EN_LibrettoNovena


EN_LibrettoNovena

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“Do all through love, nothing through constraint”
in preparation for the Feast of Mary Help of Christians
Audiovisual Work: 9 videos with the Rector Major’s commentary
Coordination: Pierluigi Lanotte
Texts: Bruno Ferrero, Raffaele Ieva, Luca De Muro, Carlo Cassatella, Paolo Carlotti
Testimonies:
Olena Ponomarenko - Odessa (Ukraina)
Rino Balzano - Torre Annunziata (Italy)
Susan Garrate - Tondo (Philippines)
Ettore Esposito - Napoli (Italy)
Neely Hadad Assafo Aleppo (Syria)
Edilma Souza da Silva - Belo Horizonte (Brazil)
Kouraogo Sébastien - (Ivory coast)
Tere e Antonio - Jerez Cadiz (Spain)
Rocio del Nido - Siviglia (Spain)
Comment: Rector Major of the Salesians don Ángel Fernández Artime
Translations:
Julian Fox (EN), José Luis Muñoz (ES), Simone Cristina Pinto (PR), Marisa Patarino (FR)
Coordination Speakerage e dubbing: Piero Giordano
Speakerage e dubbing:
Francesco Benedetto, Elena Sorgato, Fabrizio Gatti (IT) - Christopher Jones, Sharon Fryer (EN) -
Videorecord, Gustavo Adolfo Cano (ES) - Valdeir Grangeiro Bento, Elane Gomes (PR) - Bernard
Moutounet, Laurence Vassa (FR)
Footage and photographs: Giacomo Di Gravina
Graphic design: Chiara Veneruso
Video editing: Alfredo Franciosa
Curated by IMEComunicazione srl

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LISTEN TO THE HORROR OF WAR
Mary knows what it’s like to hold the body of a
child in her arms, wrongfully killed by men lost in a
violence they can’t put an end to. We turn to Her like
frightened children who turn to their mothers, to her
who waited at the foot of the cross for the gift of
God’s peace from the Risen One.
APPLICATION
I saw a man enter the church, hesitant, his step unsure.
He knelt down in the last pew and covered his face with
his hands then burst into tears. He got up suddenly and
approached a confessional. He knelt down and after a
moment’s hesitation, said between sobs: “I have blood on
my hands. It was during the advance, right in the middle
of this absurd war. Every day one of my friends died. The
hunger was terrible. They told us never to enter a house
without a gun in our hand, ready to shoot at the first sight
of rebellion. Where I went in there was an old man and a
girl with blonde hair and sad eyes. “Bread! Give me some
bread!” I asked. The girl bent down; I thought she was going
for a gun, or a bomb. That’s when I decided to shoot. But
when I came up to her, I saw that the girl was clutching a
piece of bread in her hand. I had killed a 14-year-old girl, an
innocent girl who wanted to help me. I can never forget it.
Will God forgive me?”.
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RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
There are many wars happening in today’s world.
According to reliable sources there are some 25 conflicts
all with much the same results: death, victims, forced
migration, refugees, social division, devastation and
much suffering for those who are left behind. Every war
is not only unjustifiable but senseless and inhumane. The
Salesian Family of Don Bosco is not just a spectator of all
this tragedy. In the face of it all we are called to establish
an inclusive program of love, charity, concord to be
immediately put into action through humanitarian aid and
other interventions of brotherly solidarity. But one that can
also express itself through concern for our interpersonal
relationships, marked by unconditional acceptance. Every
little gesture of ours done with “gentleness” can help build
peace for all; this “gentleness” which was the outstanding
virtue of St Francis de Sales, “putting charity into practice”,
warming hearts and winning over souls.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
At the end of a war that lasted four long years the Rector
Major, Fr Paul Albera, dedicated an entire circular letter
to gentleness and kindness.“The virtue of gentleness
demands that we dominate our exuberant character,
repress every impatient impulse, and forbid our tongue
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to utter even a word that would offend the person we
are dealing with. It demands we reject violence in our
behaviour, our suggestions, our actions.” For Fr Albera it
seemed impossible not to be educators with “a serene gaze
full of kindness, mirroring a sincerely gentle soul uniquely
desirous of making those who approach them happy.”
ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Welcome us under your mantle, O Mother,
and make us artisans of peace,
not of flags, nor of slogans,
not even of tear-jerking photos.
Make us artisans of the peace
that comes from the pierced heart of your Son,
who, like so many mothers even today,
you saw unjustly condemned on a cross
and whom you held, dead, in your arms.
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LISTEN TO THE CRY OF THE EARTH
Creation, never more than today, is entrusted to
the care of all. Only together can we look after it
and generously ensure that it is there for future
generations. It is a time for common planning and
shared processes open to nature and conscious that
the God of history works through us.
APPLICATION
Once upon a time there was a tiny flower in the wide open
spaces waiting for a drop of rain each day. It knew how
important the rain was for its survival, but when it began to
smell it coming the vultures covered everything with their
large wings.
Only a hummingbird noticed its desperation and sought
help from the other animals. The big buffalo replied:
“This is how life goes.” The lion yawned and turned away.
The gazelles shouted: “Sorry, but we’re in a hurry”. The
hummingbird was disheartened. What could it do, the
smallest of all the birds?
It went up to a large anthill and told the ants the flower’s
sad story. Without saying anything, these little creatures
formed a long chain, looked for blades of grass and small
leaves, all wet with dew. And one after the other they
brought the droplets of water to the roots of the little
flower. The day after, the flower regained strength and
colour, shining in its corner of the wilderness.
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RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
Everyone sees the acceleration of climate change due
to pollution from human activities and unsustainable
lifestyles. We can’t help but be concerned, along with our
youth. Our commitment to an integral human ecology
stems from the human and Christian conviction that
everything is connected. The quality of our relationship
with nature is strictly linked to the quality of our
interpersonal relationships. Consequently, we are invited
to an ecological conversion which should not only concern
the macro sectors of the economy and politics, but also
the micro aspects of daily life: justice, fraternity, emotions
and spirituality.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
The fresh yet harsh nature of the fields where as a boy he
used to do somersaults remained forever in Don Bosco’s
mind. Wherever he went there was a vine. And he was
not content just to talk about nature. He wanted his
boys to preserve their ‘contact’ with nature. He invented
“agro-tourism”, “trekking”, school in the open air. These
experiences were his famous “outings” through the hills
of Monferrato and Langhe in an atmosphere of both
improvisation and optimism. Don Bosco also sought to
develop in his boys a sense of beauty, naturalness, the
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aesthetic and did so with poetic portraits of nature. He
often recounted that late in the evening, having reached
his room, he would stop to contemplate the endless
spaces of the firmament, fixed his gaze on the moon,
contemplating the multitude of stars, and after a short
pause, he would continue: “The universe appeared to me a
work so great, so divine that I could not handle such beauty
and my only escape was to get beneath the sheets.” The
boys would laugh, and he would then say: “Only there did I
not feel so small and miserable.”
ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Welcome us under your mantle, O Mother,
and make us capable of seeing the beauty
of your Son in creation,
woman who listens,
make us capable of hearing the cry of the earth,
to provide for the care
of our world, our common home.
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LISTEN TO THE IMPATIENCE OF YOUNG PEOPLE
The prospect of a future almost without end is the
young person’s outlook venturing into the world with
the “life he or she has” made up of dreams, resources
and energies like some wonderful promise that does
not want to disappoint. This hope of theirs can be
spent in the company of Jesus of Nazareth, along the
road of age and eternity.
