(ANS - Rome)- At the beginning of the new liturgical year and on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Salesian Family celebrates the memory of the smiling fatherly figure of Blessed Philip Rinaldi, third Successor of Don Bosco and founder of the Institute of the Volunteers of Don Bosco.

5 December: Blessed Philip Rinaldi
Don Rinaldi understood, from his intimate contact with Don Bosco and from his own personal experience, that the attitude of constant union with God was the secret of the whole active life and spirit of Don Bosco. Without full immersion in God, we cannot be his apostles. "The inner life,” he used to say “may seem somewhat strange to us, because, as Salesians, we are always active and busy. However, it is the thing, the only thing that makes us religious."

He considered this attitude, the source of everything, the first grace and the real secret engine of the genuine Salesian spirit, and he used to say so courageously, almost paradoxically.  He wrote to the confreres: "Our holiness is not so much in the practice of the way of life embraced at our Salesian profession, nor even in the imitation of the virtues of our father, but in ensuring that the Salesian life we embraced, and the imitation of the virtues of our father are animated by the spirit in which Don Bosco himself lived and practised those virtues."

Don Rinaldi embodied a deep apostolic interior life which was the root of his amazing activity. Suffice it to recall that during his term of office, the Salesians went from 4,788 to 8,836, with an average growth of 450 confreres per year, and the number of houses increased from 404 to 644. The beatification of Don Bosco, in 1929, led him to a profound spiritual and apostolic renewal.

He was particularly daring and effective in his work on behalf of the missions and brought about a kind of mobilization for the missions. Seven missionary aspirantates were opened and there were several missionary expeditions with a great number of very young missionaries, many of them novices and post-novices!  Don Rinaldi was the last of the successors of Don Bosco who had known our Founder intimately. He personified in himself the spirit of Don Bosco, his fatherhood and holiness, and sought always to pass it on to his spiritual sons.

Published 04/12/2013