Don Bosco: Exercise of devotion to God's mercy

At the heart of Don Bosco's spirituality is the thought of God, a merciful and provident Father, his saving activity reaching out in tender love to every human being. He unceasingly invites man to respond to his love and enter into communion with him. It is not only an appeal to conversion, but an invitation to unconditional surrender of self so that God may reign in our heart and sanctify it. Through the religious assistance he offered at the Refuge for wayward girls and his personal experience with boys at risk, Don Bosco discovered the wonders of divine grace in sincerely penitent hearts. At the invitation of the Marchioness Barolo, in 1847 he wrote up the Exercise of Devotion to God's Mercy, from which we draw two heartfelt meditations.