APPLICATION
One evening, a group of youngsters around the bonfire
asked: “What is the secret of life?”. “There is a well that
has the answer,” said the old campground janitor. The
night breeze was gentle so the youngsters decided to
go there.When they got there they put the question to
the well.The reply echoed from out of the depths: “Go
to the village square: you will find what you are looking
for there”. Filled with hope they obeyed, but they only
found three shops at the place indicated: one sold wire,
another sold strange wooden shapes and the third sold
pieces of metal. Disappointed, the youngsters went back
to the well asking for an explanation. “In the future you will
understand”, it replied. It was late at night when they were
joined around the bonfire by a young man with a shapeless
backpack. He pulled out a sitar and began to play. The
music was overwhelming, vibrant, inspired. Fascinated, the
youngsters shouted with joy. They had understood: the
sitar was made of wire, pieces of metal and wood like what
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they had seen in the shops in the square and that they had
not thought were particularly meaningful.
RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
Our world needs young people who dream together with
God about the meaning and fulfilment of their lives. God
has a personal plan for each of them to guide them and
urge them to look ahead. It is the task of each member of
the Salesian Family to be committed to accompanying the
energy young people carry in their heart because – as Pope
Francis says – they must not be robbed of hope, in a world
in which one does not always find the logic or dynamic that
is favourable to it. Today’s young people, like those of all
times and places, await a friendly hand to help them grow
and fulfil themselves. Seeing to proactive and “preventive”
settings, animation in many dimensions like theatre, sport,
art, games, music, personal accompaniment that can
penetrate a person’s depths – this is the kind of attention
that our tradition has handed down to us, inviting us to be
creative in today’s new contexts.
Faced with such a sad panorama of the wounds of the world
of youth, we Salesians “Stand with the young”, because like
Don Bosco we have ultimate trust in them and we believe
in the promise that they are, in their willingness to take
their own future in hand and leave all kinds of poverty
behind. We always stand with the young, always invest
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in them. We believe in the value of the individual, in the
possibility of a better and different world and, naturally, in
the great power of education.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
One evening in April 1847, having had to stay longer in
the city because of a sick person, Don Bosco returned to
Valdocco late in the evening. Around the neighbourhood
a group of about 20 boys began to mock him. “Priests
are all stingy”, one said. “They are haughty and intolerant”,
another said. “Let’s try him out”, cried a third. At these
unflattering comments, Don Bosco slowed down and
pretending he hadn’t heard them, came up to them: “Good
evening my good friends. How are you?” “Not too good,
Father, we are thirsty and haven’t any money; you could
buy a us all a pint”. The others surrounded him so he could
not escape. “I would happily pay for you” Don Bosco said
“but I would like to be with you too”. “Go ahead”, they
replied. Don Bosco kept his word not just to avoid
something worse but also to try to win over some souls.
In the tavern, he had one or more bottles brought along
to the lads. When he saw these urchins a bit calmer and in
good spirits he said: “Now you have to do something for
me”. “Just tell us. We will do not just one but two or three
things, because from now on we want to be your friends”.
“If you want to be my friends then you have to stop taking
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the name of God and Jesus Christ in vain”. “You’re right,
sometimes a word or two escapes us without our realising
it”, one of the boys replied. “Good; now let’s leave here and
return home. But on Sunday I expect you at the Oratory”.
“But I haven’t got a home” one said. “Me neither”, added
a second; and some of the others likewise. “So where do
you spend the nights”? Don Bosco was aware of the moral
dangers they were in, most of them foreigners, so he said:
“come, the Oratory is a home for everyone”.
ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Wrap us under your mantle, O Mother,
you who, at a very young age in Nazareth,
decided the fate of the world,
and help us to extend our arms to all young people.
Welcome them into your arms and protect them from evil,
show them your Son and reveal their vocation:
to be the hope of the world.
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LISTEN TO THE DESPERATION OF MIGRANTS
Leaving for a better life without violence and poverty:
this is the migrant. As a foreigner in Egypt, Mary
knows this well. Let us hold fast to the simple faith and
example of the holy Mother of God, who knew how to
accept and overcome every difficulty.
APPLICATION
In a small village in central Europe, foreigners were
not welcome. The political authorities in the town had
forbidden the arrival of citizens from other countries.
