Letter of the Rector Major

Salesian Missions Day 2012

12 June 2011

Solemnity of Pentecost

Prot: 11/0028

Dear Confreres, members of the Salesian Family

and Friends of the Salesian Missions,

I greet you on the Solemnity of Pentecost, on which we celebrate that most excellent of gifts, the most precious fruit of the Passover of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit Who makes us sons of God, disciples of Christ and his apostles, in order to bear witness in our lives to the new human condition arising from the Resurrection of Jesus and to proclaim with our lips the marvels of the Lord, who wants all men to be saved and to reach the fullness of life in Christ. Pentecost is the beginning of the restoration of the unity of the human race, in the diversity of its languages and cultures, races and nations. If Babel led to dispersion and confusion, Pentecost rebuilds unity and communion.

As in every year, I am writing to you to present a theme which expresses the missionary dimension of our vocation, keeps alive our missionary commitment and implements God’s marvellous plan. This one in 2012 will be the 25^th Salesian Missions Day: a day therefore particularly significant, since it is a Jubilee. In particular we will be focusing our attention on the continent of Asia, where Christianity is a real minority and where the Church is living its life as in a diaspora situation in an ocean of huge  populations, extremely ancient religions and cultures. Salesian Missions Day will have as its motto ‘Telling the story of Jesus’ to the young, a demanding and attractive task. Its basic inspiration are the words in n. 20 of the Post-Synodal Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia of John Paul II: «… the proclamation of Jesus Christ can most effectively be made by narrating his story, as the Gospels do.» These words were adopted as the theme of the first Missionary Congress  of Asia at Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2006.

The theme of the SMD presents a spiritual and pastoral programme with three elements:

1.      Evangelising the heart of the Salesian

The heart is at the centre of the apostolic prayer and of the plan of life of Don Bosco ‘Da mihi animas, cetera tolle’. Don Bosco invited his boys, his Salesians, the  Cooperators and benefactors to give their hearts to God. Only an individual or a community constantly being evangelised can become a credible evangeliser, a convinced and enthusiastic witness so as to want to share one’s faith with others including non-Christians. If our heart has not been won over by Jesus Christ we cannot be those who proclaim him. As pastors and educators of the young we are called to use all the means available to spread the Gospel of Jesus. None the less, the effectiveness of the communication,  ‘Telling the story of Jesus,’ does not depend  only on the means but above all on the  people and the  communities, who therefore, in the first place, need to be deeply touched by Jesus and by his Gospel. Salesian Missions Day 2012 therefore is an invitation to be disciples of Christ, evangelised, before becoming apostles, evangelisers.

2.      Returning to Don Bosco, a communicator of the experience of God

We have begun the preparations for the bi-centenary of the birth of Don Bosco, which will be celebrated in 2015. In the meantime the pilgrimage of the relics of Don Bosco to all the continents has highlighted the great attraction our beloved Founder and Father has. Obviously, for us Salesians of Don Bosco the three year period of preparation is a call to us to rediscover his great inspirations, his deepest motivations, his courageous choices. It is true that Don Bosco was an exceptional communicator, who enlightened the mind and warmed the heart. Nonetheless, his real greatness lay in his total dedication to the young, his life’s mission; his backing the value of education; his Preventive System built on the threefold foundations of  reason, loving kindness and religion; his ability to involve all kinds of people in his mission. All of this was the fruit of his profound experience of God which gave his whole life its unity. SMD 2012 is an invitation to continue to tell the story of the missionary presence in the Congregation.

3.      Being in harmony with the great lines of the Church in the different continents

Don Bosco lived his whole life at the service of the Church, since the Salesian mission finds its place at the heart of the mission of the Church. Don Bosco dreamed and worked to bring the Kingdom of God from Turin to the furthest ends of the world. As his disciples we are aware that “in the Apostolic Exhortations which followed the Continental Synods are challenges for  the entire Church …to find new ways for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ while respecting and appreciating local cultures.” (GC26, 26). The valuable recommendations of the Pope and of the Bishops, taken up again more specifically by the continental or national Missionary Congresses, help us to be more effective evangelisers. The first Missionary Congress of Asia in 2006 (Chiang Mai, Thailand) reminds us of other continental events (America - CELAM in Aparecida 2007, the continental Synods for Africa, Europe and Oceania). Salesian Missions Day 2012 therefore is an invitation to live more intensely in the heart of the Church which is really Catholic - universal.

