09-OctoberDB-StudyGuide2012


09-OctoberDB-StudyGuide2012

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DON BOSCO: EDUCATOR
Study Guide: October 2012
facebook.com/SalesianStudies
Dear Salesian Family,
As we move into our second year of
studying our Founder, Don Bosco, we focus
on his Educational Methodology. We call
upon the work of Fr. Jack Finnegan, a Salesian
scholar from Dublin, who launched this
year’s study of Don Bosco by leading the USA
Western Province in a day of reflection. The
content of the day of reflection is found in
this guide, which contextualizes Don Bosco’s
Pedagogy within his burning love for God, and
demonstrates how his every effort was linked to
this encounter with God.
What is more powerful still is the challenging
questions Fr. Jack poses to the Salesian world of
today. He calls for an examination of our own
contexts, an appraisal of our own motivations,
and a deep soul-searching of our institutional
and personal passions.
Let the fire which moved, molded, and
mastered Don Bosco’s educative heart enflame
each of our hearts! Let each of the questions
he raises open personal reflection and initiate
conversations in all of our various contexts.
The work of the Institute of Salesian Studies
is committed to this study and renewal of hearts
and minds. May the Spirit guide your study
and your reflection and may you discover the
privileged call to be educators of the heart and
shapers of the soul!
-Fr. John Roche, SDB
Director of the Institute of Salesian Studies
Director@SalesianStudies.org

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DON BOSCO: EDUCATOR
by Fr. Jack Finnegan, SDB
Don Bosco is a man of many colours: priest, saint, founder, mystic, prophet, servant
of the young and the poor, educator, pastor, social activist, evangelist, healer, writer,
churchman. He is a man aflame with the glowing fire of Sinai shining through myriad
activities, talents and charismatic gifts; truly a man of God wrapped in an ecstasy of love-filled
and hope-filled action with a world-wide reach.
Yet if we pause for a moment to consider the whole person and put the student firmly
this ecstasy of love-in-action we soon dis- at the centre of his educative project.1
cover other spiritual blooms vividly at work:
He believed that, amidst the uncertainties
an ecstasy of solidarity with the poor of the world, everyone is called to wholeness
and those most in need
and completion in Christ. His ministry was
an ecstasy of faith-filled service
coloured by the many hues and possibilities of
that vision and the desire it provoked in him
an ecstasy of loving care finding form to bring Christ’s healing work to completion
in a vast work of education, evangeli- in the lives of those he touched. Education be-
sation and development on behalf of came a privileged channel to the fulfilment of
the young
that desire precisely because Don Bosco knew
from personal experience that next to good
Only grace, and faith-filled cooperation parenting education is the fundamental agen-
with grace, can explain the prophetic phe- cy of human change and social development:
nomenon that is Don Bosco in the world. the door to a better life, the door to complete
The dance of Loving Spirit gives rhythm to and full expression of self.
Don Bosco’s every pastoral-educative step:
for God loves the young!
Don Bosco had already
Don Bosco was never
shy about affirming the deep
religious roots of his peda-
gogical inspiration and the
profoundly religious shape
Don Bosco knew from per-
sonal experience that next
to good parenting education
is the fundamental agency
of human change and social
seen this in the public life
of his mentor and spiritual
director St Joseph Cafasso
(1811-1860) whose solici-
tude for poor youth had
an immense impact on the
of his commitment to edu-
development
young Don Bosco.2 He
cation. His Christian faith
witnessed Don Cafasso in-
lies at the heart of everything he did. It is structing the young in the faith, giving them
especially present in everything he did to clothes so that they could go to church, and
overcome class- and poverty-based gaps in finding them jobs with honest employers.
value-led educational, vocational, faith and He also saw Cafasso pay school fees and give
economic attainment. As a mystic and a bread to young people in need; and, of course,
prophet, as a servant of the poor, Don Bos- he witnessed Don Cafasso’s work in the pris-
co was moved by an implicit eschatological ons. It is in such ways that the seeds of mysti-
vision made explicit in God-given motiva- cal and prophetic service are sown and their
tions of hope and the pastoral resiliency to patterns learnt from a man of prayer and pa-
which they gave rise. He was the master of a tient yet indefatigable action in the cause of
pastoral-educative approach that developed charity.3