During NATO’s wartime intervention against Yugoslavia,
some Albanians who had fled the soldiers asked for shelter
in the elementary school in a small Bavarian town. The
building, which was in good shape, had been unused for
years. Some classrooms, for a short time, could be adapted
to be a dormitory. Toilets and kitchen were also functioning.
The idea aroused a storm of indignation among citizens.
The inhabitants used all means to hinder the plan. The
refugee bus was turned back with sticks and stones. On
Sunday, beneath the large cross that dominated the nave
of the city’s church, they found a sign hanging. It said: “This
week, the citizens of our town have crucified Jesus”.
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RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
Contact with young migrants, refugees and so many other
young people deprived of their basic rights is a pressing
appeal for action for us. As recorded in Deuteronomy,
for Israel: “Love the foreigner, since you are foreigners in
Egypt.” Migrants, especially at this time in which there is no
lack of attitude and policies of marginalisation, exclusion
and sometimes of racism, are regarded as bothersome
and their cry goes unheard. All of this weighs on the
conscience of society seeking to globalise the economy,
but not solidarity and the task of development of peoples
and promoting the dignity of every person. Mission inter
gentes is our best school: it is from there that we pray,
reflect, study, live. When we isolate ourselves or stand back
from the people we are called to serve, our identity as the
Salesian Family begins to fade and becomes a caricature.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
Summer 1831. The Bosco family decided that John should
attend school in Chieri. Chieri was a dynamic, busy city,
and for a country lad like him was a little scary. Churches,
monasteries, schools, cafes and even a theatre! At least
nine thousand inhabitants! John had never seen so many
people in the same place. It was exactly halfway along the
road from Castelnuovo to the capital, Turin, and for John
this meant a door to the world, study, to become a priest.
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Work in the fields and the time spent at the blacksmith’s
had made him a strong teenager. But the “entry ticket” to
continue studies in Chieri required a completely different
kind of strength. The first price to pay was overcoming
pride by asking for handouts: he went around all the farms
asking for money and wheat. “I want to become a priest
and to do this I have to study. Can you help me?”. Most of
the peasants had given him some wheat, flour, nuts or wine
as a gift; or some linen, a towel, an old shirt. He was able
to pay for a room to sleep in with the wheat and the wine.
In exchange, John left them all with a smile. He would also
leave for his adventure in the city with a beautiful feeling:
there were so many people who wished him well and
believed in him. He would certainly not let them down.
ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Welcome us under your mantle, O Mother,
you who know what indifference,
suffering, abandonment are,
make yourself the travelling companion
of those who suffer, who are persecuted,
who flee from their country
because of war, hunger and poverty.
Help us to take care of the suffering
of these brothers and sisters of ours on their way to dignity.
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LISTEN TO THE MARTYRDOM OF THE
FAITHFUL
Martyrdom is a distinctive dimension of the life
of faith and Mary is the mother of her children’s
Christian genuineness. She supports them on their
journey with her help, so they do not fear trials but
tackle them courageously.
APPLICATION
Little Jia Li had been barricaded for a few days in the
church together with others from her village. During a
raid the chief of police had soldiers empty the tabernacle,
and the hosts were spread everywhere. They shouted:
“Now go! Woe to whoever comes back!”Jia Li had made
her first communion in May. Since then she had received
communion every day, asking Jesus not to allow wicked
people to stop her from going to communion: “What would
I do without You?” she said. Next day at dawn she sneaked
back into the church, knelt down, went up to the altar and
bending down to the floor, ate a host. She did the same
the following mornings. Little did she know that she could
have consumed them all in the same sitting, but above all
it was because she wanted her happiness to last. The last
host remained and Jia Li arrived as she did every day. But
this time she felt a strong blow, followed by laughter. The
child collapsed. She still had the strength to drag herself to
the host and consume it. A few convulsions and her body
was still: the little girl was dead. She had saved all the hosts.
