1. LETTER OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

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THE SALESIAN FAMILY YESTERDAY AND TODAY

STRENNA 2009

150th anniversary of the Founding of the Salesian Congregation

Introduction – Two events coming together – 1. The Salesian Family yesterday. 1.1 The “seed” of the charism. 1.2 The seed under the snow. 1.3 The tree and the wood: a luxuriant growth. – 2. In the third millennium: today and tomorrow. 2.1 On the path of communion. 2.2 Communion in and for the mission. 2.3 Some requirements to continue the journey. – 3. Lines for the future. 3.1 Synergy in the mission. 3.2 The resources. 3.3 Some areas of collaboration: the young - vocations - the Missions - the Salesian Bulletin. 3.4 Visibility in the Church of the Salesian presence as a “Movement.” 3.5 A culture of the Salesian Family. – 4. Suggestions to make the Strenna concrete. 4.1 Collaborating together in the formation and the deepening of the charismatic mentality. 4.2 Promoting a shared commitment. 4.3 An instrument of communion: the local and Provincial Consultative Committee of the Salesian Family. 4.4 Some areas of net-working to be promoted and developed. – Conclusion. The prayer of the Salesian Family. - A parable: the fir trees.

Rome, 25 December 2008

Solemnity of the Birth of Our Lord

My Dear Confreres,

On such a beautiful and meaningful day as the Birth of the Lord I am writing to you sending my best wishes that the Father may enrichen you with all those gifts with which He wished to endow us in the Incarnation of His Son: especially Himself, since Jesus came to give us God, and with Him His love, His joy, peace, light, truth and life.

Since I last wrote to you to present the Programme of animation and government for the six-year period 2008-2014, the world panorama has changed profoundly, with a financial and economic crisis without precedent, which is raising questions about the western model of society. In fact, at this stage it is clear that the cause of the financial crisis is to be found not only in the lack of legal transparency and responsibility, but in an erroneous set of values on which attempts are being made to build society. Today’s crisis is being compared in economic terms with the great depression of the ’30s; however, it seems true that the situation is much more serious, since this time it is accompanied by a profound spiritual crisis.

Rightly, at World Youth Day Benedict XVI exhorted the young people to be that «new generation of Christians called to to help build a world in which God’s gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished … building a future of hope for all humanity »; and he added: «The world needs this renewal! In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair. How many of our contemporaries have built broken and empty cisterns (cf. Jer 2:13) in a desperate search for meaning – the ultimate meaning that only love can give? This is the great and liberating gift which the Gospel brings: it reveals our dignity as men and women created in the image and likeness of God. It reveals humanity’s sublime calling, which is to find fulfilment in love. It discloses the truth about man and the truth about life ».¹ What is especially of great concern for us is the extremely precarious state in which the large majority of people are living, and also the constant increase in the lack of a future for the young.

To this dramatic economic situation which is forcing so many men and women to live with insecurity, without work, and all that this implies, sometimes simply to survive, is added the new wave of violence, including the massacres in progress in the region of Goma with millions of people displaced. I have to say I felt very proud of the confreres and the volunteers who remained at their posts to continue to defend and to welcome as many refugees as possible. This tragic situation has given rise to another initiative, called “Emergency Congo”, which has brought together the two Unions of Male and Female Superiors General to respons in various ways. I hope that the International organisations will finally decide to intervene to ensure the rights of all the people in that area so afflicted.

During these months in addition to our ordinary family events there have been a number of others in which I have been able to take part: the General Chapter of our Sisters the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians which was held between 8 September and 15 November, with the theme “Called to be signs of God’s foreseeing love”; the Harambée and the Missionary Departure Ceremony, on Sunday 28 September, on which occasion I issued the challenge of preparing an extraordinary missionary expedition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Founding of the Salesian Congregation; the Synod of Bishops on “The Word of God in the life and mission of the Church,” between 5 and 26 October; the visit to the Bilbao Province on the occasion of the centenary of the presence of the Salesians in Santander; the Plenary Session of the Congregation and then the Congress of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; the six-monthly General Assembly of the Union of Male Superiors General; thee Meeting of the Provincials of Europe, between 28 and 30 November, to work on the “Project for Europe.” Finally we have resumed the ordinary activities of the Council with the winter plenary session, and to start the course for new Provincials.