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Mystic Fire
God’s fire, the fire of Sinai, is a transforming fire,
a liberating and refining fire, an inspiring fire that
inflames the goodness and the beauty in the human
heart. There is nothing harmful or punitive in it. Like
that fire, there is nothing harmful or
punitive in Don Bosco’s approach to
education. The fire of Sinai speaks of
God’s compassionate presence in the
world. So does Don Bosco. It speaks
of God’s light in a darkened world, of
the transforming wisdom of Christ
and the warmth of the Spirit touching
and transforming human hearts and
lives. So does Don Bosco. His mysti-
cism is grounded in a spirituality of
the heart. So is his educative-pastoral
approach. Are we listening to the wis-
dom of the heart today?
A holy man he had no difficulty proposing holi-
ness and the love of God to the young. He knew from
experience that the touch of God’s holiness is lovingly
expansive even in dark and difficult times. For Don
Bosco and for us religion, the way to holiness, the way
of response to God’s love, is not an add-on. It is not
an optional extra. Like Don Bosco it is our hope that
young people be touched by the divine fire that puri-
fies and transforms but does no harm. For us too reli-
gion and spirituality are part of what it means to be a
full human being.
In Don Bosco the mystic we see this fire spread-
ing into the lives of young people who in their turn
reached the heights of sanctity: Savio, Magone, Be-
succo4 and many others during (and after) Don Bos-
co’ life time, a message brought home in the names
that appear in the rolls of Salesian sanctity. And Don
Bosco was unafraid to make spiritual and vocational
proposals at a time when socio-cultural, political and
economic trends were blatantly inimical to sanctity.
Does the picture sound familiar?
By definition, the authentic Salesian educator is
one in whom the inspiring and transforming fire of
Trinitarian love burns brightly because he or she has
personally experienced a liberating encounter with
the living God. Such an encounter inevitably reshapes
the logic of the mind, the logic of the heart, and the
logic of life. It moves beyond narrative to an ever-
deepening understanding of the divine in life, and
then to the radical, transforming
wisdom of God; and the mystic
and the prophet begin to emerge.
In such a radical encounter
the mystic’s eyes are opened to
the One True Reality; they are
awakened from the collusive con-
sensual slumber of the majority
to an enlightened posture of true
being, touched by the unfrag-
mented reality of pure knowledge
and divine wisdom. They become
creative thinkers and saints, ra-
diating love and the fire of the
Spirit. Everything they do they do in union with God.
We understand that mystics are those who aban-
don the prison of self and become doorways to the
sacred, people who savour the aroma of Christ, who
in that aroma live radically open and different lives,
seeking to help others live their lives to the full, to
overcome the challenges that hold them back, and
strengthen the ethical fibre of a just society.
As mystics like Don Bosco we favour and support
the search for experiential transcendence; we want
to help people to achieve their spiritual potential and
challenge the barrenness of so much of life. Mystics
like Don Bosco always seek ways to make barren lives
fruitful, and barren places fit for life.
Like Don Bosco it is our
hope that young people be
touched by the divine fire
that purifies and transforms
but does no harm.

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Prophetic Spirituality
Prophetic spirituality blossoms where two desires
meet: our heartfelt desire for God and God’s unimaginably
vast desire for us. In the steps of St Francis de Sales Don
Bosco discovered this marvellous space and shared it with
the world. Where is this awe-inspiring space? It lies in the
region of the heart and blossoms in all the creative and
imaginative facets of loving kindness and compassion-
ate service, the core principles of the Salesian approach
to education. Salesian mysticism blossoms, it flourishes as
prophetic spirituality when God’s fire becomes our sun,
when Don Bosco’s vision becomes our way, when we un-
derstand what Mary means when she says to us, Do what-
ever he tells you (John 2:6).
Prophetic spirituality is about producing difference. It
engages in the dance between the customary and the new,
between a possible future and the given past or present. It
actively supports and encourages a new social imagina-
tion just as Don Bosco did. It has a breathless impatience
with injustice and exploitation just as Don Bosco did.
Think: why did some of Don Bosco’s priestly colleagues
believe he was mad? Why did many early disciples leave
Jesus? Touched by divine fire both were dancing in a dif-
ferent space to their peers. Are we? Listen to the Prophet
Jeremiah:
Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
says the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns,
that can hold no water.
(Jeremiah 2:12-13)
Can you hear these words and others like them echo-
ing through Don Bosco’s life, echoing in his development
as a Christian educator? He wanted the young to develop
spiritual cisterns well able to hold divine waters, waters
and wisdom from the crystal springs of Spirit and the Liv-
ing Word. His ear is attuned to a cry and a need impercep-
tible to and ignored, marginalised by many others. Proph-
et that he was, Don Bosco adamantly refused to be
fed on the sin of the people (Hosea 4:8). He lis-
tened to the silent cry of the young, especially the
poor and abandoned. That is why his approach to
education supports uprightness, justice, steadfast
love, mercy, faithfulness, and personal knowledge
of God (see Hosea 2:19-20).
Prophetic insight into divine love also plays
a pivotal role in Don Bosco’s educational insight.
Listen again to Hosea:
I will heal their faithlessness;
I will love them freely...
I will be as the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like a lily,
he shall strike root as the poplar,
his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
(Hosea 14:4-6)
Don Bosco recognised all these potentials and
promises in the young. Can you hear them echoing
in and inspiring his life-long desire to help them
become good Christians and honest citizens? Like
Micah he had no time for empty and perfunctory
worship. The contemplative in action, the active
mystic wanted something more, something deep,
something with liberating integrity for the young.
He invited them to do justice, love kindness, and
walk humbly with their God (see Micah 6:6-8). Is
this level of insight what we seek for them? If not,

