Salesian Youth Movement which already feels that it has a world-wide perspective. As I have moved around the Congregation I have seen how the message of the Rector Major sent from Turin each year, for Don Bosco's feast day, brings together the groups found in the various continents. This offers a space for young people, then, where we can educate them to futre possibilites for teamwork and future solidarity.
The success of the World Youth Days also shows this, since they manage to bring together, despite distance and expense, young people from all over the world, those belonging to diocesan groups, groups led by religious institutes, movements, or simply young people who identify with this kind of initiative.

Vocation promotion

Tied to the SYM theme is that of voation promotion, vocational guidance and our witness. We know that Don Bosco, who had great esteem for the laity, rejoiced whenever he could give the Church priests and religious. If it is true in fact that everyone shares equal dignity, has the same call to holiness, it is also true that in the temporal dynamic of the Kingdom of God there are vocations that have special tasks in the Church community. It is important then that we are a united also in this. Providing for our groups or for our young people a process of human and Christian formation we propose to them a variety of vocations, pointing out the greater commitment of the “sequela” that some vocations represent.
The purpose of the youth groups formed by our particular branches of the Family is not to set up a supply source for our own Association. The purpose is Christian education and to guide the youngsters in life. We have to see that Christ is presented to them, and show them how, in the temporal dynamic of the Kingdom, there are some vocations demanding greater commitment. We need to be able to arouse in the young the desire to be formed and to be available, we need to be able to direct them to vocations of service and great significance (and I put the volunteer movement amongst these), all in the reality of the Kingdom.

Missions

A third area we are already working together in, an area where the current solidarity and collaboration could open up to still newer possibilities, is the missionary ideal. In recent missionary expeditions we have seen the consolidation, along with the religious, of a lay presence - individuals, couples and even whole families.  It is a beautiful thing to see how within the Salesian Family there are groups that include the missionary dimension even in their name.
Nevertheless, a missionary spirit has different forms of expressions and of initiatives, especially at a time like ours when we speak of global solidarity. There are new possibilities for missionary commitment. There is the possibility of personal involvement, the possibility for twinning arrangements and distance support of various kinds. Considering the needs in different parts of the world I think what a good thing it would be if there were to be a net-work of twinning arrangements able to channel resources to respond to the various needs and if, where there are personnel available, there were to be the possibility of temporary or also long-term collaboration. This could be a project in development stage to be realised eventually through teamwork.

The Salesian Bulletin

There is one more sector, a very important one, where we are already working together: it is the area of communication in Church and society. Each group has its own internal organ of communication, then distributed beyond the group. But you know, however, that there is already a magazine which represents everyone and this is the Salesian Bulletin. We say that it is for the Salesian Family, for the Salesian Movement and for Salesian opinion throughout the world, that it presents the Family's point of view on our experiences, and opens a window on Salesian life to the world.
It is true that the Bulletin is managed and run by the Salesian Congregation. It would be superfluous and far too heavy a task to try to create some other great representative magazine. But in the editorial committee more room is being given to the Salesian Family and the various aspects of it are being presented, rather than dividing up the pages, which wouldn't be a good idea. We all receive the benefit of the impression the Bulletin succeeds in creating.

It is the visibility in the Church of the Salesians presence seen as a “Movement”

It would be interesting, through all the synergies, to act even more as a Movement thus having a more visible presence in society and church. We need to overcome two dangers, neither of which is beyond imagination: on the one hand making too much of a clamour in what we do, and on the other without justification not making our mark. Rather than indulge in propaganda our solid support for the Bishops ought to be clear in the local Church, and for the priests; we should demonstrate our capacity to work for causes, showing that we are not there for ourselves but for the Church, which in turn is there for the salvation of the world.

A culture of the Salesian Family

So that the Family culture, that is the idea of working together, extends to all the branches and to the whole tree, it is indispensable that all the members of the single groups become aware of belonging to a vast movement of persons, born in the apostolic heart of Don Bosco, and are ready for synergy, convergence, multiple forms of collaboration that are varied, easy and can be updated. We are not looking for a huge organisation that lays down from the top the things to be done, but a strong impulse of spirituality to give life to cells and organs, so that they may create ways of collaborating that are possible.
From this point of view the first task is to ensure that everyone reads the Common Identity Card and the Common Mission Statement. In them are to be found the great ideas to be transmitted and the great choices to be made.
But, in addition to the study of these documents, among the different groups there needs to be the experience of life together, spirituality, fraternity, collaboration. This will raise the level of mutual trust, appreciation of the potential that Don Bosco’s charism and Family have. The aim is always that of passing from concord to a communion of intent, to collaboration and co-responsibility in common projects in the local area, social and ecclesial.

