(ANS – Rome) – Yesterday 19 January at the Salesianum in Rome, the XXX in the series of Spirituality Days of the Salesian Family began. It is rather special for at least two reasons: it is at the beginning of the run up by the Salesian Family to the celebration of the Bicentenary of the birth of  Don Bosco and in the course of it there will be the presentation of the  “Charter of the Charismatic Identity of the Salesian Family.”

About 380 people, belonging to 23 groups of the Salesian Family and coming from 31 countries are taking part. They are ones at the heart of the Days since theirs is the task of hearing and with enthusiasm spreading the message of the Rector Major’s Strenna for 2012: “Let us make the young our life's mission by coming to know and imitate Don Bosco.”

Things began yesterday afternoon: Fr Adriano Bregolin, Vicar of the Rector Major and the one with prime responsibility for the Salesian Family, welcomed everyone present and expressed his pleasure at the fact that through site  for the Days many more people would be able follow the occasion from afar.

“But our practice these last two years has ensured a more balanced and proportionate representation of the various groups. We have also attempted to encourage members in the Salesian Family more directly tied to leadership and involvement in the mission” the Vicar of the Rector Major explained.
 
After this the Salesian biblical scholar Fr Juan José Bartolomé spoke, and through his talk entitled “Children of a dreamer, realisers of a prophecy,” invited his audience to reflect on the different ways of following up the great dream of Don Bosco which the Salesian Family has inherited: the salvation of youth. “To continue to work for the salvation of youth, there is a need today for dreamer saints, dreamers who become saints, like Don Bosco, to bring his dreams to reality, God's project. The hard cultural times we are going through, the foreseeable, or maybe not, difficulties of the near future, the disenchantment that has accumulated after a more glorious past, do not free us from the dream we inherited from Don Bosco on the very day that God called us to become Salesians. We were not born within the Church as "a merely human venture, but by the initiative of God" (C. 1). Our Constitutional text begins with this conviction of faith. We should never forget that.”

The Day ended with the showing of the video commentary on the Strenna and the Good Night by Fr Chávez. The Rector Major summed up the progress made in recent years by the Salesian Family and looked ahead to the next three years. A first stage – consisting in the recent Strennas on the subjects of life, the family, education, evangelisation and vocation – has been completed but these subjects remain very important. A second has now begun the process of preparation for the celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco (1815-2015) involving the commitment to coming to know in depth the saint of youth, with annual themes: his life-history, his pedagogy and his spirituality. Fr Chávez then recalled two recent events involving the Salesian Family: the IV Congress of Mary Help of Christians held at Częstochowa between 3 and 6 August, and World Youth Day in Madrid.

The Good Night in the original Italian version is available in the audio section of ANS and as a video on ANSChannel, where a video-synthesis is available also in Italian of the first day’s events. Finally, on the site of the Spirituality Days in the various languages the video-commentary on the Strenna for 2012 is available.

Published 20/01/2012