(ANS – Rome) – On the third day of encounter and reflection by the Salesian Family at the 2013 Salesian Family Spirituality Days, participants were taken to the heart of the matter, of education, by looking closely at some of Don Bosco's most expressive texts: the Letter from Rome and the biographies he put together on three boys at his first Oratory.

Fr Bruno Ferrero, editor of the Italian Salesian Bulletin, spoke of the Letter Don Bosco wrote from Rome in 1884 for his Salesians in Valdocco; it is a significant text because it offers some elements of his educational method. It is a Letter that recalls and aims at recovering the early spirit at Valdocco and describes some features of his personality as a man and as the father of the young. Fr Ferrero was provocative in denying that there is a “preventive system” which can be understood as a handbook of rules to be applied, and emphasised that Don Bosco's approach was none other than a way of showing close up how he was at the service of the young in the name of Christ. “The real Preventive System is Don Bosco, that is his person! At our own time when beauty is something everyone speaks of, and that people look for: in Don Bosco we find the beauty of the good man, his inner beauty, his holiness, spirituality and these are things that young people can sniff out just like that can recognise scent or perfume”.

The Rector major then presented Don Bosco's Lives of Dominic Savio, Michael Magone and Francis Besucco presenting them as a guide for educators who wish to immerse themselves in Don Bosco's charism. They are, he said, an effective narrative illustration of the Saint's beliefs and narrative approach. “These writings offer us the essential features for understanding the core of Don Bosco's educational message: religion as the unifying and vital heart of the educational journey; the fatherliness and  brotherliness at the same time of the educator with his pupils; the dynamic interplay between love, happiness and commitment; the effectiveness of active involvement of the young people in their community; the strategic importance of giving them room to act on their own and other's behalf. All these things, Fr Chávez said “are an already mature pedagogical synthesis in which the divine and the human, the supernatural and the natural, duty and joy, all carried out in different ways, achieve a perfection that is characteristic for Don Bosco's educational system”.

The afternoon was dedicated to group work where participants picked up aspects of the Days and compared them with their own experience. The aim of these workshops “is not just to note the challenges, but to discuss them”, explained Sr Maria Trigila who was the coordinator of this group work.

The evening was a cheerful collection of artistic entertainment from around the Salesian world. After the Good Night by Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General of the Salesian family for the Causes of Saints, in which he spoke of the newly beatified Maria Troncatti, the Grand Hall at the Salesianum offered exhibitions by the youngsters from Bamberg (Germany), Kazincbarcika (Hungary) and Poiares (Portugal). This drew attention, importantly, to the wider world of people who attend our oratories, schools and parishes.

All the texts, photos and video for this day can be found in the Salesian Family Spirituality Days 2013 website.

Pubblicato il 20/01/2013