Around us there are adults linked with Don Bosco in various ways: through empathy, commitment, spirit; and to them we are “sent” by virtue of our vocation. Our service to them is not something of little importance: it is one of spiritual and salesian animation.

We are called not only to give dynamism to a group of educators or collaborators by suitable methods; we are called to give rise to “an experience of Church”, to give rise to and extend a vocational reality. It is not only a matter of making better use of the resources we have available, the laity for example, but of communicating the faith and the salesian spirit.

In this way animation comes to be a primary part of our mission and an original manner of living our communion, to which we must dedicate more than spare time or mere ‘functional’ attention.

Don Bosco’s charism is concentrated to a particular extent in the SDB community; it was moulded by him directly through the force of consecration, through the daily sharing of the charism with others, through the plan of life called for by salesian spirituality, and through total dedication to apostolic work.²⁴ Such concentration is not an end in itself; it is there to communicate and spread the particular gift of the Spirit to the Church which is the salesian spirit.

We are not a welfare society or an educational organization which has as its final objective specific material or cultural realizations; we are charismatics. That means giving life to a work which raises questions, gives motives for hope, brings people together, prompts collaboration, and gives rise to an ever more fruitful communion for the realization together of a plan of life and action in line with the Gospel.

Ours is a collaboration with the Spirit. He animates the Church and the world. He opens them to the Word, excites the desire for unity and the will for agreement, and renders efficacious efforts and commitments for the transformation of the world in accordance with God’s design; he distributes charisms and sows the seeds of good in humanity, so that they may strengthen in themselves the elements of peace and communion.

Constituted as we are by the Spirit in consecrated communities, we become mediators of his animating activity: we help people to accept and welcome his interventions, we create the conditions needed for his gifts and inspirations to strike home in reality, so as to give full and ample realization to the mission to which he has called us.

The tasks of animation, particularly in the EPC, aim at making available to all what the Spirit has given to us: faith in God’s loving plan for every individual, love of Christ expressed in total dedication to the salvation of the young, the pedagogical wisdom we learn from the Good Shepherd, and conformation to Christ through the model of Don Bosco.²⁵

Only this way of thinking of the mission will render adequately effective in the community the experience of the Spirit, who is to be found in the primacy given to the meaning of God, in the following of Christ, in the pastoral charity with which we place ourselves completely at the service of the young with our salesian educative and spiritual heritage.

To be animators therefore of the activity of persons involved in Don Bosco’s mission and spirit is not an extra function for particular occasions: it is a vocational trait forming part of the identity of the consecrated individual Salesian or community, and a main part of the pastoral praxis.

“Every SDB is an animator, and strives always to fulfil the task more efficiently”.²⁶ There is no need for special qualities beyond those that correspond to the salesian vocation. It is a matter of living the gift inherent in the community style with the young people and laity who manifest the same sensitivity and join forces in the same educative initiatives.

2. A way of life for communicating a spirituality.

The various adjectives associated with the term ‘animation’ are well justified, because they reveal doctrinal bases, processes and objectives of various kinds. Ours is a spiritual animation, not in a limiting sense but in a descriptive one. It does not exclude other aspects of animation, but brings them all together in a particular perspective.

To become an animating nucleus we have to live our spirituality with awareness and conviction, and express it with joyful spontaneity. In the congress of young religious which took place in Rome in September 1997, the pious idea was expressed that not only individuals should be canonized but whole religious communities as well, as a subject which had lived in a solid and exemplary manner the ideal of evangelical life. It was added that a vocational handicap is inherent in the fact that the young see and are attracted by individual models without seeing a corresponding community life behind them: solitary saints, in communities which seem extraneous to their sanctity.