 

4. Suggestions for making something practical of the Strenna

Some steps to be taken so that the Salesian Family may become a vast movement at the service of the salvation of the young.

1.      Collaborating together in the formation in and in the further study of the charismatic mentality of the Salesian Family
* Collaborating together in the formation in and in the further study of the charismatic mentality of the Salesian Family. For this we need to make the effort:

• To make the “Common Identity Card” and the “Common Mission Statement” an object of study on the part of each group in the Salesian Family, so as to help the family culture and the sense of a movement grow in each of their members;
• To share the conclusions of this study in the local and province “Consultative Committees” of the Salesian Family, and to choose, as a conclusion, some working guidelines for sharing and synergy in the service of the Salesian mission in their own area.

• Promoting a shared commitment

The various groups of the SF present in a given area to study together today’s youth situation, especially as regards the great challenges of life, of poverty in its various expressions, of evangelisation, of peace, of human rights … and to look for:

• Ways to improve the initiatives already in progress through greater collaboration and net-working;
• New initiatives to be promoted with the specific contribution of the various groups present.

3.  An instrument of communion: the local and province consultative committee of the Salesian Family
Giving more weight to the local and province Consultative Committee of the Salesian Family, trying to find the best way for it to work so that it is not just an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences but above all an effective instrument

•      to reflect together on the challenges of the mission in their own area and to agree on certain fundamental ways of responding that each group will try to adopt according to its own possibilities;
•       to find simple and well structured ways of collaborating in educational and evangelising projects especially at the service of the young.

• Some opportunities for collaboration and net-working to be promoted and developed

 

–    The animation of the Salesian Youth Movement,
•  Developing within the different youth groups animated by groups of the SF a commitment to sharing in and being part of the Salesian Youth Movement;
•  Being involved in the accompaniment of groups and of young people;
• Sharing in the formation process of the groups with a programme of education to the faith which helps them to discover and to follow their own apostolic vocation in the Church and in society.

–  The animation and the promotion among the young and among adults of Salesian social and missionary Voluntary service as a Salesian response to the great challenges of today’s world of youth, in particular of those poorest and at risk.

–  The promotion of priestly, religious and lay vocations of special commitment in the service of the Church and in particular in the Salesian Family, by:
•  taking part in vocational projects organised in the local Church;
• the witness of one’s own life lives as a vocation, and the presentation of the different vocations in the Church and in society, in a special way in the Salesian Family;
• special attention to and accompaniment of young people in the unfolding of their lives as couples with appropriate projects;
• support for families and parents in their educative role, promoting schools for parents, groups of couples, etc.

 

Conclusion

Let me conclude with a prayer to Don Bosco, charismatic father of the whole Salesian Family, written by Fr Egidio Viganò. It seems to me more than opportune especially well-focused and suggestive.

It is the prayer for the Salesian Family:

Father and teacher of the young,
Saint John Bosco,
obedient to the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
you linked the treasure of your predilection
for “the litte ones and the poor”
to the Salesian Family;
teach us to be
signs and bearers of God's love for them each day
nurturing in our being
the very sentiments of Christ,
the Good Shpeherd.
Ask for all members of your Family
a heart full of kindness,
constancy in work,
wisdom in discernment,
courage in giving witness,
a sense of Church and missionary generosity.
Obtain for us from the Lord
the grace to be faithful
to that special covenant
the Lord has made with us,
and may we, guided by Mary,
walk with joy together with the young,
along the way that leads to love.
Amen.

 

My dear brothers and sisters, all my friends, may you have a 2009 rich in blessings and I entrust you with the task of truly making the Salesian Family a vast and supportive movement of people for the salvation of the young.

With affection,
in Don Bosco

 

Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva

Rector Major