My participation in the General Chapter of the FMA as Rector Major was intense and I hope also of significance. It began with the preaching of the Retreat at Mornese; continued with the Mass and participation in the opening ceremony in the FMA Generalate in Rome; then with the visit to Mother Yvonne Reungoat, to offer best wishes after her election as the new Superior General, together with all her Council; and concluded with the closing Mass. For me it was not only a formal occasion as Successor of Don Bosco, our common Founder, but especially one of affection, esteem and closeness to this Institute, with which we are so strettamente unitied, also through the Salesian Sisters whom we have met in the course of our Salesian life, and who have been true sisters to us. This is certainly in harmony with the subject of this year’s Strenna, which invites us to rediscover what Don Bosco wanted: to found a family. This is our treasure which we are living with a spirit of communion that is real, deep and convince. All of this at the service of the young for their salvation. This also gives meaning to our lives, the meaning we live in a mission that is shared, important, committed. It is my hope that in addition to the beautiful spiritual and charismatic experience lived by the Chapter members, the GCXXII may represent for the whole Institute a time of profound renewal, even more so since our Sisters wanted to get to the heart of things taking as their theme the first article of their Constitutions, so as to be able to respond to the current expectations regarding feminine consecrated life and to the new requirements of the mission.

The Synod with the theme “The Word of God in the life and mission of the Church”, in the course of the Pauline Year, was for me a beautiful and stimulating experience. Every Synodal Assembly is a powerful experience of ecclesial communion, presided over by the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ and the Successor of the Apostle Peter, with the participation of Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops, representatives of the Curia and of the Bishops’ Conferences, to whom are added ten Superiors General, as well as invited guests and the experts. This Assembly was even more significanti because at the centre of attention was that which illuminates and guides the Church: the Word of God,who is Christ in person. Indeed I would dare to suggest that the greatest insistence throughout the Synod was precisely the affirmation that the reading of the Sacred Scripture is authentic, full when it leads to a personal encounter with Christ today, and therefore, the great challenge is that of knowing how to pass “from the words to the Word,” from the Scripturees to the Word of God! This is only possible when there is a prayerful reading of the Word of God, open to what the Spirit is saying to his Church.

The Assembly which began on 5 October with the opening Mass in the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the walls and ended on 26 October with the closing Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica, was not organised like an intellectial Congress on an academic or pastoral subject to be discussed but like an experience of a religious listening to the Word, which was evident from the liturgy (masses, the prayer of the office of Terce with the respective Lectio, and Vespers in the Sistine Chapel at which His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I took part) and in the procedure of the Synod itself.

I think the most precious fruit was the new awareness that the priority role of the Church and therefore of the Congregation at the beginning of this millennium is above all to nourish itself with the Word of God, for it to be effective in the task of the new evangelisation, of the proclamation of the Gospel in our days. I shall mention some practical consequences for our consecrated life and mission which you can find in some of the Propositiones approved and presented to the Holy Father: in the first place what is said in Propositio n. 24: the Word of God and consecrated life; Propositio n. 31 on the Word of God and formation; Propositio n. 14 on the Word of God and the Liturgy; Propositio n. 22 on the prayerful reading of the Bible; Propositio n. 23 on Catechesis and Sacred Scripture; Propositio n. 25s on the study of the Scriptures.

From this point of view the Message of the Synod, developed according to four icons – the Voice of the Word: Revelation; the Face of the Word: Jesus Christ; the Home of the Word: the Church; the Path of the Word: the Mission – is very expressive both for one’s own life and for pastoral action, and I cannot but recommend to you its attentive reading and meditation.

Propositio n. 2, in particular, expresses a wish that is in harmony with the Pauline Year and with Key Issue 2 of the GC26, that is “The urgent need to evangelise”. I make it my own on behalf of all of us, dear confreres: «This Synod Assembly expresses the hope that all the faithful may grow in knowledge of the mystery of Christ, the only saviour and mediator between God and men (cf. 1Tim 2,5; Heb 9,15), and the Church, renewed by religiously listening to the Word of God may enter into a new missionary season, proclaiming the Good News to all mankind ».