At Valdocco Don Bosco created a school of spirituality which found expression in the environment, in the work of everyday, in the quality of fellowship and in prayer: simple in outward appearance, but substantial and authentic. He invited his youngsters and anyone who wanted to collaborate with him to follow him in the same spirit in line with their own possibilities and circumstances. “At Valdocco”, the GC24 reminded us, “there was a particular kind of atmosphere: holiness was built up together; it was shared and mutually communicated, in such a way that the holiness of some cannot be explained without the holiness of the others”.²⁷

To build and enjoy this climate of shared holiness is something to which consecrated persons are committed. The religious community is the setting for an experience of God. Everything is thought out with this in mind and with a view to this end. “The spiritual life must therefore have first place in the Families of consecrated life… Apostolic fruitfulness, generosity in love of the poor, and the ability to attract vocations among the younger generation depend on this priority and its growth in personal and communal commitment”.²⁸

The GC23 indicated this as an adequate response to the challenges of educating young people to the faith. It invited communities to become a “sign” of faith giving gospel transparency to their lives so as to become also a school of faith. Faith, in fact, cannot be communicated unless it be lived as the great resource of one’s own existence. “Spiritual and pastoral renewal are two aspects which mutually compenetrate and are interdependent”.²⁹

To be animators as a community, i.e. to be an animating nucleus, is to accompany the educative activity we share with others by that breath of the Spirit which can give meaning to the advancement of the person and to the efforts for changing society: the experience of God’s love, the light that comes from Christ, and the vision of man which emerges from the Word of God.

As with the apostolic community after Pentecost,³⁰ it is like having the ability to “go out” towards the others, to attract, unite, convert and create community with new criteria in the light of the risen Christ. “The first duty of the consecrated life is to make visible the marvels wrought by God in the frail humanity of those who are called. They bear witness to these marvels not so much in words as by the eloquent language of a transfigured life, capable of amazing the world”.³¹

The experience of God which is at the beginning and is also the objective of our life-plan must be reawakened, relived and deepened in line with the characteristics of our spirit. We can in fact be led to reduce life to efficiency, to believe that the various elements of our religious life are there as functions of their educative results. This in turn can lead to a progressive internal emptying, to a fading of even the deepest motivations and, as a consequence, to a certain delusion or loss of confidence in our interventions, in those we are working for, in the community and in the laity.

The capacity for spiritual animation, of our kind, supposes and requires the experience of prayer: the personal prayer, which comes as a grace and is assiduously learned and practised; and community prayer, felt and shared at prepared moments, calm and free without haste or dispersion.

Prayer gives back to us the taste for being with Christ and the meaning of the mission. Don Bosco reminds us that “just as food nourishes and preserves the body, so do the practices of piety nourish the soul and make it strong in time of temptation. As long as we observe our practices of piety, we shall live in harmony with everyone and we shall see the Salesian cheerful and happy in his vocation”.³² Are not those words: “living in harmony with everyone, cheerful and happy in his vocation” just about the truest representation of the animator?

Two signs seem important to me in this matter of expressing the spirituality of the community through the diligence and quality of its prayer. The first concerns the Word of God which we can consult and share when it is a question of enlightenment in our personal and community life, the situations of the youngsters and the challenges of culture. The Bible recounts the religious experience of humanity: the attitudes, trials and reactions of those who lived in this world in accordance with the sense of God, and indeed in accordance with the covenant they had made with him. It is a story of spirituality lived right in the heat of events.

And then the Gospel not only provides us with the teachings and examples of Jesus but puts us in contact with him personally and with his mystery. Only evangelical discernment can give us a Christian mentality at the present day, and help us to maintain a vision of faith, an attitude of hope and a criterion of charity.

The second sign is the participation of the young and our collaborators in our prayer, our ability to introduce them to prayer and give them a taste for it. We are not short of examples in this regard, and what we have begun we should continue. Let us not limit ourselves to extraordinary and stimulating celebrations, but accompany the young in a journey of prayer so that they come to want it and it becomes an attitude, a habit, and even a need.

Our youngsters and collaborators often come to know us as workers and as friends who are close to them, generous and available, and desirous of their good, but they do not discern the deeper motivations which underlie our life and constitute its originality. And so they do not understand the implications of consecrated life, and do not feel a desire to follow our own chosen path, even though they remain good friends with us.

To bring others to share in an experience of God, to set up a pedagogy of prayer leading to a personal relationship with Christ, and open to youthful sensitivities in line with our spirituality: this is the form of animation more befitting a religious community.