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then how can we propose holiness as Don Bos-
co did? Prophetic spirituality is always ready to
sing the Lord’s song, always ready to sing new
songs.
Or have we wandered from the prophetic
path Don Bosco trod before us, making peace
with the customary and the familiar, satisfied
with the old songs, closed to anything new?
How can we call such a stance educational?
Where is the learning in it, the life-long trans-
formational learning that lies at the heart of the
prophetic call? Where is the critical reflection,
the questioning of personal assumptions and
preferences and the distorting habits of mind
and expectation to which they inevitably give
rise?
More: how can we dance in the space be-
tween the new and the customary if we exclude
religion, if we ignore the spiritual longings of
the human heart? But then, are we ourselves
ready to touch the flame? Are we ready to hold
the sacred in our hands? Are we ready to leave
our comfort zones? Are we ready for ruah ha-
kodesh, holy spirit? Are we ready to stand in the
space where prophetic spirituality unfolds and
transforms? Are we able to witness to sacred
possibility and new beginnings? Are we ready
to witness to the sacred space where meaning
begins? Are we ready to dance again with Don
Bosco? Are we ready to let divine fire inflame
our souls?
Prophetic spirituality is active; it turns to-
wards the world. Its contemplation is actively
social, its prayer and meditation is active and
attentive, its Eucharistic and Marian devotion is
active and aware, open, shared, lived with the
young. Look at Don Bosco. His commitments,
like those of the great biblical prophets are fierce,
fearless, unwavering, challenging, dynamic,
standing on the side of justice and the poor. Are
ours? His convictions about the meaning of life
are rooted in God. Are ours?
That is why Don Bosco and those who are
rooted in his prophetic spirituality serve life to
the full (John 10:10); that is why they seek, support and pro-
pose loving encounters with a living God-in-Christ. Prophetic
spirituality reverences and recognises God’s spirit and pres-
ence at the heart of every life and all creation. It discerns and
responds to the face of Christ, the Crucified Risen One, in the
faces of the young and those in need; and it recognises God’s
face in a planet under human duress. In all of these things we
are called with Don Bosco to be witnesses to hope.
Let your face shine on your servant;
save me in your steadfast love
Psalm 31:16)
Servant Spirituality
The question for us all, then, is this: what is the bright cen-
tre around which my whole life revolves? If my life, like Don
Bosco’s, is truly oriented on the divine how can mystical fire
be separated from the Salesian work of education and for that
work to be separated from the authentic expression of a ser-
vant spirituality? Such a separation can only mean that Salesian
educators have failed to grasp the true nature of Don Bosco’s
mystical path, his prophetic vocation, his friendship with God,
his life-long concern for the young, and his world-transform-
ing service. It can only mean that they have failed to open their
lives to God’s transforming fire, and failed to respond to the in-
spiring and transforming graces that bud forth as service. They
have not personally known or have forgotten the light shining
in God’s face.
Servant spirituality is part and parcel of the prophetic call:
Behold my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him,
he will bring forth justice to the nations
(Isaiah 42:1)
It is grounded in loving kindness, gentleness, compassion,
care and concern, and its commitments are shaped by these
very human qualities. It is a spirituality of the heart that serves
human and spiritual wholeness. Servant spirituality serves
life and justice and stands in contrast to repressive, domina-
tor models in life, leadership, religion and education. In Don
Bosco’s terms it is preventive, ethical, interactive, and open to