The Meeting of the Provincials of Europe, which took place at the Generalate between 28 and 30 November, served to define the contents and the process of the “Project for Europe”, in obedience to the lines of action of the GC26. As was said right from the beginning, it is not a question of salvaging in a continent with un unstoppable process of the ageing of the personnel, with a very limited influx of vocations and with an increasing number of lay people who are managing our works; it is not even a question of maintaining structures nor of repeating the model used in the “Project for Africa”. What one wants to do, as the General Chapter decided, is to “re-launch the Salesian charism in Europe” (n. 108), to plan for a renewed Salesian presence in a context characterised on the one hand, by great prosperity, by marvellous scientific and technological development, by a powerful social sensibility, and, on the other by an oppressive secularism, by a relativism and nihilism which has become “a disturbing guest,” and by an uncontrollable flood of immigrants.

This particular situation is first of all a challenge to the capacity of the confreres in Europe to re-vitalise the charism and to make it alive in a continent more than ever ion need of God, of Christ and his Gospel; but it also requires the intervention of the whole Congregation, convinced that the Europe of today and of tomorrow is still a place for the Salesian charism, with the presence of the young especially the poorest and abandoned, with a need for an education able to produce a new culture to give a soul to this continent so rich in humanism and poor regarding its future since it is closed to transcendence. If in the past thousands of Salesian confreres from the different countries of Europe have gone out to the missions, nowadays Europe – as in fact the whole world– has itself become mission territory and needs apostles to bring a new message, one of good news that gives real meaning to life.

Finally on 18 December we began the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Congregation. I have already written a letter introducing this very significant year with some precise proposals and suggesting the attitudes with which to live it, to which have been added a series of helps for celebrations throughout the whole year so as to conclude this year of grace with the renewal of our Religious Profession, making our own the commitment of the first group who gathered in Don Bosco’s room on 18 December 1859, began our Society of Saint Francis of Sales. To this event, in the light of the Word of God, in the Pauline year, I should like to devote my next circular letter; and so, for the present, I shall limit myself to recalling what I wrote in the letter introducing this Jubilee. This also was the inspiration for the subject of the 2009 Strenna, which ought to mean for everyone, but especially for us Sons of Don Bosco, a profound transformation, a change of mentality in the way of understanding and living the Salesian Family, of which we are fundamental founding members and, at the same time, those mainly responsible for its animation.

Here then is the commentary on the Strenna:

STRENNA 2009

150th anniversary of the Foundation of the Salesian Congregation

The Salesian Family yesterday and today:

the seed has become a tree and the tree a wood

«The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree,.so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.» (Mt 13, 31-32).

My Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Salesian Family,

I greet you with the heart of Don Bosco, from whose zeal and pastoral charity was born our spiritual and apostolic family. We are the most beautiful and rich fruit of his total giving of himself to God and of his passion to see young people - especially those who were the poorest the most needy and at risk - achieve the fulness of life in Christ.

After the Strennas of the last three years so propositive and demanding, here I am once again to offer you one even more urgent, demanding and promising. It is all to do with our identity and our mission. In fact it is on that that our more visible presence in the Church and in society depends, and our more effective activity in facing up to the great challenges of today’s world.

2009 ought to help us to make ever more actual Don Bosco’s conviction that the education of the young requires a large network of people dedicated to them and a determined synergy in the efforts made to reach the goals that the young expect and to be significant for society. Therefore in Don Bosco’s name I ask you:

“Let us commit ourselves to making the Salesian Family a vast movement of persons for the salvation of the young.”

Two events coming together

There are two events which justify the choice of this theme for the 2009 Strenna: the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian Society and the preparations for the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco (1815-2015). With the celebration of the first we begin the preparations for the second. We do so recalling the words of John Paul II for the Jubilee of the year 2000: «Every religious family will live the Jubilee well by returning with purity of heart to the spirit of the Founder!»

For us therefore, this jubilee celebration indicates our renewed and creative fidelity to Don Bosco, to his spirituality, to his mission. There will be a “Salesian Holy Year”, during which we are called to relive with clarity and communicate with enthusiasm the life experiences, the ways of doing things, the features of the spirit which guided Don Bosco, and the first among many others, Mother Mazzarello to holiness.