As well as offering occasional experiences, rather like samples to attract people, we are called to be educators and masters in spirituality. If that sounds over-ambitious, let us say that we want to be companions and authoritative witnesses, leaders and guides in the ways of spirituality. More than a few of the laity and young people are looking for a spiritual experience. They want something with internal sense and meaning to balance all the external agitation and disturbance. The GC24 puts spirituality at the centre of our effort at sharing. “We are called to share in the Salesian Family with all the lay people, not only in the carrying out of daily work but primarily in the salesian spirit, to become sharers in the responsibility for the mission, in our works and beyond them”.³³ The goal of formation, of and with the laity, is a shared holiness,³⁴ on account of which “spirituality is called to be the soul of the educative and pastoral community, the core of the formative journeys we have to make together in an atmosphere of the exchange of gifts”.³⁵

It is the same task that the Church entrusts to those who are consecrated. “Today a renewed commitment to holiness by consecrated persons is more necessary than ever, also as a means of promoting and supporting every Christian’s desire for perfection. To the degree that they deepen their friendship with God, consecrated persons become better prepared to help their brothers and sisters through valuable spiritual activities. The fact that all are called to become saints cannot fail to inspire more and more those who by their very choice of life have the mission of reminding others of that call”.³⁶

The principal mediation for the fulfilment of this task is our daily life, inspired by faith and close to the young and the laity, which diffuses a style of life as though by osmosis or contagion; it is the educative environment in which values appear concretely realized, with significant attractive models, with proposals that involve, and with motivations which shed light on behaviour.

It will also be necessary to accompany individuals making use of communal occasions which lend themselves to sharing and communication, and to make ourselves available for personal dialogue. It all certainly requires both attention and purpose.

3. Making the salesian community a “family” able to give rise to communion around the salesian mission.

It has frequently been noticed that the community responds not only to proposals for religious perfection and efficacy in work, but also to deep desires and aspirations of the individual: for deep and authentic relationships, for communication, for personal enhancement, for friendship and affection.

The need is experienced for authentic adult fellowship and an attraction is felt towards it. Although we may have opportunities for individual relaxation of various kinds, and at the present day we are not lacking in sources of information, personal encounters and experience of friendship, the sharing of sentiments and situations remains in a class by itself.

In the society of communication, which is still of the “mass” variety even though made individual through the receiving apparatus, difficulty is experienced in communicating in depth, and there is still a feeling of isolation and loneliness.

You can spot this particularly between young people and an environment of a religious kind tinged with subjectivism and tending to provide immediate satisfaction for sentiment. They listen willingly to personal stories; they look for encounters where they can be courteously received and welcomed without rigid norms or conditions; they go for human relationships which make them feel free and help them to express themselves; they form groups in which they feel good and create solidarity through communication of proposals, desires and realizations.

What gives meaning and effectiveness to religious associations and communities, their force of attraction, does not lie so much in what they have and do, in their operations and work, as in what they live, their style of relationships, their unity.

This is why the first Christian communities caused such an impact. The external sign of the news of the Resurrection, immediately clear to everyone and even those without any knowledge of the content of faith, was the solidarity of the group of those who were assiduous and in agreement “in listening to the teaching of the apostles and in fraternal union, in the breaking of the bread and in prayer”; a group which “had all things in common” and there was no difference among the members. The power of conviction it unleashed made the group esteemed by the people and considered reliable and even desirable. “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved”³⁷ – it appears to be almost a consequence!

For Don Bosco too fraternal charity, manifested in the family spirit, was the immediate sign the Salesians should offer to the young, to the collaborators and to people in general. “Love one another, advise one another, correct one another, and do not be carried away by either envy or rancour. Let the good of one become the good of all, and let the troubles and sufferings of one be regarded as the troubles and sufferings of all, and let each one strive to banish or at least to mitigate the sorrows of others”.³⁸

The Constitutions have many references to this thought of our Father with its double emphasis on the communal style and its impact on the young. One of the places where our communal life is presented is in art.51: “The family spirit is the hallmark of the salesian community and inspires every moment of its life: work and prayer, meals and recreation, meetings and other encounters. In an atmosphere of brotherly friendship we share our joys and sorrows, and we are partners in our apostolic plans and experiences”. Art.16 recalls another point of emphasis; it refers to the educative and vocational effect we have so much at heart: “This is a witness that enkindles in the young the desire to get to know and to follow the salesian vocation”.

