This industrious fervour of the Oratory mirrored Don Bosco's personality, the culture he had grown up in and the fire of charity burning in his heart. Documents of the time presented him as “active and impatient in his charity”, as a government official wrote in 1851². Likewise convinced of this was Prof. Casimiro Danna, a keen observer of the pedagogical method employed at the Oratory of St Francis de Sales, a title chosen – he wrote – “not by chance nor in vain, because more than just being a title, the spirit of that ardent apostle of just zeal blazing in his heart³, was something this excellent priest had infused into his institute. He had consecrated himself to the task of lessening the sorrow of the poor, ennobling their thinking”⁴. Don Bosco's ardent charity, then, was at the origins of his tireless activity and generated his unmistakeable lifestyle.

Like any good formator, he had a positive and functional view of time as an opportunity given the human being by a loving God. In his room, as he tells us in the Life of Francis Besucco, he had a poster on which was written: “Every moment of time is to be treasured”, and he explained it to his boys this way: “Every moment is there for us to learn something scientific or religious, to practise virtue, make an act of love for God, and before the Lord all these things too are treasures which will benefit us now and in eternity”⁵.

In 1862 Don Bosco wrote to a young man: “Heaven was not made for the lazy types, so why are you wasting so much time?” (MB VII. 7).

Michael Magone “often used say: 'Whoever wastes a moment of time is losing out on a treasure.'” Moved by this idea he never missed a moment without doing whatever his strength allowed. Don Bosco wrote: “I have in front of me the marks for diligence and conduct he received each week for all the time he was with us. In the first few weeks his conduct was mediocre, then good, then pretty much excellent. after three months he continued with excellent; and that's the way he was with everything for the rest of the time he was in this house”⁶.

It was a fervent and intelligent industriousness that gained substantial results by taking advantage of every moment to become more perfect: perfect in practising virtue, perfect in doing his duty and studying, perfect in charity, perfect in looking after the talents he had received.

We can read what Don Bosco meant by work in a chapter of his Regulations for the houses: “By work we mean fulfilling the duties of our state, be they academic studies, arts or trades”. He added: “Through work you can become worthy of society, religion and do good to your soul, especially if you offer all your daily work to God. … Always begin work, study, school with the Actiones, and a Hail Mary, and finish with the Agimus. Say these little prayers well so the Lord can be your guide in your work and study⁷.”

It was something Don Bosco could boast of by saying that young people brought up at the Oratory had gained the habit of being honest, moral and hard-working. Civil authorities recognised this as a merit of the Oratory as we can read in a letter from the Mayor of Turin to the Minister for Public Education: “The good it has done over these 25 years since it started here is famous, huge: thousands upon thousands of poor, neglected youngsters who were a danger to society, he been reborn, educated, turned into hard-working citizens who in arts, education, as priests or in other fields, are a clear testimony on behalf of this worthy establishment”⁸.

From amongst those boys who were trained to use every moment of time and who were formed to hard work came the first generations of Salesians.

Tullo Goffi, a scholar of 19th century Italian spirituality, writes: “Don Bosco, who had been trained at the Pastoral Institute (Convitto) to tireless apostolic asceticism, saw that it was appropriate to offer the clerics who were helping him a spiritual formation that was different from the one that obtained in the seminaries and novitiates. These formed clerics and novices by totally separating them from the world, aiming to create in them a mindset and habits that were opposite to those of the laity. To the contrary, Don Bosco immersed his clerics amongst young people sharing piety and duties with them. His view was that apostolic dedication was not just an impregnable bulwark of morality but a sure form of asceticism which produced the very best of apostolic charity”⁹.

His biographical sketches offer us the lifestyle of these very observant, hard-working young confreres: they assisted the boys in study and in the dormitory, taught them in the classrooms and workshops, joined them at recreation and in the oratories, taught them catechism and music, ran theatre groups … And meanwhile they were studying philosophy and theology, getting ready for university exams, taking up personal studies which would be useful for their mission.

Not everyone was in agreement with his formation approach, for the risks it took. But Don Bosco did everything to defend his system and when he was forced to set up novitiates and studentates he invented practical training. He appealed to a faculty given him “viva vocis oraculo” by Pius IX, “to entrust the clerics, even during their novitiate year, with the tasks indicated in the Constitutions for the trial period, whenever he considered it would be for the greater glory of God”. He liked to repeat certain of the Pope's recommendations: “Indeed, don't put them in the sacristy where they will become lazy; put them to work, work!” (MB X, 799). “I believe that the religious house where they pray a little but work a lot is better than the one where they have lots of prayers but little or no work” (MB IX, 566).