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RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
As a Church we cannot but weep before the drama of
its martyred children. We cannot and must never get
used to it. “Hasten, hasten quickly to save those young
people…” Don Bosco invited his Salesians as he lay dying.
It is an invitation to a serious commitment that calls us,
the Salesian Family, today, to support all those who are
faithful to Christ and to the mission of evangelisation
even to the point of our own life. This commitment is not
possible without renewing the passion and death of Jesus
in ourselves for the salvation of the young. This passion will
make us courageous and able to overcome the fear of not
being understood or of being marginalised or rejected by
this secularised world of ours that rejects God, suppresses
the supernatural and marginalises the believer.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
In the seminary at Chieri, John had had the opportunity
to get to know and be enthusiastic about St Francis de
Sales’ main writings. In this Saint he had discovered a
model not only for practical action but also as a lifestyle.
The charity, patience, friendship, perseverance that St
Francis practised in his relationships with people despite
the conflict situations resulting from the religious wars
of his time, had a prophetic impact on his future choices.
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John recognised in those virtues something consonant
with what he had received from the mysterious personage
in the dream he had had when nine years old: “You will
have to win these friends of yours not by blows but by
gentleness and love.”
ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Wrap us under your mantle, O Mother,
and help us to be an authentic church.
A church that knows how to inhabit
every place, every situation,
that knows how to be a comfort to those who suffer,
that knows how to leave the sacristy behind
and touch the existential peripheries of history
to proclaim to all the beauty of being
children of God and yours too.
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LISTEN TO THE CRIES OF CHILDREN
The spontaneity of children expresses the precious
gift of life, but their lost cry is a painful indictment
of our adult selfishness. Mary, mother of all human
beings, invites us to be children of God and hers too,
and to be brothers and sisters among ourselves.
APPLICATION
Not long after the birth of her little brother, little Lori
began asking her parents to leave her alone with the
newborn child. They were worried, because, like all four-
year-old children, she could show jealousy. But Lori showed
no signs of conflict over time, rather did she treat her little
brother with kindness and her requests to be left alone
with him became more and more insistent. So one day her
parents decided to allow her to do so. Happy, Lori went
into the child’s room and closed the door. A small crack in
the wood was enough for her curious parents to spy on her.
They noticed that little Lori was playing peacefully. Then,
they saw her put her face next to her little brother’s face
and say softly: “Little baby brother, tell me what God is like.
I am beginning to forget.”
RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
Salesian presence alongside minors, marginalised and
trodden on by the selfishness of adults, is one of the most
significant and challenging educational actions today. But
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it is even more urgent to work in defence of boys and
girls and other young people who have been exploited,
victims of all kinds of abuse: sexual abuse and abuse of
power. Don Bosco did not discover his mission in front of
a mirror but in the pain of young people who had no hope
or future. The Salesian of the 21st century cannot do any
different; he will discover his own identity if he is able to
share, as Don Bosco did, the discomfort and pain of every
youngster, left to their own devices in abuse, poverty and
exploitation, bereft of any spiritual and material help,
giving them a tangible experience of God’s fatherhood
which can “turn the stone the builders rejected into a
cornerstone”. Salesianity comes precisely from this need:
revealing the beauty in every life, stained as it may be, and
being a prophet of a new beginning.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
The Lady in the dream said “Look!”, and the only advice
from Fr Cafasso had been “Look around you”. And so John
began “to see”. On construction sites, children as young as
eight or ten years old worked as labourers for the masons.
They would fill tubs with tiles and lime, carrying them on
their shoulders and climbing rope ladders and scaffolding.
If they worked too slowly, the foreman would beat them.
The “Porta Palazzo” marketplace, instead swarmed with
young people who had not learned a trade, most of them
did not know how to read or write. Don Bosco spent the
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most terrible hours of his first period in Turin with young
men in prison. Boys between the ages of twelve and
eighteen, like ragamuffins full of lice found themselves
without a job, with only water and bread behind iron bars.