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the Spirit in order to engage the human
spirit in the search for meaning, integrity,
identity and the core self.
Educational praxis that does not en-
gage with these human qualities misses
the point. For Don Bosco true religion,
true devotion, engages with all of these
forces and brings them together in the
liberating space of spirituality and care.
He understood that some sense of spiri-
tuality, however vague, some residual re-
ligious sense, is the anchor-hold of most
people’s work ethics and social morality.
That is why he valued and gave his life for
the inspiration, education, and all-round
development of the young.
Servant spirituality taught him to put
them first. His servant spirituality led him
to be a teacher, a bearer of inspiration,
a model of faith in touch with the deep
questions of the human spirit. He was a
servant, a guide, one who offered invita-
tions and proposals, not a disciplinarian.
He offered a vision grounded and made
real in personal dedication. The young
knew they were in the presence of some-
one who was truly on their side, someone
whose values, experiences and assump-
tions they could take to heart. He entered
through the heart and encouraged the
mind.
Yet in all of this Don Bosco remained
a realist. He understood that he could not
draw all the young people he met to be
honest citizens and good Christians. But
that did not stop him trying. He was happy
to serve those he could help to be honest
citizens, but he was also deeply concerned
for those he knew would become nei-
ther honest citizens nor good Christians.
He never lost hope of winning hearts for
God. He would have delighted in what we
call today spiritual and religious social
capital: the religious and spiritual virtues,
attitudes and skills that build wholeness,
wholesomeness, wellness, integrity and wellbeing.
Even an incomplete listing of the virtues and attitudes associ-
ated with theories of spiritual capital will be familiar to the Salesian
educator: love, hope, discernment, empowerment, service, knowl-
edge, remembrance, hospitality, forgiveness, reconciliation, non-
violence, play, acceptance of failure, healing of hurts, and genuine
participation in group and community activities. Following Don
Bosco the Salesian educator today is well-placed to support all the
spiritual and religious forces that nurture resilience, hope, respect,
work ethic, and creative mental ability among the young.
Spiritual capital also favours forms of networking, relation-
ships, and respect for legal and ethical norms that enrich lives
and communities, all of them elements in Don Bosco’s approach.
Theories of spiritual capital remind us that faith-based activities
have measurable personal, social effects. Don Bosco would not
have been surprised. Spiritual capital not only makes a theological
framework and worshipping tradition available to people and the
young, it offers a sound moral vision and a faith-basis for life.
Spiritual capital is not only a powerful source of energy and
motivation that is equally at home on immanent and transcendent
levels of awareness and involvement, it stands in stark contrast
with materialistic postmodern and neo-liberal visions of self-in-
terest and greed as the basis of moral and economic conduct.
Don Bosco would seek to moderate greed with generosity, pri-
vate ambition with civic engagement, self-interest with care of oth-
ers, and present exploitation of the world’s people and resources
with future needs and consequences. It should come as no surprise
to the Salesian educator that accurate understandings of spiritual
capital in education and life offer major transformational poten-
tials, potentials to serve individuals and the world.
The Institution as Servant
There is another wing to servant spirituality: the institution as
servant. Today caring is mostly offered through institutions, large,
complex, powerful, often impersonal, at times corrupt and incom-
petent. How do we take care of the institution? How do we ensure
that it remains a servant? Part of the answer is institutional renewal
and regeneration. The task is the move the institution to a higher,
even extraordinary, distinguished level of quality and service. Don
Bosco changed a seedy neighbourhood. What have we changed?
Are we even up for change? What examples of such change can
you identify?

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The twin difficulties tend to be complacent neglect
and a shifting of standards of service complicated from
time to time by an ethos of collusion and disinterest, es-
pecially in the absence of participative models of leader-
ship. The servant spirituality of an institution is readily
undermined by idiosyncratic, unpredictable, unaccount-
able and dominator styles of leadership. Nor is it helped
when change of personnel leads to unexpected and un-
necessary interruptions and discontinuities of service.
Such are the forces that so often undercut the qual-
ity of servant spirituality in institutions. The postmod-
ern turn to individualism is another complicating factor.
Instead, servant spirituality within institutions demands
interacting builders and prophets rather than individu-
alistic bureaucrats and line managers. We need caring
visionaries and servant administrators working together
who truly care for the institutions and the people they
serve. Servant leaders must be influential but they
must also be ready for an evaluating task if the qual-
ity of service is to grow.
There is a paradox here: the ability to stand fully
within an institution and yet maintain an objective,
discerning stance, something that is difficult to do,
especially when someone has thrown themselves
heart and soul into the work. Discernment requires
both responsibility and the willingness to change,
factors that are often absent in reality, especially
when self-protective omniscience is at play in insti-
tutional leadership. Imagine what happens when de-
fensive omniscience is partnered by the burden of in-
decisiveness and personal disinterest! Imagine what
happens when indecisiveness and disinterest damage
creativity!
Salesian Education & the Church’s Mission
Education is integral to the mission of the Church
and the Church challenges every educational estab-
lishment to be a place of encounter with God’s love
and truth (Spe Salvi 4). The Salesian school, then,
faithful to the vision of Don Bosco, is meant to be
a place where personal encounter, growth in knowl-
edge, and the reality of Christian witness weave
something beautiful in the life of each student. It of-
fers them moments of encounter with God’s beauty,
reflective moments to savour God’s delightfulness.
With Don Bosco we are convinced that faith-based
education nurtures the soul of a nation, helps its spirit
find just form in the world. Salesian educators serve
God’s desire to be known in the world. At the same
time we support the deep-seated human desire to
know God; we support the human search for liberat-
ing truth.
The Salesian school is unafraid of a religious,
faith-based stance even when mainstream socio-cul-
tural thought and the dominant social media favour
faithless, materialistic and atheistic choices, choices
influenced by the rampant rationalism, naturalism
and materialistic humanism at work in the self-sec-
ularising societies and populations of the Western
world. Salesian educators understand that faith and
reason lift the human spirit and challenge it to see
through the illusions that obscure divine truth. In the
words of Blessed John Paul II: 5
Faith and reason are like two wings on which the
human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth;
and God has placed in the human heart a desire
to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so
that, by knowing and loving God, men and women
may also come to the fullness of truth about them-
selves cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn
3:2
(Fides et Ratio, Introduction).