In 1879 he wrote a report to the Holy See on the moral and material state of the Congregation: “There is more work than there are confreres or the strength to do it; but no one seems dismayed, and it seems that hard work is a second form of nourishment after material food. It is true that some fell victim to their zeal both in Europe and the foreign missions; but all this did was to increase the yearning for work in the other Salesians. However, we see that nobody works beyond his capabilities to the detriment of his health”¹⁰.

Don Bosco recommends and praises hard work, but under certain conditions, the first being that it be orderly and properly organised, suitable and useful – as Cafasso used tell his young priests: that is, something which was part of the mission received, the role one had in the community, to the advantage of the Christian education of the young, under the guidance of and dependent on the superiors. This sort of hard work was the result of availability by vocation and gift of self. It was an attitude that Don Bosco saw to in those who followed him even before the official act of founding the Congregation: “Often, and for many years, finding himself in a huddle with a group of boys or his clerics, and joking with them as usual, he would end up sitting on the ground, his legs crossed and his students around him. He would have a white handkerchief in his hand, roll it into a ball and throw it from one hand to the other. The youngsters would silently observe this then: –'Oh'! he would say at one point; 'if I had twelve young people with me and could command them to do as I am doing with this handkerchief, I could spread the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ not only throughout Europe, but beyond, well beyond its borders to very distant lands'. and he would explain no further” (MB IV, 424).

Apostolic work, then: this was Don Bosco's main concern. At a conference he gave on 19 March 1876 commenting on Jesus' words, “the harvest is great but the labourers are few”, he told the Salesians and the boys: “The workers are those who in some way help with the salvation of souls”. In the Lord's field “there is a need for all kinds of workers, really all kinds; No one can say: 'Although my behaviour is irreproachable, I would be no good working for the greater glory of God. No, nobody can say that; everyone can do something. …

“Now, someone might ask: 'But Don Bosco, what are you trying to say by this? …. Oh, my dear friends! That cry of Jesus "operarii autem pauci" was not only heard in ancient times, in centuries gone by but us too. In our own times we hear it more and more demandingly. The Salesian Congregation's harvest is daily growing beyond proportion so that I can say that we no longer know where to begin or how to organise our work. It is for this reason that I would like to see you all quickly as labourers in the Lord's vineyard! Requests for colleges, houses, missions are arriving in extraordinary numbers both from around Italy, France, or foreign parts. From Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria in Africa, from Arabia, India, China and Japan in Asia; from Australia, the Argentinian Republic, Paraguay, Gibraltar and one could say from all over America there are requests to open new houses because everywhere there is such a lack of workers for the Gospel that it frightens anyone who observes the amount of good that could be done and that has to be left undone through lack of missionaries …

“But in view of so many needs, such a lack of labourers for the Gospel, noting that all of you here, in one way or another can work in the Lord's vineyard, could I just stay quiet and not manifest the secret desire of my heart? Oh how much I would like to see you encouraged to work like the apostles! All my thoughts turn to this, all my concerns, all my efforts. … Could I stay silent in view of such pressing needs? And while they are calling on us from everywhere and it seems to be the voice of God manifested in so many mouths, could I just pull back? After the manifest signs from Divine Providence of the great things he wishes to achieve through the Salesians, could I remain quiet and not try to increase the number of evangelical apostles?”¹¹.

In an apostolic outlook like this, work can only be sanctified work for the Salesians. “Salesian work,” Fr Alberto Caviglia says, “is the work of the soul, our soul, the spirituality we put into work. So, in short we are saints with our sleeves rolled up: this is the Salesian kind of work. If I had to paint Don Bosco amongst the Salesians, I would paint him with his sleeves rolled up. … Pius XI said: ‘The true Salesian does not try to measure out his work’: what beautiful words! For goodness sake, never pay heed to the snooze-artists you'll find in every house: ‘Don't tire yourself out, eat more,work less, etc.’ but drive home this idea: you have to work. Don't work like some kind of go-getter but to please God”¹².

Then Fr Caviglia lists other characteristics of Salesian work:

The Salesian works with a collective conscience, that is, with a sense of belonging to a shared mission.

The Salesian works with inner awareness which leads him to do his act of service well, whatever it is, precisely and with the expertise of the skilled craftsman.

The Salesian works with love: “Working with love is the secret of our professional and pedagogical success”.