In this, we cannot fail to remember what was Don Bosco’s experience. First of all he consecrated himself personally body and soul to the salvation of the young people he saw wandering in the streets; then he invited some people to share in his apostolic work, giving rise to a kind of first form of the ‘Salesian Family’. But, after having seen that many left him entirely on his own, or almost, he gathered around him a group of young men and educated them to form with him a religious family: and so the Salesians were born; afterwards other groups followed, organised on different levels but with the same apostolic purpose. This brief “historical” survey throws light on what the Salesian Family is and on its relationship with the fundamental nucleus, the consecrated persons – SDB and FMA –, whose heart and driving force, as for that matter that of the whole Salesian Family, is the passion of “Da mihi animas, cetera tolle”. This sums up the spirit that ought to characterise all the members and groups of the Salesian Family.

1.The Salesian Family yesterday

The 150th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian Society is a special occasion on which to reflect on Don Bosco’s original idea and on the concrete founding of the first groups, raised up and cultivated by him: the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Association of the Salesians-Cooperators, the Association of Mary Help of Christians.

Well then, taking my cue from the parable Jesus used to explain the Kingdom of heaven and its dynamics, I would dare to say that the seed sown by Don Bosco has grown and become a tree strong and rich in foliage, a real gift from God to the Church and to the world. In fact, the Salesian Family has experienced a veritable spring time. United now with the original groups, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit there are other groups who with their specific vocations, have enriched the communion and extended the Salesian mission.

Today everyone can see how the Salesian Family has grown, how the work completed and that we dream about have multiplied; the field of activity on behalf of so many young people and adults has spread without limits. For this we are grateful to the Lord and we accept our greater responsibility, precisely because, like every other vocation, this of the Salesian Family is at the service of the mission, in our case the salvation of youth, especially the poor, the abandoned, those in danger.

1.1The “seed” of the charism.

Don Bosco’s spirit, mentality, pastoral experience and view of the world and of the Church guided him towards some convictions and to some corresponding initiatives:

• the universal mission of the Church, to be taken up in a spirit of solidarity, to save the whole of man and all men. Within this mission his Sons and followers need to be characterised by a preference for the young, the poor, the peoples not yet evangelised;

• the usefulness, or rather the urgent impelling need to become united spiritually and to form associations working together in enterprises to achieve this end;

• the possibility that the spirit given to him could be lived in different states of life and, therefore through the coming together of “good people” to contribute to the great mission of the Church, taking their place within it with the Salesian “priorities;”

• the founding of the first groups: spiritually united around the experience of the oratory as their mission, their style, their method and their spirit:

- with different kinds of links with the Salesian Congregation (the original nucleus),

- with different forms of association,

- with different levels of public “Christian” commitment as the requirement for belonging.

• The historic role of the SDB, the FMA, the Cooperators.

1.2The seed under the snow: silent growth

These intuitions have developed according to the understanding of them that the followers of Don Bosco were able to have in the context of a certain view of the Church and of its life. This development can be seen:

-in the permanence and expansion of the groups founded by Don Bosco;

-in the updating and periodic revision of the organisational and spiritual elements;

-in the sense of the vital relationships that these groups maintain among themselves.

In the meantime other groups have arisen in the different continents with analogous characteristics, because they were founded by Salesians.

Among these is certainly to be numbered the group of the Volunteers of Don Bosco, the translation of the Salesian spirit into consecrated secularity, which was also a novelty in the Church.

The new conditions created by the Second Vatican Council (the Church as communion, the renewal of the Institutes of Consecrated Life, a return to the original charism, emergence of the role of the laity) led to the discovery and the identification of the character of the charismatic “family” the constellation of the groups that arise could have, and also to the formulation of practical guidelines in this regard: communication between the groups, expressions of communion, the animating role of the Salesians, the Rector Major as the central point of reference, common elements of spirituality.

This new way of thinking, however, still needs to pass from theory to the lived practice of each group and of each individual member of the groups, so that the Salesian Family may be lived as a dimension of their vocation. “Without you we are no longer ourselves!”