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All of this has to do with self-knowledge as a journey of
We also believe that the contemporary
discovery, a journey that critically embraces the delectabilia crisis of truth is a crisis of faith, a crisis of
divina, everything that is good, true, beautiful and delightful choice, a crisis of self-centred individualism,
about God; itself what John Paul II called the diakonia of the a crisis of commitment and a crisis of self-
truth (Fides et Ratio, 2). For the Salesian, education, when it transcendence. With Don Bosco we want to
is grounded in authenticity, always and inevitably involves an create and support contexts in which a loving
encounter with God’s wisdom, a wisdom that brings us to a God’s active presence in human affairs is rec-
deeper, more complete understanding of the world in which ognised and celebrated. We want to create a
we live. We are unafraid to encounter the sacred in an unen- context where human dignity and human life
chanted world.
is set before everyone as worthy of respect. We
also want to deal with the prevailing timidity
We are unafraid to encounter the transcendent dimen- of many Christians in the face of the catego-
sion of cosmic reality of which we are a natural part and in ries of the good, the true, the beautiful and the
which we encounter the vast luminescence of God. As the delightful. We want to challenge the aimless
Book of Proverbs puts it, those who acquire wisdom also ac- pursuit of novelty and entertainment, even in
quire sacred understanding (Proverbs 4:5), a force that lib- spirituality.
erates and informs us in our encounters
with the different faces of human truth.
We live in a world of faces and voices
It should come as no sur-
We want to question approach-
es to moral education based on
that can quickly drown us in a welter prise that Salesian educa- risk. We believe in what Benedict
of contrasting concerns (Fides et Ratio, tors are concerned about XVI calls intellectual charity:6 our
28). Truth can be cast into doubt, it can ideologically driven efforts responsibility as educators after
be set aside; but it can also be recovered to separate faith and reason, heart of Don Bosco to lead young
in the presence of mystics, prophets and religion and spirituality. people to truth is nothing less than
the friends of God (Wisdom 7:27).
an act of love, a prophetic act ener-
gised by a heart that is a furnace of
It should come as no surprise, then, that Salesian educa- love, a well of service. We want to uphold the
tors, following in Don Bosco’s footsteps, are concerned about unity of knowledge in difficult times of frag-
ideologically driven efforts to separate faith and reason, re- mentation. We want to uphold its depth in a
ligion and spirituality. We want to create educative environ- time of shallowness and superficiality.
ments where truth is loved, where exact understandings are
sought, so as to bring the true, the good, the beautiful and the
As followers of Don Bosco, as mystics,
delightful closer to ourselves, and the young people we serve, prophets and servants, we believe that the
in all the saving power of truth, in all their splendour and in sacred has an educative function. We believe
all their deep simplicity. We believe that the identity of our that the absence of the sacred, the exclusion
schools and centres is fundamentally a question of convic- of the sacred, not only impoverishes a culture;
tion:
more to the point, it impoverishes the lives of
the young. We set ourselves in loving contrast
about ourselves, our origins and destiny;
to educators, who, in the name of a desacral-
about Christ and his word as it is lived in the faith
community;
ized world, not only deprive the young of ac-
cess to the sacred, but leave the door open to
a welter of contemporary idols: consumerism,
about faith made tangible in real lives;
relativism, reductive materialism, self-centred
about spirituality lived in practices of authenticity
and solidarity that mirror prophetic mysticism, ser-
visions of humanity, and the cult of celebrity
to name but a few.
vice, justice, ecology, liturgy, prayer, community, the
common good and a capacity to be for others.