When we wonder how in the present situation we can move towards this ideal and express it without ambiguity, there comes to our mind the “grace of unity” which leads us, who are Salesians, to cultivate harmoniously and simultaneously the three notions of consecration, mission and fraternity,³⁹ giving to each of them its proper weight and combining them in a style of life and plan of action.

The first is precisely fraternal life. This presupposes that we have the time available and the energy necessary to cultivate and render communion visible as a gift to be offered to the young; it supposes the ascesis which develops in us the capacity for loving, and the experience which prepares us for a mature rapport with our collaborators. Many are the attitudes and manifestations of this kind of fellowship. “Every day, communities take up again their journey, sustained by the teaching of the Apostles: ‘love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honour’ (Rom 12,10); ‘live in harmony with one another’ (Rom 12,16); ‘welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you’ (Rom 15,7); ‘I myself am satisfied… that you are… able to instruct one another’ (Rom 15,14); ‘wait for one another’ (1 Cor 11,33); ‘through love, be servants of one another” (Gal 5,13); ‘encourage one another’ (1 Thess 5,11); ‘forbearing one another in love’ (Eph 4,2); ‘be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another’ (Eph 4,32); ‘be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ’ (Eph 5,21); ‘pray for one another’ (Jas 5,16); ‘clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another’ (1 Pet 5,5); ‘we have fellowship with one another’ (1 Jn 1,7); ‘let us not grow weary in well-doing…, especially to those who are of the household of faith’ (Gal 6,9-10)”.⁴⁰ I will dwell on two elements which emerge at the present day: interpersonal relationships and communication.

Relationships are one of the indications of the maturity of an individual: perhaps, indeed, the main parameter reflecting each one’s quality and limitations. Their quality, the way they are set up and managed, manifest how far love, the first energy and first commandment, has progressed in us and to what extent we have been able to evince it.

For this reason we pay particular attention nowadays to relationships in work and in formation: not only from a formal point of view, but with an eye to the internal and substantial aspect. In fraternal life relationships are needed which are able to overcome weariness and habit because they are renewable, and are not broken off because we are capable of daily reconciliation. They must however be deep and internal, and not merely functional with respect to work; they must lead to a maturing in friendship and growth in the Lord, and in solidarity in the mission; above all they must be inspired by self-sacrifice and self-giving and not selfishly centred on oneself and one’s own concerns.

It is a common opinion among observers of groups and communities that the greater part of internal difficulties that arise and which seem to concern work or ideas are in fact linked with problems of badly set up interpersonal relationships which come to light in work or in ideas.

On the other hand difficult relationships, situations of conflict which have not been suitably healed through reconciliation, act within a person, blocking the maturing process and creating difficulties in the way of the calm and joyful self-donation to the mission and to God. The sadness and distress which can follow are harmful in every sense. Internal bitterness wears the person down. It is a great service to help to loosen these knots, to clarify their roots, to see them as personal limitations and face them calmly, instead of remaining bogged down in them.

We need to educate both ourselves and others to rapport, even by a word, by support or encouragement. Relationships need animation with the creation of opportunities for their expression and growth. It is an aspect of the charity of all, and particularly of the Rector and the Provincial through whom the unity of the community is built up.

No one can expect to be only a receiver in the community, as though it were an environment made primarily and independently by his own contribution. On the other hand it is necessary to make up for the shortcomings of some by a greater capacity for giving on the part of the others. In communities there are always limits of communication, timidity, and excessive regard which put a brake on familiarity. The Lord compensates for such limitations through those confreres who are willing to put a bit more into the conversation, into the preservation of proximity, union and joy, so that the level of community life may not decline as regards mutual affection and family environment. “A fraternity rich in joy is a genuine gift from above to brothers and sisters who know how to ask for it and to accept one another, committing themselves to fraternal life and trusting in the action of the Spirit”.⁴¹