They were strong and talented but far from being able to
hope for a home, work or school. They stared sceptically at
the young priest who brought them fruit, chocolates and
tobacco. He wanted to be their friend, talked about the
value and dignity of each person, but when he returned
to see them, everything was destroyed. What had seemed
like emerging friendships were dead, the faces had gone
back to being threatening and Don Bosco could not always
overcome his despondency. One day he burst into tears. In
the gloomy room there was a moment of hesitation. “Why
is that priest crying?” someone asked.
“Because he loves us. My mother would be crying too if
she could see me here.”
ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Wrap us in your mantle, O Mother
and make us capable of listening, liberating,
tenderly welcoming the defenceless children,
innocent victims of violence, our violence.
Help us to be the voice of
the many children who have no voice,
of those who are marginalised, mistreated, without rights.
Help us to see your Son in each one of them,
He who came into our world as a helpless child.
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LISTEN TO THE SILENCE OF THE POOR
Mother of God move our consciences to listen to the
noisy silence of the poor. The Church without them
would not be as the Lord Jesus wanted it to be.
APPLICATION
Recently, I read the testimony of a volunteer in Africa, and
his experience in a refugee camp when food was being
distributed. A chaotic and alarming situation. The volunteer
realised that supplies were running low, while hungry
people were on the brink of desperation. Behind the
people lining up was a nine-year-old child, when it came
his turn, only a banana was left. They gave it to him. He
peeled the banana, then gave half to his younger brother
and half to his little sister and he licked the inside of the
peel. The volunteer confessed that precisely at that
moment he came to faith in God.
RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
The option for poor, abandoned and at-risk young people,
has always been at the heart and in the life of the Salesian
Family, from Don Bosco until today. Today, youth poverty
has multiplied and amplified! Economic, social and
cultural poverty; emotional and family poverty; moral and
spiritual poverty. In many contexts unemployment and
the impossibility of studying penalise large swathes of the
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younger population. Too often these many kinds of poverty
keep young people away from the opportunity to grow,
calmly, to have a suitable education, to decide their own
future. Today, too, Don Bosco and the Church send us to
work among poor young people. But for the silence of the
poor to become a hymn of praise it is also necessary to
bring about and imagine a different kind of economy, that
at the end of the last century was not only a theory but also
practised: it is the economy of communion that inspires so
many young economists and entrepreneurs who recognise
the “Economy of Francis” in this movement. Here, too, the
mantle of the Mother of Mercy extends to the ends of the
world so that one day, not too far away we hope, no one
will be in need any more.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
One rainy evening in May 1847, a young lad about fifteen
years old, drenched by the rain appeared, asking for bread
and shelter. My mother brought him into the kitchen, near
the fire and while he was warming himself she washed his
clothes. While he was taking some refreshment with soup
and some bread I asked him if he attended school, if he
had family, and what was his trade. He replied: “I am a
poor orphan, From the Valle di Sesia. Those who live there
are dedicated to animal breeding and alpine farming, are
very poor and often have to migrate. I had less than three
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franks, but I used them all up. Now I have nothing and am
nobody anymore. I am asking for charity to spend the night
in a corner of this house.” Having said that he began to cry.
My mother cried with him, and I was deeply moved. “If
I knew you were not a thief, I would try to help you, but
others have stolen some of the blankets and you might
steal another.” “Don’t worry; I am poor but I have never
stolen anything.” “If you want,” my mother said, “I will take
him in tonight, and tomorrow God will provide.” “Where?”
“Here, in the kitchen.” The good woman, assisted by the
orphan lad, went out, collected some bricks, and made four
small pillars with them in the kitchen, and laid some planks
over them with a mattress on top, and thus prepared: the
first bed at the Oratory.
ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Welcome us under your mantle, O Mother,
and make us capable of sharing
our lives with the poor,
to give not only what we have left over
but also what we need “until it hurts”.
Free us from the hypocrisy of money
given to clear our conscience
or the caress given so we feel better.
Make us capable of that disinterested love
that your Son showed for humanity,
for the least and the poorest.
