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Newsletter for Salesian Missionary Animation
THE MISSIONARY DREAMS OF DON BOSCO / 3
Dear Sale-
sian mis-
sionaries
and friends of the Sale-
sian mission!
A cordial greeting during
my visits of animation to
the Provinces of South Asia!
The contemplation of the
missionary heart of Don
Bosco leads us to rediscover
this month its third mission-
ary dream that brings us in
Africa, Asia and America. The
exclamation of Don Bosco
«Why do I see so few Sale-
sians? » remains valid today.
Let us share the dreams of
our Father with our youth
and with lay people who are
involved in our contexts. The
harvest is plentiful but the
workers are never enough!
Fr. Václav Klement, SDB
Councillor for the Missions
A Great Harvest Awaits the Salesians
if They Work with Humility and Temperance!
In the night Between January 31 and February 1, 1885 Don Bosco had a third
missionary dream similar to the one he had in 1883. The next day he narrated it
to Fr. Lemoyne who immediately wrote it down. [The whole text is found in MB
XVII, 299-305; http://sdl.sdb.org (= biblioteca digitale salesiana)].
«I thought I was
accompanying
the missionaries
on their journey
… At the far end
of one very long
road which came
from
the
direction of Chile,
I saw a house
where there
were many Salesians engaged in scientific pursuits, practices of piety, and
various trades, crafts and agricultural activities. To the south lay Patagonia. In
the opposite direction I could see in one single glance all our houses in the
Argentine Republic. I could also see Paysandú, Las Piedras, Villa Colón in
Uruguay; I could see Brasile … Where are we? I asked pointing to this territory.
We are in Mesopotamia, my interpreter said …
I was standing motionless in the prairie, scanning all those interminable roads,
and contemplating quite clearly, but inexplicably, all the places the Salesians
were then and were going to be later. How many magnificient things I saw! I
saw each individual school. I saw as if they were all concentrated in one place,
all the past, present and future of our missions. Since I saw all of it as a whole
in one single glance, it is extremely difficult, indeed all together imposible for
me to give you even the most vague idea of what it was that I saw. …. In that
immense plain I also saw all the savages who lived scattered in that territory of
the Pacific, down to the gulf of Ancud, the strait of Magellan, Cape Horn, the
Diego islands, and the Falklands. All this was the harvest awaiting the reaping
by the Salesians. I saw that as of now the Salesians were only sowing, but that
those coming after them would reap. Men and women will swell our ranks and
become preachers. Their children who, so now it seems, cannot possibly be
won over to our faith, will themselves become
evangelisers of their parents and friends. The Salesians
will succed in everything with humility, work and
temperance …».
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