(ANS - Rome) - Pope Francis gave us "the year of Consecrated Life" and, "as the Successor of Peter and as a brother in religious consecration", he sent a letter to all consecrated persons explaining his objectives and expectations for this initiative. In his letter the Pope invites consecrated persons to find joy in their vocation, a passionate radicalism and active trust. The presence of the Spirit - says Pope Francis - urges consecrated persons to "look at the past with gratitude," to "live the present with passion" and to "embrace the future with hope."

by Fr Giuseppe Nicolussi, SDB

1.    The year of Consecrated Life helps us to live the Bicentenary and  GC27

Look to the past with gratitude (significance of the Bicentenary)

The Pope writes: "Each of our Institutes ... is like the seed that becomes a tree spreading its branches. This year it will be appropriate for every charismatic family to recall its beginnings and its historical development, to thank God who has given the Church so many gifts that make it beautiful and equipped for every good work."

Pope Francis invites us to celebrate the history of the Institute to which we belong, to remember the beginnings and development of our charism: to thank God, to keep our identity alive, to strengthen our sense of belonging, to be aware of how the charism has been lived, what creativity it has unleashed, what difficulties it has had to face and how they were overcome, and to confess humbly our fragility and inconsistency.

This is the meaning that we Salesians intend to give to the celebration of the Bicentenary.

** Living the present with enthusiasm (the path traced out by GC27)

In the words of Pope Francis we find encouragement to carry out "with passion" the proposals of GC27. He writes: "This Year calls us to live the present with passion ... to put into practice in an ever more profound way the aspects that make up our consecrated life." Among them the Pope highlights three indicators of a consecrated life lived with passion: evangelical and mystical radicalism, mission and  communion.

** Living evangelical radicalism with passion (mystics in the Spirit)

"The question that we are called to address this year is whether we allow ourselves to be challenged by the Gospel and in what way. Is it really our 'handbook' for everyday life and the choices that we are called to make? It is demanding and needs to be lived radically and sincerely. "The ideal of the founders was Christ, to belong to him entirely, to the point of being able to say with Paul: ‘For me to live is Christ.’ The vows made sense only when they are lived with passionate love."

"We have to ask ourselves if Jesus is really our first and only love, as we resolved when we professed our vows?"

From GC27: "Mystics in the Spirit", "belonging more to God."

** Living the mission with passion (servants of the young)

This is the challenge that Pope Francis makes: to live the mission with the same passion of the Founders, who placed themselves at the service of humanity in different ways with the creativity of charity. Have we the same generosity and self-sacrifice? Is there something that we have to change to accomplish that goal today?

We are called to "wake up the world", to be capable of prophesying, "to create 'other places', where we live the Gospel logic of self-giving, of fraternity, acceptance of diversity, and of mutual love," and to go out to those who llive on the margins.

"No one this year should excuse themselves from a serious evaluation of their presence in the life of the Church and of their way of responding to the continuous and ever new questions that are raised all around us, to the cry of the poor."

From GC27: "prophetic signs at the service of youth", "to the margins," "belong more to the young."

** Living communion with passion(prophets of fraternity)

"Livng the present with passion means becoming 'experts of communion'." "I am sure that this year you will work with seriousness so that the ideal of fraternity sought by the Founders and Foundresses may grow at many different levels, like concentric circles"; within communities, in our charismatic family, among the members of the different institutions, like synergy between all vocations in the Church and beyond the frontiers of the Church. Be men of communion, live the mysticism of encounter.

From GC27: "experiencing life as at Valdocco", "belonging more to the confreres."

2. Invitation to thanksgiving, reflection and commitment

The period of Salesian history that goes from 1815 to 2015, seen from the perspective of the objectives, expectations and horizons indicated by Pope Francis, offers reasons for gratitude and reflection, and can also be a time of evaluation and a motive for renewal. Here, by way of example, are some suggestions.

** Grateful to the Church of Vatican II

The year of Consecrated Life is being held "on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, which deals in chapter six with religious life, and also of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal of religious life." "Telling their story - the Pope writes - is a way of giving glory to God and thanking him for all his gifts. We thank him in a special way for the past fifty years following the Second Vatican Council, which represented an ‘outpouring’ of the Holy Spirit for the whole Church."

We Salesians also say thanks. We acknowledge with deep gratitude that the last fifty years of our Bicentenary have been deeply marked by the Spirit of the Council. We acknowledge with gratitude that the Church has helped us to be more Salesian; to return to the sources of our experience, to rediscover the charism, to renew our evangelical project of life, to grow as a Salesian Family (see the talk of the Rector Major at the conclusion of the International Historical Congress of the Bicentenary).

** Don Bosco from diocesan priest to "consecrated", Don Bosco the Founder

Don Bosco the diocesan priest, moved by an educative pastoral  passion for young people, became "gradually... a religious, master and moulder of a community of consecrated persons" (Braido). He gave rise to a new community of persons consecrated to God for the mission.