The preceding comment may seem unusual for a circular: too particular, almost technical. I picked it up from the document Fraternal Life in Community, which says: “It may be useful to recall those qualities which are required in all human relationships: respect, kindness, sincerity, self-control, tactfulness, a sense of humour and a spirit of sharing”.⁴² It was also suggested to me by the GC24 which spoke of our relational spirituality: a spirituality which not only loves with internal charity but (as Don Bosco had already taught in dealing with boys) is able to establish adult relationships conforming to the environment of life and prevailing sensitivities. And it was suggested too by the importance that attaches nowadays to relationships established almost specifically as objects for study and training in all forms of human activity. Finally it was inspired by the thought of St Francis de Sales, in whom “gentleness” was translated part and parcel into personal relationships even to the extent of constituting a distinctive trait of his personality.

Relational spirituality has as its source the charity which makes a person able and willing to create, heal, reestablish and multiply rapport. Such charity becomes ‘pastoral’ when it is exercised within the ministry of ruling and guiding an ecclesial community.

In addition to relationships and included in their dynamic is communication. Today the desire in communities is that this be not limited to what is merely functional, but should include vocational experience as well; that there be exchange of news not only from the media or happenings at work, but also considerations, requirements and intuitions concerning our life in Christ and the way we understand our charisma. It is to this that such practices as the revision of life, community verification, exchange of prayer tend, as well as the discernment of situations, projects and events.

The present time has rendered communication in religious communities more necessary, and has modified its manner and criteria: it has become looser and more widespread. The complexity of life is such that we have to exchange views about tendencies, criteria and events of a family kind, and about external matters too: we either succeed in understanding them and interpreting them in the light of the Gospel, or we remain excluded from the life and movement of the world.

The habit of assessment has become necessary, as also has the elaboration of common criteria for the process. It frequently requires the application of a method of trial and error. We must be ready to express ourselves with simplicity, be ready to modify judgements and positions, even only for the purpose of fraternal and practical convergence: mediation of this kind always helps the community, provided that essential values be not compromised.

Communication is necessary also because of the positive pluralism of visions and gifts existing in the community: there are rich qualities of intelligence, of spirit, of fantasy, and of practical skills that can be passed on. And moreover there are so many themes in consecrated life on which communication can take place with profit: the apostolic project, spiritual experience, challenges of the mission, guidelines of the Roman Congregations, and the tendencies of the Church.

Communication calls for learning, practice and also animation. We would say for spiritual learning to a greater extent than the technical kind. When we communicate we lay ourselves open to some extent. A certain reserve has to be overcome, which makes us unwilling to talk about ourselves; there is also confidence in the other person which has to be consolidated, and which will reassure me that he will accept what I say with maturity and in a positive manner.

Experience shows that not everyone has the courage to do this. We need a measure of learning also to receive communication, without judging the other person, without cataloguing him in a specific category on the basis of what he has said, without any lessening of esteem and expectations in his regard because of the difference of views.

As well as learning practice is needed too. If you neglect the capacity for communication it gets rusty. You lose the taste for it and its facility. Practice leads to the use and understanding of different kinds of language suited to various situations, which range from gestures and attitudes to calm and relaxed conversations, all of it inspired by charity and not technical calculation. We may recall Don Bosco with his hand placed lightly on the head of the boys, with his ready smile, the word in the ear, his ‘good-nights’, the kind of conversation he had with Dominic Savio, the way he asked for his boys’ opinions and discussed with them. And the effort, so typical of the preventive system, to make his affection perceptible and free it from a generic attitude or from enclosure in a cold exterior. In the practice of communication too we need to learn the value of active silence and capacity for solitude. These are aspects which have almost been destroyed by the ‘Babel’ of conversations, messages, music, festival and plain noise.

A valid communication is always prepared and controlled by reflection, discretion and the ability to withdraw.

Learning and practice is needed therefore on the part of all, but animation too is needed by those who are directing matters so as to create a suitable atmosphere for calm and relaxed communication. Providing opportunities; a style of direction which makes it easy to express opinions, to ask for and prompt such opinions, to be pleased at a multiplicity of contributions, to make it clear that no one is going to be judged by what he says in the cut and thrust of a debate.

