SALESIAN SPIRITUALITY
PASCUAL CHAVEZ


GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GOOD FATHER TO ME

A necessary foreword

Among the many things I have written, you will search in vain for my spiritual diary, a description of my intimate journey, or an autobiography in which people might see something of my spirituality. It was not my style.
Maybe because of that natural reserve which is typical of country people, or more likely because of the formation I received, I never felt like opening up. I preferred to keep in my heart the memory of my experiences, struggles and apostolic achievements, rather than air them in public.
For this reason, you will not find in my books and in my conversations or conferences any evidence of my personal relationship with God and his mystery.
Still, I can assure you that my whole life was born, grew and developed into an intimate contact with the supernatural. If the world was my trial ground, faith was my response as a believer. I used to say: "In the midst of the toughest tests we need great faith in God."
This is what I say to people and first of all to myself.

The certainties that sustained me

One thing always guided me: in all things I felt certain that I was being helped from above. I was well aware of my limitations. I felt burning in my heart the ardour of a biblical servant, the vocation of the prophet who knows he cannot escape from God’s will. When I spoke of my dreams, I never used the biblical term "Annunciation", yet I always felt that they were authentic warnings from on high to be listened to attentively and to be regarded with prudent humility. Later in life when I looked back on my apostolic experience, I was amazed at all that God had done in my life. "I was a poor priest, alone, abandoned by all. Worse still, I felt despised and persecuted. I had a vague sense of doing good, but it all seemed like the vain dream of a poor priest, and yet God made it all come true. God fulfilled the wishes of that poor priest. How it all happened, I just do not know. I cannot explain it. One thing I do know is that God wanted it all to happen.”

I encouraged my first Salesians, whom I had chosen from amongst my boys, by telling them: "The Lord expects great things from you. I can see it clearly ... God has begun and will continue his work and you will all have a part to play. The Lord was the one who started everything. He started all our works and made them grow. He has kept them going down through the years. He will see them through to the end. God is ready to do great things ... all he requires of us is that we do not make ourselves unworthy of such great goodness and mercy."

I let myself be guided by a thought I heard many times from the lips of my mother: "We are in the Lord’s hands. He is the best of fathers. He is always looking out for our good. He knows what is best for us and what is not."

It needed a lot of faith, courage and trust in divine providence. I had great faith and trust, and yet, towards the end of my life I said: "If I had had a hundred times more faith, I would have done a hundred times more than what I did."

I approached life with all its challenges with a serene and childlike trust in the Lord. In 1847, I wrote a book of prayers and Christian formation for my boys. I called it The Companion of Youth and it proved to be a real bestseller, because of its style and its contents. One of the things I said in it was: "You are not in this world only to enjoy life, to get rich, to eat, drink and sleep like the animals. You are here to love God." I described a Christian as "a traveller on the road to Heaven." For me, God and heaven were basically the same. In fact I wanted my boys to be "happy in this life and in eternity." When I spoke of God as a "merciful and provident Father" my prayer changed tone. Normally my prayer was simple and heartfelt, but without any special tone of voice. However, when I uttered the words ‘Our ​​Father’, I said them with a voice that came straight from my heart - the people who were present used to tell me so. I mourned the death of my father Francesco with that innocent and painful sorrow that can only be felt by a child who is not yet two years of age. His death introduced me to the mystery of a God who never abandons his children. Right from the early years of my life, I related to him as a good and merciful father. I always used to say: "We put our trust in God and go forward." I had confidence enough to be able to say, "If you want a good result and you don’t have the means, you just have to do your best with full confidence in the Lord."

A life-long commitment

I want to tell you something of my inner world. I will do so in words that I wrote in 1854. Maybe this was one of the rare occasions when I revealed my true self. "When I offered myself for this part of the sacred ministry, it was my intention to devote all my strength to the greater glory of God and the good of souls. I wanted to make young people good citizens in this life so that one day they might become worthy inhabitants of Heaven. May God help me to continue until the last breath of my life. Amen. "

These were challenging words that became the definitive programme of my entire life, and I never gave up. So much so that, in the introduction to that book The Companion of Youth, I made a very bold statement, but one that was absolutely true : "My dear young people, I love you with all my heart. It is enough that you are young for me to love you very much. I can assure you, you will find books written by people far more virtuous and more learned than I am, but I don’t think you will find anyone who loves you more than I do in Jesus Christ, or desires your true happiness as much as I do."

I was always committed to the cause of the young, even though it is true that I went through a period of great uncertainty. It was July 1846. A short time previously I had suffered a physical breakdown that brought me to death’s door. When I came back to Turin, after a short period of convalescence at the Becchi, I had a very difficult conversation with the good Marchioness Barolo. She was a generous benefactor. She loved me as the son she never had. She forced me to make a decision. Well, I am happy to be able to repeat today the position I took then, for it was on that occasion that I gave the final official "yes" to my work on behalf of young people. Today, when I see how the Congregation has spread to more than 130 nations, I can say again what I said then to my generous benefactor: "My life is dedicated to the welfare of young people. I thank you for the offers you have made to me, but I cannot depart from the way that divine Providence has traced out for me." And without any human support, I depended on "whatever God made available to me."

I trusted God, who was always a good father to me.