(ANS - Rome) - On 11 November 1875, one of the greatest desires of Don Bosco was realized with the departure of the first Salesian Missionary Expedition. Today too, the Salesian Congregation is pursuing that desire of evangelization of peoples and for that reason it celebrates an annual Salesian Mission Day. This year it focuses specifically on the situation of the Salesian missions in Oceania and the themes of Initial Proclamation and New Frontiers.

Salesian Mission Day can be celebrated at different times in different Provinces and Vice-Provinces. It is an important time for Missionary Animation in Salesian communities, youth groups and the Salesian Family. It is an opportunity to involve the Salesian communities and the educative-pastoral communities in the dynamics of the universal Church, strengthening the missionary culture.

It is inspired by World Mission Sunday, which has been celebrated in the universal Church since 1926. Moreover, a mission theme has been offered to the whole Salesian Congregation since as early as 1988. Today, thanks to Salesian Mission Day, all the Salesian communities have the opportunity to learn about a specific missionary situation.

The goal of Salesian Mission Day is to stimulate Mission Animation by offering a proposal that can become an annual concrete project. It is meant to help the whole Salesian Family to get to know the missionary commitment of the Congregation, to open their eyes to new missionary realities, overcoming every temptation to withdraw within its own context and to remember the universal outreach of the Salesian charism.

The first recipient is the SDB Salesian community, but obviously the day is celebrated in all the environments of the Salesian mission and involves the Salesian Family and friends of Don Bosco.

In 1885 Don Bosco dreamed about the future of the Salesian Society in the boundless field of the missions. Don Bosco told the whole Chapter about it on the evening of 2 July 1885. He saw a multitude of young people who lived in the islands of Oceania. They held out their hands, reaching out towards Don Bosco and the Salesians, saying: “Come help us! Why do you not do the work your fathers have begun?”  Many of them stopped, others with huge effort passed through the wild animals and came to mingle with the Salesians, whom I did not know, and began to sing: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

But this is not just the cry of the boys in the dream of Don Bosco. It is also the cry today of a multitude of young people from many islands of Oceania awaiting Don Bosco and his Salesians. It is also an invitation to Salesians to offer themselves generously in other continents as missionaries ad gentes, ad exteros for life, and to promote the first proclamation in the ‘peripheries’ and in the new frontiers in Oceania.

It is possible to download the poster of the Salesian Mission Day on the sdb.org website.

Published 11/11/2015