(ANS - Rome)– From Monday to Wednesday, 6-8 October, a meeting is taking place at the Salesian Generalate of the international team that will decide on the content and methodology of SYM DON BOSCO 2015, the great international meeting of the Salesian Youth Movement which will be held in Turin and Colle Don Bosco from 10 to 16 August 2015. "I like the idea of this meeting, and the composition of the Commission, because it is international and inter-cultural. This is the spirit of the present age." So said the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, at the beginning of the first session.

The meeting involved 21 people, Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians involved in youth ministry from all the Regions of the Congregation. The common goal is to prepare the material for the morning reflections, liturgical celebrations and the vigil for 15 August 2015.  The motto that guides and enlightens the work is the Strenna for 2015: "Like Don Bosco, with young people, for young people."

The work methodology provided, in the first place, a focus on the objectives to be achieved by following the path suggested by the Rector Major in his Strenna. The group reflected on two questions:

• What are the elements, the content and the procedures to be put in place to make SYM DON BOSCO 2015 a prayerful experience and a model of prayer for the Salesian Family?

• What contribution can the event make so that it can have strong spiritual and charismatic results not only during those days in Valdocco and Colle, but also thereafter?

As a second step, working groups were set up with specific aims: music, liturgy, Don Bosco’s charism, personal testimonies, and so on.

The General Councillor for Youth Ministry, Fr Fabio Attard, insisted on a number of criteria for the success of the group: working together; valuing our charismatic and spiritual heritage; keeping in mind the universality of the Salesian Family; thinking globally (languages​​, gestures, expressions, etc.); establishing effective systems of communication and sharing; making contact with others in various parts of the world.

Published 07/10/2014