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LISTEN TO THE DRAMA OF THE FAMILY IN CRISIS
The family is the Church within the home like the one
at Nazareth: a sanctuary of human beings made of
earth but filled with infinite heaven Mary, the woman
and mother of the family, teaches us the profound
value of communion.
APPLICATION
An eight-year-old child, in a short composition written for
school, described her family thus: “At my place there are
two rooms, two beds, a small window and a white cat. We
only eat in the evenings at my place, when my rather comes
home with a bag full of bread and dried fish. At home we
are all poor, but my father has blue eyes, my mother has
brown eyes, my brother has brown eyes and the cat, too,
has brown eyes. When we are all seated at table it is like
heaven at my place.”
RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
In the history of Christian art there are many
representations of Our Lady portrayed while sewing or
weaving, perhaps surrounded by Saint Joseph grappling
with his work and the little Jesus busy learning the skills
of carpentry. The devotional legends are in charge of
informing us that the seamless tunic mentioned by the
evangelist John in his account of the passion was made by
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Mary herself and had the characteristic of growing with
its owner. If this pious belief can make us smile, greater
consideration is merited by the truth of faith that the
human body of the Word of God was woven by the Virgin
Mary on the loom of her own womb! We know well that
the soldiers did not have the heart to destroy that humble
work of tailoring which was awarded by fate to a single
winner. That tunic has often been evoked to indicate the
call to unity of believers in Christ, but it is no less true that
the sacrament of marriage can be eloquently represented
by the undivided and indivisible robe of Christ. Two spouses
are enveloped by Jesus himself in a single garment because
they are no longer two but a single being. The family of
Nazareth was not all “beer and skittles” The Gospel clearly
testifies to this (cf. Mt 2, Lk 2). But Joseph, with his prompt
obedience, Mary her inner frankness, Jesus with his great
freedom and all three with their ability to nurture love in
their heart are there to remind us that every family knot
can be untied and become a web of unity.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
Don Bosco had strained his health too much. Severe
pneumonia had tested him. Fr Borel gave him the Last
Rites. This was a drama for the four hundred boys at
the Oratory, who only had him as a father. With all their
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strength they hoped for a miracle. Don Bosco recovered.
He looked for the boys and managed to say: “I owe my life
to you. But be sure of this: from now on I will spend it all
for you.” The first time he went out was a triumph. From
his bed he was carried in a chair on the boys’ shoulders to
the chapel in the Pinardi shed. He spent time convalescing
at the Becchi beside his mother Margaret and his brother
Joseph. Two months later he came back to Turin, and his
mother came with him. They were worn out after 40 km
on foot. A priest friend saw them and marvelled: “You are
crazy! Where are you going? How will you live? Have you
at least something for the evening?”. “God will provide, my
friend.” The good priest, very much moved, gave him his
watch. “See? God has already provided” Don Bosco told
him kindly. Margaret was first to enter the bare rooms
of the first Oratory. She smiled and said: “At the Becchi,
every day I had to scramble to get things in order, dust the
furniture and wash the pots. Here I have nothing. I will have
rest.” That evening, mother and son began to sing. It was an
old folk song that said: Woe to the world if it knew, we are
foreigners without anything. A boy heard them and sent
word around: “Don Bosco is back!”.
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ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Welcome us under your mantle, O Mother,
and make us feel the warmth of the family,
the family into which the Lord wanted to be born,
the family which, like ours
faced difficulties and discouragement.
Help us to be, as Church, a family of families,
without ever judging, without ever dividing,
without ever distancing itself.
So that every family may be a mirror of yours.
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LISTEN TO THE JOY IN OUR HEART
We have so much need of joy, in a world given to
simple amusement. Mary is its cause because for her
the fulfilment of God’s will was always the priority.
APPLICATION
Not so long ago a farmer appeared at the door of a convent
with a bunch of grapes. “Brother porter”, said the farmer
“do you know who I want to give this bunch of grapes to?