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Don Bosco’s Preventive System
Don Bosco developed a true system of education.
It views the young person as someone whose identity
and freedom are still developing, who still needs the
support and encouragement of education. Don Bosco
was sensitive to the fact that young people need ongo-
ing assistance and guidance in their development and
growth. They need support and patience, acceptance
and affection in keeping with their levels of aware-
ness, maturity, and motivation.
The Letter from Rome (1884) shines a light on the
heart of Don Bosco’s approach: educative love, what
Don Bosco summarised in the word, amorevolezza,
loving kindness: the assurance of unconditional love
lived in a warm network of family style relationships
supported by understanding, acceptance and credible
conversation.
What Don Bosco discovered is a joyful, creative
love that responds to the lives and dreams and hopes
of the young, to their dramas and tragedies, to their
anxieties and loneliness, to their loss of meaning and
emptiness, to their complex and cumulative forms of
poverty; in a word, to their demand for caring pasto-
ral-educative accompaniment.
All of these factors are best offered in a familiar
context which values. The repressive systems to which
Don Bosco compared his approach view the young per-
son as already fully constituted in his or her identity,
freedom and responsibility: a young adult fully respon-
sible for his or her actions.
Don Bosco did not develop a fully worked out the-
ory of education. His method is operative, practical and
project-based, an effective proposal open to develop-
ment rather than a theory. In its origins it was assisten-
tial and social, a characteristic that is coming back into
play today. It served a variety of interweaving purposes
in Valdocco. Don Bosco’s response in the Oratory was
educational and re-educational, but it was also pasto-
ral, a pastoral-educative response to the profound social
changes taking place at the time that led him to use four
intriguing words to describe the young people he him-
self met: poor, abandoned, in danger, and dangerous, a
word we shy away from today.
The phenomenon of youth marginalization, aggra-
vated by economic, social, cultural, affective, moral and
spiritual poverty encountered by Don Bosco formed a
cumulative complex of forces that still exists and op-
presses young people in many places today. Think for a
moment of boy soldiers and the industrial exploitation
of children, think of child hunger and mortality, and
then reflect critically on the prophetic, servant nature

1.10 Page 10

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October 2012
DON BOSCO: EDUCATOR
Page 10
of contemporary Salesian responses. Are such re-
sponses possible in the absence of mystic fire? Don
Bosco would say no.
Don Bosco’s focus is on tried and trusted meth-
ods that accord with principles of action grounded
in his own personal knowledge, experience and
study. In this way he developed an approach to
education that gave the young a relatively complete
Christian and human formation inside and outside
of the classroom, in the school and in the youth
centre. Over time he was able to offer those who
worked with him an organic and unified pastoral-
educative proposal.7 Note the word proposal in
Braido’s description. It sums up so much of Don
Bosco’s approach as an educator and helps us un-
derstand a key element of his style.8
Don Bosco’s approach9 makes use of three in-
teractive forms of educative conversation. A close
examination of them helps us understand why he is
a mystic, prophet and servant of the young.
Living witness that gave the young oppor-
tunities to observe and interiorize things of
value to their lives;
Narratives of many different kinds that
helped the young understand underlying
principles;
Simple but principled accounts meant to in-
spire the young and guide their life choices.
...he developed an ap-
proach to education that
gave the young a rela-
tively complete Chris-
tian and human forma-
tion inside and outside
of the classroom, in the
school and in the youth
centre.
As we try to come to terms with what it means to be
mystics, prophets and servants among the young today
we need to meditate deeply on the three terms Don Bos-
co used to describe his preventive method: reason, reli-
gion, and loving kindness, words pregnant with meaning,
symbolic words, root metaphors that ground the mean-
ing of every other metaphor in our Salesian spirituality.
Let us play with them reflectively for a moment.
Reason: rational, reasonable, persuasive, wise, logical,
intelligent, sound, realistic, well-based, level-headed, se-
rene, even-handed, fair, open, sensible, prudent, discreet,
discerning. What other words would you add to the list?
Religion: God, spirituality, charity, faith, hope, fire,
joy, conviction, belief, mystical, prophetic, holiness, trust,
assurance, passion, happiness, prayer, worship, church,
reverence, veneration, fidelity. What other words would
you add to the list?
Loving kindness: sincerity, affection, care, accep-
tance, concern, warmth, openness, welcome, hospitality,
approval, kindness, gentleness, compassion, thoughtful-
ness, benevolence, service, understanding. What other
words would you add to the list?