1.3The tree and the wood: a luxuriant growth

Some facts have accompanied and sustained the development of the Family:

• Formal recognition of their belonging has been requested and publicly granted to groups that have arisen after the death of Don Bosco. Today, altogether there are twenty three groups officially recognised:

1. The Society of St Francis of Sales (Salesians of Don Bosco);

2. The Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians;

3. The Association of the Salesians-Cooperators;

4. The Association of the Past-Pupils of Don Bosco;

5. The Association of the Past-Pupils of the FMA;

6. The Association of the Volunteers of Don Bosco;

7. Daughters of Sacred Heart;

8. Salesian Oblates of the Sacred Heart;

9. Apostles of the Holy Family;

10. Caritas Sisters of Miyazaki;

11. Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians;

12. Daughters of the Divine Saviour;

13.  Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary;

14. Sisters of Jesus the Adolescent;

15. Salesian Women’s Association;

16. Association of Mary Help of Christians;

17. Catechists Sisters of Mary Immaculate Help of Christians;

18. Daughters of the Queenship of Mary Immaculate;

19. Volunteers with Don Bosco;

20. Witnesses of the Risen Lord TR 2000;

21. Congregation of St. Michael the Archangel;

22. Congregation of Sisters of the Resurrection;

23. Sisters Announcers of the Lord.

• There are also other groups which are waiting for the conditions to be fulfilled for them to be formally recognised as members of the Salesian Family; in the meantime the soil is being cultivated in which other groups could also emerge.

• The Salesian Family has reflected a great deal on it own identity (cf. AGC 358), on those elements which regard its real nature and unity, on its organisation in terms of communication (cf. Common Identity Card and Common Mission Statement).

• Each group has sought to strengthen itself with Statutes or Regulations of Life, guidelines for the formation of the members, a synthesis of its own specific Salesian spirituality, and committing itself to improve its organisation and to find ways or opportunities for growth and development.

• A common effort has been made to examine further possibilities and to define the forms of communion between them all; clear reference has been made, firstly to the Common Identity Card and then to the Common Mission Statement which need to continue to be distributed, studied and put into practice.

2.In the third millennium: today and tomorrow

2.1On the path of communion

The Church has entered a new phase of communion, marked by the continental Synods and those of the whole Church, by ecumenical dialogue, the inter-religious movement, by global solidarity, by the commitment to reconciliation.

Characteristics of this communion are:

- a return to basics,

-a greater expansion,

-a better understanding of its requirements,

-greater visibility,

-greater apostolic and missionary activity,

-its reference to the mission: “communion begets communion: essentially it is likened to a mission on behalf of communion.” (ChL 32).

Even though our Family is a prevalently apostolic one, being a family it necessarily has its roots in the mystery of the Trinity, the origin, model and goal of every family. Contemplating God-Love, God-Communion, God-Family, we understand what for us is the meaning of the mission (“to be signs and bearers of the love of God”), of the spirituality of communion, of being family.

The Father asks us to have our hearts wide so that, as members and groups of the Salesian Family, we welcome and recognise each other as brothers and sisters, men and women loved by Him: personally called by Him to work in his field for the same reason. The pettiness of the human heart may put up barriers, create distance and separate,– as among the Apostles – seek the first place, to the detriment of the Kingdom. Sometimes it is our fears or reservations about unity with others that produce similar effects. The heart, like that of the Father, means a real and deep affection for the young and for those who spend their lives for them. It is expressed in cordiality, appreciation of each and everyone, gratitude for what each one can and manages to do.

The Holy Spirit shows us a second attitude which is required to build up a family: the grateful and joyful acceptance of diversity. Manifestations of the Spirit are the many languages, the different charisms, the various members of the one body. There are hundreds of millions of men and women, each one formed individually as a child of God. The Spirit doesn’t repeat Himself, He doesn’t produce a series.

Don Bosco was a master in making unity flower from a diversity of different types and temperaments, of conditions and capabilities. In his day this sensitivity was less common. Nowadays on the other hand, diversity presents an educational and pastoral challenge to people living together, to the witness of the Church and to the Salesian Family.

Diversity means an abundance of relationships, a variety of strengths, a wealth of opportunities and therefore unlimited fruitfulness. What an incomparable possibility this offers for dialogue, for sharing spiritual and educational experiences in the Salesian Family for men and women consecrated and lay people, in their particular state of husband, wife, child, young adult, elderly, workers, professionals or students, people from a variety of races and cultures, healthy or sick, saints and sinners!

Certainly, unity in diversity is not in itself natural; but precisely so that we might have the strength to overcome the instinct for self-affirmation, Jesus prayed: “That they may be one!” (cf. Jn 17, 11).

