6th May 2009

Dear AFM Confreres

On the 25th March, Father Pascual Chávez wrote us a letter which at first glance might seem rather a long read but I found it riveting reading! In fact my first impression was quite wrong. Far from being long it is a succinct outline of the story of the founding of our Society. It takes much longer to extract the same story from the most enlightening books of Father Lenti, that now enrich the English sources of Don Bosco. More than that it highlights the gradual growth of Don Bosco’s understanding of how his apostolate for youth would be stabilised. All of this may seem very obvious to the historians among us who have been able to study and understand all that happened - I certainly can’t claim any expertise in historical matters.

What does seem clear to me is that this letter of the Rector Major has a lot to tell us about the real importance of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian Congregation. This is a letter that is sufficient to animate the rest of this anniversary year in preparation for the renewal of our own commitment on the 18th of December.

Sharing spiritual insights was one of the important recommendations of Fr Pascual for the renewal of communities especially in the context of Lectio Divina. I would propose our province deal with this letter in just that way sharing with one another our own reflections and hopes for AFM.

The feast of St Dominic Savio falls in this month of May. For me the stature and reality of Dominic Savio in this story of the founding of our Society is far from peripheral and that will be part of my own sharing for this issue of ‘Missionary Animation AFM’.

The important sharing is of course in your own community, but I would also like to encourage some sharing at AFM level to help with the difficult task of giving such a scattered province as ours the sense of being an AFM community. So I am inviting you to send your reflections on “He summoned those he wanted and they came to him (Mk 3:13)” to me for publication in future copies of this monthly communication.

Other celebrations in May are the feast of St Mary Mazzarello a witness to the on-going discernment of the development of the Salesian Family in Don Bosco’s own life time and of course the solemnity of Mary, Help of Christians that speaks to us of Mary’s role in the founding of our society and to whom we have been entrusted by our Rector Major that she will help us live our Salesian vocation ‘joyfully, generously and faithfully’.

Yimina eNkhosini levukilako

Malahle

SAINT DOMINIC SAVIO WAS A FOUNDER OF THE SALESIANS

The saying is that just as Dominic Savio needed Don Bosco so also Don Bosco needed Dominic Savio. I have always inter-preted this in terms of holiness. Just as Dominic needed the guidance of Don Bosco to reach a high degree of holiness so Don Bosco needed Dominic Savio as a witness to the efficacy of his educational system. The letter of the Rector Major in the Acts of the General Council № 404 gives another perspective on how much Don Bosco was helped by Dominic Savio in founding his Salesian to carry on his work for poor youth.

Father Pascual speaks of our young ‘founding fathers’ as being extremely young. Francis Cerruti, Celestine Durando, John Anfossi, Anthony Rovetto, and Aloysisus Chiapale were all of them still teenagers! True not all stayed with Don Bosco but the youngest, Francis Cerutti who was only 15 at the time did stay with Don Bosco until he died in 1917. The fact that has struck me is that Dominic Savio had been one of them until his illness and death intervened and Dominic had played a big part in the vocation of the others as is made very clear in the brief biography Fr Pascual gives us of each one. We are told that for a number of years prior to 1859 Don Bosco had been planning to form a Congregation. Since Dominic Savio left the Oratory, after giving Angelo Savio a final hug, only as late as 1857, he must have been one of the group being groomed as future Salesians. It becomes clear then that until failing health changed the situation, Dominic had been a member of this special group of young helpers of Don Bosco who in 1859 being invited to become Salesian religious with vows and not just temporary promises. Dominic’s influence within this group is very obvious in the references made to the friendship that so many of a similar age group had with him. Many were members of his Immaculate Conception Sodality under Don Bosco’s guidance and yet very much still the expression of youthful initiative and pastoral concern.

FAITH IN THE FUTURE MEANS TODAY FAITH IN THE YOUNG

The youngest member of the Salesian Missionary Expedition 2009 is only twenty two years of age! I can see some people raising their eyebrows at this piece of news. There is the tendency among those of us getting ‘wise’ with our increasing years that in today’s world there is a need for much greater prudence in entrusting matters to young people. We can have a similar attitude towards our lay co-workers doubting their capacity to absorb Don Bosco’s charism. Don Bosco did the exact opposite. First he began with collaborators, but as good as they were they failed to give his work permanence and so he was inspired to mobilise the teenagers whom he was gently nurturing as leaders in the Oratory into joining him on a permanent basis as religious and this at a time when religious life was very suspect as an attractive option in those difficult times.

These are difficult times in our own part of the world. The anniversary of the founding of our Society with the cooperation of Dominic Savio and the participation of so many very young adults should inspire us. We must have faith in the young being able to take on responsibilities courageously and they must not afraid of accepting.

There is in this an important challenge. These were all young people who had been with Don Bosco over a good number of years, who had grown up being closely accompanied by him in a very familiar way. There was nothing irresponsible about the path chosen by Don Bosco. When he had to appoint superiors who had not been with him in the Oratory, Don Bosco became nervous and found ways and means to keep them all in contact with himself and the Oratory in Valdocco.

We draw members to the Salesian family when we are in personal contact with young people so that they are being formed in an informal way by Salesians who in their own way reflect Don Bosco.