2 Pages 11-20

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2.1 Page 11

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October 2012
DON BOSCO: EDUCATOR
Page 11
Summary
Totality
Sprituality
Don Bosco’s idea of the educator is total: total in
terms of his pastoral-educative activities, total in terms
of his vision of the need for Christian education.10 More
to the point, he understood the educator as someone
consecrated to the wellbeing of his students. It should
come as no surprise that for Don Bosco education in-
cluded everything: food to eat, shelter, clothes to wear,
teaching a trade, playing games, teaching class, cate-
chising, singing songs, going for walks, praying, hear-
ing confessions, preaching, celebrating the Eucharist.
They were all elements of Don Bosco’s vision of pas-
toral-educative assistance. In all of these interweaving
activities loving kindness played the central role and all
were focussed on the human and spiritual wellbeing of
the young.
Wellbeing
For Don Bosco the wellbeing of the young person
is not brought about by a pedagogical strategy. It re-
quires something more, and that more, for Don Bosco,
derives from a vision of the world grounded in faith
and reason. Informed by 1 Corinthians 13, Don Bosco
wove together the language of the heart and the lan-
guage of attentive, caring friendship: a friendly word, a
kindly correction, win the heart, win their affection, a
word in the ear, such were common phrases used in the
pastoral-educative guidance Don Bosco gave young
Salesians.
Loving-Kindness
For Don Bosco educative loving kindness is the
supreme principle of his pedagogical approach, a lov-
ing kindness that the young need to see, an educative-
pastoral love they are well capable of recognising. Even
corrections were seen in a similar light: sensible, rea-
sonable and friendly words of advice intended primar-
ily to help, intended to win the heart, intended for the
young person’s wellbeing. Loving kindness allows the
educator to accept the condition of the young and to
respond to it with attentive kindness and persuasive
gentleness.
For Don Bosco education was always a thing of the
heart, something grounded in the educator’s spirituality,
something taught by God the true Master. Don Bosco
reminds us that we will achieve nothing as educators if
God does not first give us the key and that key leads us
to the name Don Bosco gave his pastoral-educative ap-
proach: preventive.
Preventive
The term preventive refers to gospel-inspired near-
ness, the being near of an adult who bears real traces
of God’s loving presence, an adult whose being near is
wholesome, dependable, mature, balanced, open, mo-
tivated by rich ideals and life-choices, but most of all
consistent and congruent, integrated and whole. Such
being near is a question of divine vocation, of call and
response.
Goodness in the Young
Don Bosco recognised the spontaneous move to-
wards the good evident in the young and sought to en-
courage this inner disposition with all the kind-heart-
edness and warmth at his disposal. For Don Bosco the
educator’s task is to uncover this point of goodness and
build on it. Yet he also knew that an educator could
love much and yet achieve little if the young do not see
that the affectionate concern educators have for them is
real, that their being near is honest. Trust and percep-
tion played and continue to play key roles here. So does
caring presence, committed presence, nearness with a
heart.11
Open
There is another characteristic of Don Bosco’s we
should not forget: his desire to be at the forefront when
it came to making use of whatever proved educationally
helpful. Remember his saying “in the things that are of
advantage to young people in danger or which serve to
win souls for God I run ahead even to the point of te-
merity.”12 The implications for us today are not difficult
to discern.

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DON BOSCO: EDUCATOR
Page 12
A Concluding Examen
Are we reasonable in our conversations with the
young? Are our modes of persuasion reasonable? Do
we offer friendly advice and make friendly propos-
als? Or do we prefer dominator or autocratic styles
that simply demand obedience and make no effort
to understand?
Do we value religion as an essential component
in Don Bosco’s life and approach? Is religious faith a
personal value for us? Do we care for our own inte-
riority and spirituality? Do we have a personal rela-
tionship with God? Or have we self-secularised?
Have we an awareness of the “little virtues” that
underpin Don Bosco’s understanding of loving kind-
ness, especially wholesome affectionate presence,
sincerity, and a readiness to share in the world of the
young? What about the “great virtues”, especially jus-
tice, charity, respect, readiness to encounter the face
of the other, non-exploitive and non-manipulative
modes of relating? Are we aware of the power gra-
dients in teacher-student relationships? Do we un-
derstand that loving kindness requires the presence
of reason and religious commitment? Finally, are we
aware that for Don Bosco religion always grounds
loving kindness, giving it the qualities of respect, fi-
delity and hope?
What do we understand by good Christian and
honest citizen today? How alert are we to the pas-
toral-educative challenges of globalization and the
revolution in the social media? How aware are we
of the challenges to social and ecological solidarity?
How aware are we of the need to educate people to
austerity in the use of the world’s resources and of
the human need to walk lightly on the planet? In our
pastoral-educative work what do we do to go beyond
mere descriptions of injustice, especially in our work
with the Salesian family and adults? Or are we con-
tent with moralizing? If that is the case where is the
mystic fire, the prophetic commitment, the servant
spirituality?
Some Further Questions:
How do we honour soul in the classroom, youth
centre, or parish? What signs indicate the presence of
soul? Do you notice and acknowledge tones, gestures,
flickers of feeling, the dropping of masks, the sharing of
joys and talents, hints of inner life, hints of depth, the
longing for something beyond a fragmented existence?
How do we honour the voice of the young? How do we
deal with questions of meaning and purpose and the
big questions of life? How do we support deep connec-
tion with self, the other, community, heritage, nature,
the Divine? How do we honour the weave of silence
and stillness and solitude and spiritual intelligence?
What happens when we meet resistance?
What about rites of passage and ritual? Do we en-
courage joy and delight, gratitude and celebration?
What happens when joy and sorrow meet? How do
we deal with suffering and death? How do we encour-
age awe, wonder and reverence for life? How open are
we to joyful play, movement and rhythm? How do we
support the transforming power of creativity? Are we
able to recognise and respect flashes of intensity and
deep absorption? How do we support transcendence:
self-transcendence, transcending prejudice, stereotyp-
ing and gender polarizations? What about the hurtful
words and actions of teachers and elders?

