(ANS – Rome) – Friday 18 January, at the Salesian Family Spirituality Days 2013 Don Bosco's well-known line was explored:“good Christians and upright citizens”. The first part of the day was at the Salesianum and the second at Cinecittà, symbolically representing two phases pedagogy: theory and practice.

The morning began with prayer then gave way to four testimonies, each from their own perspective, offering an understanding of the Preventive System.

• The first to speak was David Viagulasamy, a young man from France and a key member of the Salesian Youth Movement in Europe; he spoke of the Preventive System from a youthful perspective.
• Carola Carazzone, President of the VIS then illustrated the profound and recognizable connections between the Preventive System and Human Rights.
• Italian writer, Alessandro D’Avenia, drew on his experience also as a teacher, and emphasised that every human being has a vocation.
• Magdi Cristiano Allam, finally, had the task of combining pedagogy and a socio-political perspective.

In the afternoon the 400 participatns went across to Cinecittà. There, in the theatre, they saw a veritable “Pedagogical Exhibition”. Through music, stage and video a number of pedagogical experiences were presented – education to beauty and expressive arts – which bring young people together from various social and cultural contexts in order to educate them:

• The Oratory at Tor Bella Monaca, an outer suburb of Rome, run by the Salesian Sisters, presented three sketches on Don Bosco.
• The High School at Zelimje, Slovenia, was described by a group of its past pupils who showed how they discovered their path to growth and maturity through their unaccompanied music.
• The school at Kazincbarcika (Ungheria) mostly made up of young Gypsies, offers education, including faith education and cultural support.
• The school at Bamberg, Germany, uses the circus as a way of teaching and develops educational strategies for young people at risk of social exclusion.
• The Poiares Band well-known in Portugal and beyond for its quality performances.

Brief videos interspersed these presentations, showing the four dimensions of the oratory criterion: a home that welcomes, a playground where friends meet, a school that prepares for life and a parish that evangelizes.

The afternoon-evening concluded with Mass in the Basilica of Don Bosco in Cinecittà celebrated by Fr Pascual Chávez.

After supper, back in the theatre once more, participants watched a recital by the post-novices from Nave called “Live Wire”; the show, drawing on episodes and quotations from the Gospels and Don Bosco's life, spelt out a metaphor of the struggle between good and evil and especially the involvement of someone who is an educator of the Gospel of joy. In the post-novitiate at Nave theatre as a form of communication is an important part of the formation curriculum.

Finally, Fr Chávez gave the Good Night, complimenting the young Salesians on their theatrical effort recalling some aspects of Don Bosco's activity: he gave his boys a dream (their project of life), a cultural formation which would help them in their growth as human beings and as young Christians, and the hope that came from the Risen Christ.

The complete texts of the addresses, as well as photos, video summaries of the day and the Good Nights are available in the website set up for theses Spirituality Days 2013.

Published 19/01/2013