My dear friends, while I invite you to accept the challenge of telling the story of Jesus to the young people of today and I thank you for your courageous response to his final command «Go and proclaim the Gospel!», I entrust this Salesian Missions Day 2012 to the guidance and the protection of Mary, the first disciple and missionary, Mother and Help of the Church.

Yours affectionately in Don Bosco,

Don Pascual Chávez Villanueva

Rector Major

Letter from the Councillor for Social Communication

and the Councillor for the Missions

Salesian Missions Day 2012

12 June 2011

Solemnity of Pentecost

Prot: 11.0028

With hearts full of joy we offer all the confreres greeting of peace and joy!

In a special way we salute those Salesians engaged in the front line in telling the story of the Risen Jesus among young people of different cultures and religions in all the continents. We are convinced that your witness is the best image of Don Bosco today. As another fruit of the process of synergy for the Salesian Mission we have prepared together all the material for the 25th Salesian Mission Day (SMD) in 2012 – “Telling the story of Jesus” to the young people! For every Salesian it is an opportunity of growing in following in the footsteps of Don Bosco the Saint – educator, pastor, communicator and missionary.

Many Salesians ask us: What are the objectives we want to reach each year with SMD?

Above all we want to emphasise that those for whom first of all Salesian Missions Day is intended are ourselves the Salesians of Don Bosco. We are asked to make our own the conviction of Benedict XVI: ‘The first kind of poverty people suffer is not knowing Christ!’ We want to present four specific aims for SMD 2012:

1.      As disciples to put the Word of God at the centre of our lives

Like all disciples of Jesus we are called each day to listen to God who speaks to us in Jesus Christ, in the events of every day. Only the person who listens to God with all his heart succeeds in really listening  to the heart of the young, the world created and redeemed by Jesus.

Only the person who makes the effort to put Jesus each day at the centre of his life will be able to become the living Gospel for others. Among the signs of our times stands out the evangelising vivacity of some church groups (movements, dioceses, parishes, congregations) who are living intensely gathered around the Word of God, sharing in the community their personal experience of God. This fervour is not yet something familiar in all our communities. There is a long way to go to make Lectio divina, Bible sharing or Faith sharing or the Good night part of our daily life. To tell the story of Jesus to the young, we are first called to meet Him and to share Him in our communities. Only the person who listens to Jesus in real depth, who has a profound experience of God can tell the young about it!

2.      As apostles to share the  experience of Jesus Christ with the young

Telling the story of Jesus to the young – we all agree on this! There are just some questions: How? When? Where? We know that from a heart full of Jesus there naturally flow words about our Master. Only the person who listens with all his heart to young people will be listened to by them. In this way Jesus will be able to enter into the lives of the young through our witness and our story-telling at both community and personal level.

As Sons of Don Bosco, we are called to communicate everywhere: in educational meetings with the young, in small Christian communities, through the radio, the TV, on the Internet, on social networks or through blogs, by means of the theatre or music. The creativity of the great missionaries such as   Fr Vincenzo Cimatti shows us all the typical Salesian  ways of communicating the faith to non-Christians. The young Churches of Asia, many of them with a life story of scarcely a few decades of first evangelisation inspire us with their dynamic approach in telling the story of Jesus. They can be a great inspiration to us in our faith journey.

3.      Make known the dynamics of the 1st Missionary Congress of Asia

Sometimes in Asia talk about the proclamation of the Gospel and about conversions, can provoke suspicion in other religions. However, if, as friends, we share the life of Jesus, many are interested in knowing more. In order to be listened to I have to be  a friend and listen very carefully to people near me. The insights of the Churches of Asia were gathered together in the Apostolic Exhortation of John Paul II ‘Ecclesia in Asia’, fruit of the Synod of Bishops on Asia (1998). The conviction that talking about personal experiences with Jesus is the best way to proclaim the Gospel in Asia was chosen eight years later, as the basic theme for the first Missionary Congress of Asia in 2006. Among the 3000 taking part were also a dozen Salesians. The Congress aroused a great deal of enthusiasm in seeking new paths in which to share the Gospel with non-Christians. In consequence other National or Diocesan Missionary Congresses have already been organised. In the DVD for the SMD 2012 there are eight practical experiences of  Salesians in the Church of Asia. We can draw inspiration from the f different ways of Telling the story of Jesus, contained in the eight short videos available on the DVD of the SMD2012, also to be found on the Youtube-ANS Channel. The short films introduce us to different ways typically Asian of telling the story of Jesus to the young in India, Thailand  and the Philippines.