The Salesian works courageously and zealously: “This is a quality we should never overlook. This is how the old Salesians were formed. School doesn't teach you everything you need to know. If you don't know something, adapt, go looking, be daring. That will teach you. ‘But I don't know how…’. Be daring, do what you can, study. Don't take notice of the naysayers: 'But your health...?' God will help you”.

Finally, the Salesian knows more than one trade: “The value of a Brother is that he knows how to do more than one thing. Our houses are lucky when we have Brothers who can do everything. … For the priest, learning is a matter of conscience: in modern life that little bit of theology you did is no longer enough, you need to be formed in culture. Don Bosco's first helpers, in their free time, always had a book in hand so they could perfect their trade. There were some real surprises; nobody expected so much learning from that Salesian”¹³.

This is all in the area of asceticism. Like other spiritual masters formed in the early part of the 19th century – convinced that the action of grace urges us to a personal life of moral virtue and holy industriousness – Don Bosco too, although imbued with romantic feelings of devotion and affection, was not too trusting of mystical experience since he felt it alienated one from daily work and serving one's brothers and sisters, a misunderstood fuga mundi. He preferred a willing activity for good, being immersed in daily life, virtuous and cheerful hard work, helpful, friendly relationships and especially apostolic charity: “concern for the good of souls” and zeal for “instructing children in the truths of the faith”, to win all humankind “over to God”. But it should be noted that this ascetic, hard-working energy, this tendency in Don Bosco to spiritual and material charity did not run counter to inner communion with God; he never overlooked the prayer of union, and indeed was always obedient to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

In Don Bosco's praxis, the lesson of classical spirituality was reformulated in an anthropological outlook that was suited to the life circumstances of his boys and his Salesians. As we see in the three lives (Savio, Magone and Besucco) or the dream of the Pergola of Roses, he was always attentive to correcting anything that looked like a misunderstood spirituality, calling people back to real life which not only should be accepted but happily embraced. He drew his inspiration from the teaching of St Francis de Sales and suggested a kind of 'positive' mortification where rigidity and excess was ruled out, while at the same time demanding that everything be focused on the circumstances of life, duties of state.

“The exact fulfilment of one's duties”: here we have one of the cornerstones of his approach to formation. Speaking to his boys he would consider a wide range of duties, those which arose from their circumstances: “duties of piety, respect and obedience to parents and charity to everyone”¹⁴. So no personally chosen fasting or other rigid practices. Mortification of the senses could be had through “diligence in study, paying attention in class, obeying your superiors, putting up with the inconveniences of life like heart, cold, wind, hunger, thirst”, calmly accepting them “out of love for God”¹⁵. Other mortifications arose from practising the Gospel precept of love: practising “much kindness and charity” towards one's neighbour, putting up with their faults, “giving good advice”; “doing things for your friends, bringing them some water, cleaning their shoes, serving at table too …, sweeping the dining room, dormitory, taking out the rubbish, bringing int he wood, carrying bags”. All these things according to Don Bosco were to be done “joyfully” and with “satisfaction”. Indeed, “real penance is not doing what pleases us, but doing what pleases the Lord and helps promote his glory”¹⁶.

He gave a similar address to the Salesians. Don Bosco agreed with Saint Teresa of Lisieux in seeing perfection as charity in practice, in concrete service of one's neighbour, without self-interest, calmly, lovingly and faithfully doing one's job, even amidst suffering and opposition. This is what he suggested to his helpers, that they give example of it in their own lives, fully consecrated to the good of young people. In 1864 he told his Salesians the dream of the Pergola of Roses and finished it by telling them of the comment from the man who was his guide: “Know then that this road [with its roses and thorns] means the care you must take in looking after young people. You have to walk along this road with your shoes on, meaning mortification. These beautiful roses are a symbol of burning charity which should distinguish you and all your helpers in the education of youth. The thorns mean all the obstacles, sufferings, disappointments you have to put up with while doing this. But never lose courage in being charitable, you will overcome everything through mortification. And at the end you will have roses without thorns as you saw in that rich hall you finally arrived at”¹⁷.

So everything is based here, on charity, sacrificial love, unconditional gift of self to God whom you love above all else, and in dedication to the young. This is an inner movement of loving offering in everyday life, out of which arises a sense of ardent and joyful charity, an intense, serene, hard-working fervour, along with an unmistakeable style of relationships, a special model of the religious and educational community and a typically Salesian approach to activity.