On 14 May 1862,  the first twenty-two Salesians pronounced their first official vows.  And what about Don Bosco? "But someone will say to me: did Don Bosco make these vows?  Look: as you were making these vows to me, I also made them to this Crucifix for the whole of my life, offering myself as a sacrifice to the Lord, ready for anything, for the sake of his greater glory and the salvation of souls, especially for the good of youth. May the Lord help us to keep our promises faithfully" (MB VII p.163). For Don Bosco certainly it was a matter not just of ‘making vows’ but beginning and espousing a new form of consecrated life.

** The figure of the Salesian priest and the Salesian brother, the priest religious and the lay religious

The single vocation of a consecrated Salesian can be lived as a lay person or in the ordained ministry. "Our Society is made up of clerics and laymen who complement each other as brothers in living out the same vocation." (C 4) They bring to the mission " the lay and priestly characteristics of the one Salesian vocation" (C 45).

In the first decades of the post-Vatican II period we reflected a lot on the unique profile of the lay Salesian and his contribution to Salesian spirituality and to the mission. At Church level attention was paid to the figure of the "priest religious" and the synthesis of these two aspects in our spiritual and ministerial experience (see letter from Fr Egidio Viganò "We care about the priest of 2000").

The active participation and shared responsibility of many lay people in the educative community and the change that has taken place in our Salesian works affect the profile of the Salesian, layman or priest, the witness of their vocation and their specific contribution to the mission today. These are aspects that deserve further study.

** Communion with the Institutes of Consecrated Life of the Salesian Family and with other Institutes

The history of these two centuries saw the flourishing tree of the Salesian Family give birth to numerous forms of consecrated life, religious and secular, with a total of thirty groups.

The "Charter of Charismatic Identity of the Salesian Family of Don Bosco" alludes to their specificity in communion. The Year of Consecrated Life and the Pope's words are an extremely opportune occasion for us to grow in knowledge, in communion, in synergy among the many consecrated vocations belonging to the Salesian Family.

We can take as addressed to our charismatic Family the invitation that the Pope addressed to all institutes: "I also expect a growth of communion between the members of the different Institutes.  Could this year not be an opportunity to go out with greater courage from the confines of their own Institute to develop together common projects of formation, evangelization and social interventions at local and global level? ... No one builds the future in isolation, nor by their own efforts alone. Recognizing the truth of our communion makes us open to dialogue, listening and  mutual help which will preserve us from the disease of self-sufficiency."

We can ask ourselves what is our attitude towards other Institutes in the Church, and our relationship with them, how do we participatE in meetings, and in coordination and collaboration? What questions are inspired in us by the new forms of consecrated life that arose after the Council?

** Communion with all those who feel united in the Salesian Family and in the name of Don Bosco

The communion of the Institutes of Consecrated Life - in the words of the Pope - must be open to the laity who share ideals, spirit and mission with the consecrated persons, "to lay Christians who feel called, precisely in their lay condition, to participate in the same charismatic reality. I also encourage you, the laity, to live this Year of the consecrated life as a grace that can make you more aware of the gift received."

From the time of Don Bosco to the present day the number of those who feel united with us in the name of Don Bosco and the mission to the young has been increasing. The proof of this is the organic development of the Salesian Family and the flowering of the Salesian Movement.

From this point of view also we are called to look at the past with gratitude and the present with confidence and hope, as we see in the Bicentenary a historic opportunity for communion and a more open and active collaboration with all those who, in the spirit of Don Bosco, intend to place themselves at the service of young people.

** "Embrace the future with hope":  young consecrated persons and dialogue between different generations

Pope Francis invites us to look to the future, with the knowledge we have of the present situation - "We know the difficulties faced by consecrated life in its various forms" - and we hope for the future, based on the presence of the Lord and the power of Spirit.

Against this background, the Pope addressed a word to young religious: "I appeal especially to you, young people." They are the present, because they offer "a decisive contribution with the freshness and generosity" of their choice. And they are the future because they are called to take in their hands "the leadership of government, formation. service and mission."

The year of Consecrated Life must be a time for dialogue between generations: those who have drawn experience and wisdom from the life they have lived with those who are capable of reviving the idealism of the beginning, the momentum, freshness and vocational enthusiasm.

Even in our congregation fraternal dialogue between "young" and the generation that  "has gone before them" is a sure way to "embrace the future with hope."

The year of Consecrated Life and the Pope's message might suggest other points worthy of consideration, for example: our service of priestly and spiritual animation to communities of consecrated persons, male and female; our accompaniment of vocations to the consecrated life; the presentation and proposal of the consecrated life to the young; the experience of consecrated life of Salesian bishops; the experience and activity of confreres who have given rise to new forms of consecrated life ...

In any case, without exhausting the message of Pope Francis or limiting its horizons, we can say that in the Year of Consecrated Life and in his message we find a new impulse to live with intensity the grace of this year of the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco and of the history of the Congregation, and to go forward with determination on the path towards evangelical radicalism traced out for us by the recent General Chapter.

Published 19/12/2014