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DON BOSCO: EDUCATOR
Page 13
May God’s creative love enfold you in light!
May the love of Jesus curl warmly around you and open every heart for you!
May Spirit clasp you by the hand and move you to wonderful deeds for the young!
May you experience God there with you as you rise up and lie down!
May you experience Jesus there with you, protecting you in every encounter!
May you experience Spirit kindling your heart anew today and every day!
May you experience Mary’s wise presence guiding you in all your ways!
And may angels guard your every step along the sacred way!
END NOTES:
1. See for example, Don Bosco’s Il sistema preventivo nella educazione della gioventù, at
http://www.sdb.org/index.php?ids=10&sott=6&doc=Documenti/2004/_1_10_6_4_1_.htm&ty=3
(accessed 10/09/2012)
2. Bosco Giovanni, Rimembranza storico-funebre dei giovani dell’Oratorio di san Francesco di Sales verso
al Sacerdote Caffasso Giuseppe (Torino: Paravio e comp., 1860) 24.
3. Ibid. 51
4. You can read Don Bosco’s accounts online (in Italian) at
http://www.sdb.org/it/e_sdb/Don_Bosco
(accessed10/09/2012)
5. Jon Paul II, Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_
fides-et-ratio_en.html
(accessed 07/09/2012)
6. Address to Catholic Educators, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., April 17, 2008
http://www.zenit.org/article-22328?l=english
(accessed 07/09/2012)
7. Pietro Braido, Prevenire non reprimere. Il sistema educativo di Don Bosco (Roma: LAS, 1999) 8
8. Those with Italian who are interested in what Don Bosco himself has to say about his preventive sys-
tem should consult Braido’s critical edition: Pietro Braido, Don Bosco educatore: scritti e testimonianze
(Roma: LAS, 1992)
9. See Michele Pellerey and Dariusz Gradziel, Educare: Per una pedagogia intesa come scienza practico-
progettuale, seconda edizione (Roma: LAS, 2011) 168.
For a more complete discussion of Don Bosco’s educative approach and experience see Francesco
Casella, L’esperienza educativa preventiva di Don Bosco. Studi sull’educazione salesiana fratradizione e
modernità (Roma: LAS,2007)
10. For a recent overview of key ideas in Salesian pedagogy see Guglielmo Malizia, Mario Tonini e
Lauretta Valente, a cura di, Educazione e cittadinanza: verso un nuovo modello culturale ed educativo.
Prefazione di S. Em.za Card. Tarcisio Bertone (Milano: Franco Agnelli, 2008)
11. MB XIII, 629.
12. MB XIV, 662

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DON BOSCO: EDUCATOR
Page 14
Suggestions for Use of this Guide
With the Young
Don Bosco lived out of his conviction that young
people needed to slowly and carefully craft their
own identities and understand their rights to
freedom.
Invite a group of young people to meet with
the Educating Pastoral Community at a
Council meeting in order to share some of
the concerns this generation of young people
face each day. Urge them to offer a presenta-
tion for this Council to better understand
their culture, their fears, and their hopes.
Invite a gathering of young people to identify
the heroic leaders among their peers.
Along with these named persons, assist them
in identifying those virtues and values which
have shaped those persons. Identify the
qualities which offer opportunities for interi-
orizing those things that last, those values to
guide their lives.
Community Days
There are many deep and challenging questions
offered by Fr. Jack Finnegan throughout this reflec-
tion.
Make a list of the questions to give out to all the
confreres.
Choose to discuss these questions throughout
this study year.
Encourage each individual to use the same set
of questions as a personal examination of con-
science on a regular basis.
Discuss: How might our institutions be re-
ignited by “the divine fire that purifies and
transforms?”
Coooperators
As Cooperators the Salesian Family is offered a
variety of lived-responses to the Salesian Mission
for educating the young.
How can the local group of Cooperators
realistically and practically propose holiness
to young people in your area?
In the creation of the Cooperators’ Pastoral
Plan complementing the Provincial Or-
ganic Plan, examine those goals that involve
educating parents and young people to social
uprightness, justice, steadfast love and com-
mitment, mercy, faithfulness, and personal
knowledge of God.
Foster ongoing spiritual education within
the group by fostering Salesian formation in
Salesian Pedagogy.
Colleagues
Educators need education and formation! Urge your
administration to take advantage of every opportunity
to explore more deeply the Pedagogy of Don Bosco.
Perhaps the collaborators at your apostolic site
can suggest days of reflection and study
Contact the Salesian Administrators to explore
possible presenters for such occasions.
Form study groups for reading and reflecting on
The Memoirs of the Oratory, Don Bosco’s auto-
biographical work.
Integrate prayer with your work of education
by fostering moments of shared prayer, days of
retreat, moments of recollection.
As professional educators, examine your own
motivations and renew your commitment to
the salvation of young people. This goal is best
served by striving for renewal and reconversion
in your own spiritual life.

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© 2012
Page 15
anche a da re la vita» -DON BOSCO
October 2012