Jesus, the Lord, the Son who made himself our travelling companion, who reconciles all things, those in heaven and those on earth (cf. Col 1,20), recapitulating them in God, indicates to us a third attitude: the willingness to walk together towards a shared goal, to stand side by side in a place that is anything but ethereal, the Kingdom; to form a recognisable community of disciples who together respond to his command: «Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation » (Mk 16,15).

Here then the three indispensable attitudes in order to grow in communion: breadth of heart, acceptance of diversity, the willingness to walk together towards a shared goal.

2.2Communion in and for the mission

“Communion begets communion: essentially it is likened to a mission on behalf of communion.” (ChL 32). Now in the third millennium our main aim is to express, in a more evident way, communion in the mission, taking into account the following criteria:

• According to the basic principles of the beginning and of the development of the Salesian Family:

One thing has been a constant, as a precious heritage: a passion for education, in particular that of the poorest young people, whom we help to become aware of their own dignity as individuals, of the value and the potential their lives have for God and for the world.

“Da mihi animas”! It is the motto of Don Bosco that we make our own! We look at the young and their spiritual dimension, and we want to concern ourselves with them in order to re-awaken in them the vocation to be children of God and to help them to achieve this following the Preventive System, that is through reason, religion and loving kindness. This implies a detachment from all that could take us away from our commitment to God and to the young. This is the meaning of “cetera tolle”, which is the second part of our motto.

• In conformity with the conditions of the world of today:

The world unified by communication, characterised by complexity, by the transversal nature of many “causes”, by the possibility of net-works, offers a new setting for the Christian, promotional, educational, youth mission,

The Salesian Family together will try to give weight to its presence in society and make its educational activity count: there is the youth problem, there is life to be safeguarded, there is poverty in its various forms to be tackled; there is peace to be promoted; there are human rights that are declared to be but not put into effect; there of Jesus to be made known.

• As the fruit of the more recent Strennas:

The Strennas of these last few years have highlighted the educational emergency, efforts on behalf of the family, the promotion of life, a preferential option for the poor, globalised solidarity, the new evangelisation.

This new phase of the Salesian Family will be marked by an ardent and tireless charity, full of imagination and generosity: that which made Don Bosco an image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, recognised by the young and the humble people of his time. We, the Salesian Family are being called today, in the XXI century, to model our hearts, poor and sometimes sinful, on that of Jesus in whom God showed Himself to the world as the One who gives life, so that man may be happy and have life abundantly (cf. Jn 10, 10).

2.3Some requirements to continue the journey

There immediately emerge some requirements to continue the process of growth and reach the goal of communion in the mission that we have set ourselves:

-Examine further so as to understand better the possible common field and the working characteristics of the mission.

All of this means looking, reflecting, discussing, studying and praying together so as to find the path to follow in a spirit of communion. It is the expression of love which the young are waiting for and of which they will certainly feel the effects and the benefit.

-Restoring spirituality to the centre as the stimulus to communion for the mission, is in conformity with current Church thinking and reflects today’s religious experience and from it follows the urgent need for the formation of the members and the involvement of others.

Holiness: this is the source and the power which «inspired the start of a vast movement fo persons who in different ways work for the salvation of the young » (C. SDB 5): the Salesian Family. One cannot possibly think that this is the result of organisation however perfect, or of subtle techniques for bringing people together. The Holy Spirit raised it up and it continues to live in the Spirit.

To this Family I make a pressing appeal to acquire a new way of thinking, to consider themselves and always to act as a Movement, with an intense spirit of communion (harmony), with a convinced desire for synergy (unity of intent), with a mature capacity for net-working (unity in planning). In the Regulations of the Salesians-Cooperators Don Bosco wrote: «At all times it was considered that union among good people was necessary in order to help one another to do good and to keep far away from evil… Weak forces when they are united become strong and if a piece of string is taken by itself it is easily broken but when three pieces are joined together it is more difficult to break.: Vis unita fortior, funiculus triplex difficile rumpitur». We must never forget that we have been founded by a Saint of social charity, Don Bosco (cf. Deus Caritas Est n. 40), who was aware, however, that education and pastoral work needs to be a cooperative form of charity, for which the Holy Spirit raises up charisms.

-Ensuring that the groups are able to be autonomous in their own development, in the formation of their members, in their apostolic initiatives.

-Understanding and experimenting with flexible forms of collaboration: “thinking globally, acting locally.”

-Examining further the Salesian experience as expressed in lay terms.