The best in my vineyard? To you!”. The brother porter
blushed for joy. “You really want to give it to me?”, “Yes,
because you have always treated me in a friendly way and
helped me when I asked you. I would like this bunch of
grapes to give you some joy.” The brother porter placed the
bunch of grapes well in view and looked at it all morning.
It really was a marvellous bunch of grapes. At a certain
point an idea came to him: “Why not bring this to the
Abbot to bring him some joy as well?”. He took it and
brought it to the abbot. The abbot was truly happy with it.
But then he remembered that in the convent there was an
elderly sick brother and he thought: “I will bring him the
bunch of grapes, to lift his spirits a bit.” And so the bunch
of grapes moved once again. But it wasn’t to remain in
the sick brother’s cell for long. In fact he thought that the
grapes would be a joy for the brother cook who spent his
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days sweating over the stove, and sent them to him. But
the brother cook gave the bunch of grapes to the brother
sacristan, who brought it to the youngest brother in the
convent, who brought it to another, who thought it would
be good to give it to someone else. Until, from brother
to brother the bunch of grapes came back to the brother
porter. And the circle closed. A circle of joy.
RECTOR MAJOR’S COMMENT
On April 3 last, Pope Francis addressed Maltese youth in
these words: “My dear young friends, let me share the most
beautiful thing in life with you. Do you know what it is? It
is the joy of spending oneself in love, that makes us free.
But this joy has a name: Jesus”. Included in this name is the
reason why we give Mary the title, Cause of our Joy. First
of all because, through her obedient motherhood she gave
birth to the Lord Jesus and by doing so gave us back “the
joy that Eve took from us”, and then because she is the first
to live in the style of the gift. She is a witness to the Church
and ourselves of the truth of Jesus’ words: “There is more
joy in giving than receiving.” Mary is the demonstration,
the concrete testimony that those who accept the call
of the Lord the call to love, see their heart filled with joy.
Not only that. Even Mary’s relationships with people, the
Gospel reminds us, generate joy, serenity: like Mary’s visit
to Elizabeth, like the wedding at Cana. And this joy Mary
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spreads also in the hearts of the saints and in apparitions,
where the encounter with Mary always generates not fear
but serenity, familiarity: it builds fraternity.
SALESIAN REFERENCE
Many boys at the Oratory carried within them the signs
of insecurity, lack of self-esteem, of a great hunger for
love and models to identify with. The result of a chronic
lack of affection in their families of origin. And precisely
because Don Bosco’s availability as a father worked like
a magnet for the boys he came across, they immediately
became his children. They followed him, accompanied him,
almost hunted him down, as he himself wrote: “A special
scene was when I left the Oratory. Coming out of church
each one said good evening a thousand times but without
detaching themselves from all their friends. I encouraged
them: “Go home, it’s night time; Your parents are waiting
for you.” But it was useless. Six of the stronger ones, using
their arms, made a kind of chair, a throne, which I could sit
on. They would arrange themselves in rows, carrying me
on the throne in their arms. Others went ahead singing
laughing and chattering all the way to the Rondò. There
they sang more songs, concluding with the solemn hymn
Praised be forever. Then there was deep silence, and I could
wish them all a good night and a good week. The boys in full
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voice replied: “Good night!”. I got down from my “human”
throne and each one went home to his family, while some
of the older ones accompanied me till I got back home.”
ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY
Welcome us under your mantle, O Mother,
and make us feel the joy that filled your life.
Help us to understand that this joy
is the sign of the presence of the Spirit of the Risen One.
Help us to feel true joy, not mere enjoyment;
the joy that is grounded in being your children,
messengers of peace and hope
in a world that has often forgotten joy.
Instead, remind us of the ‘Rejoice’,
that one day the angel said to you,
the ‘Rejoice’ said to the shepherds on that Holy Night,
and to the women on the morning of the Resurrection.
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SALESIANI DI DON BOSCO
EDIZIONE EXTRA COMMERCIALE
Sede Centrale Salesiana
via Marsala, 42 - 00185 ROMA