(ANS – Rome) –8 December, the feast of the Mary Immaculate, is a date that is loved and important in the Salesian world. In Valdocco, at the time of Don Bosco, the day was looked forward to, prepared for and celebrated with great enthusiasm. Today in many Salesian circles it recalls the beginning of the Oratory and the Marian Circle is celebrated.

Salesian history, especially that of the first years at Valdocco, is filled with many celebrations of 8 December and the maternal presence of Mary Immaculate when Don Bosco and his sons entrusted themselves to the Virgin Mother. Te blessing of the first chapel of the Oratory (1844), the opening of the second Oratory (1847); the novenas and feasts in honour of the Mary Immaculate on the great solemnity of the proclamation of the Marian Dogma (1854); the consecration of Dominic Savio to Mary Immaculate (1854), the beginning of the  Sodality of Mary Immaculate; the escape from the cholera (1854), the protection of the house at the Oratory from the lightning strike (1861); the opening of the last house by Don Bosco, at Liege in Belgium in honour of the Blessed Sacrament on 8 December 1887.

Don Bosco’s custom of  arranging important events close to liturgical feast, especially those of Our Lady, was not a priestly stratagem, but expressed a profound conviction about the presence of Mary in his life, in that of the Oratory and then of the Congregation. He loved to say “everything began with a catechism lesson” recalling the meeting with  Bartholomew Garelli  on 8 December 1841 in the sacristy of the church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Turin, as reported in the Memoirs of the Oratory.

He was convinced that “all the blessings showered from heaven through the  Madonna, where the fruit of that first Ave Maria said with fervour and a right intention with the boy Bartholomew Garelli, there in the church of St. Francis of Assisi”.

In many Salesian centres the Salesian Family gather together at 12.00 for the Marian  Circle saying a Hail Mary. “It is a tradition the recalls the great devotion that Don Bosco had for Mary how the Salesian charism came into being under the protection and the guidance of  the Mother of God.” Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General for the causes of the saints of the Salesian Family, says. “On this 8 December 2011, the first year of preparation for the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco, let us entrust ourselves to her and let us ask her to obtain for us the grace of that pastoral charity which inspired Don Bosco in his mission and that from on high on the cupola of Mary Help of Christians, she may continue to bless and protect us.”

Published 07/12/2011