In addition to attention to fraternal life, the enhancement of community experience requires an improvement in our way of working together. The religious community is the place where the change takes place from I to we, from my work or sector to our mission, from the pursuit of my methods and objectives to a convergence on the evangelization and good of the young. This calls for a patient running-in period to overcome whatever holds us back or separates us through an individualized view of work and ill-regulated autonomy in initiatives which makes us little disposed to build with others. Many initiatives could be rendered more powerful merely by bringing together items which are similar but juxtaposed, by linking together those which are complementary, and converging times and personnel in specific areas.

The Constitutions and Regulations provide opportunities for understanding, coordination and convergence. Councils and community assemblies tend to come up with the same kind of statement of the situation in the light of the Gospel and of our original vocation, to project in integral form the great aspects of pastoral work, such as the orientation of the education of young people to the faith or the formation of the laity.

The weekly ‘community day’ has provided a new opportunity for a useful exchange of thoughts and ideas.

In a period in which the tendency is towards linkage, synergies and networks, we have to learn that fragmentation and watertight compartments are unproductive and do not form us as men of communion. In those communities which include certain sectors which must have a certain autonomy for various reasons, it is desirable that there be at least some occasions for common programming and orientation.

From the beginning the salesian community has lived cheek by jowl with the young, participating fully in their life, and vice versa the young have shared the daily life of the Salesians. Today many boys and young men want to see and take part in our fraternal life and join in our work. Our community life, therefore, has to be structured in such a way that it is possible for us to pray with the young, share moments of fellowship and programming with our lay collaborators, and even welcome some of these youngsters and lay people to experience with us a period of community life.

4. Giving to our educative activity and to that of the EPC the missionary dynamism of “Da mihi animas”.

The pedagogy developed by Don Bosco and passed on by him to his first Salesians was born of pastoral charity, able to understand and make allowances for the youth situation, and to start up initiatives designed to meet it. It was not just a matter of being active on their behalf, staying in their midst, and devoting his energies to them. Underlying all this was the desire to lead them to faith in Christ, the way truth and life, making himself a sign and witness of Christ’s love. That was the fundamental experience which manifested the unique nature of salesian spirituality. The GC23 expressed it in a text which some have called the “salesian credo”.⁴³

This is the experience we must communicate and help our collaborators to live, animating a style of pedagogy centred on personal relationship between the educator and the pupil. When this develops more deeply and becomes confidence, it provides the opportunity for revealing the predilection of Jesus Christ for each one of the youngsters.

We shall try to create a family atmosphere,⁴⁴ with plenty of suggestions and initiatives covering all the needs and interests of the young, which sparks off their participation and gets them involved in their own formation; an atmosphere which has its high-spots in the celebrations which form an introduction to the mystery of life and grace associated with the transforming force of the sacraments, especially those of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.

Of this style and program we are called to be reminders and stimulus. We must manifest with tranquility, but nonetheless with missionary courage, that faith in Jesus Christ brings light and a new energy to education: it is the image of the man apparent in Jesus, the confidence in life passed on to us by the Resurrection, the consciousness of a filial rapport with God; it is the transcendent horizon, the revelation of love as the secret for the realization of the individual and of civilization.

Our life is a prophecy in the area of education: it manifests the meaning and the goal towards which human values must be developed: the liberating force of the personal relationship with God, the historical fruitfulness of the beatitudes, the ability to get the best out of the poorest individuals and groups, neglected and rejected by others.

In a context trying to do without God, we bear witness to the fact that his love brings an unusual lucidity and happiness; in face of the quest for pleasure, possession and power, we are able to say that “the need to love, the urge to possess, and the freedom to control one’s whole existence, find their fullest meaning in Christ the Saviour”.⁴⁵

If our commitment to education is not a temporary service but an original contribution, we must “bring to bear on the world of education a radical witness to the values of the Kingdom, proposed to everyone in expectation of the definitive meeting with the Lord of history”.⁴⁶ It must be said that it is to this that all our efforts of preparation tend; it is true that they have a professional dimension, but it is leavened and motivated by a deeper dimension still, the pastoral dimension. The latter must not be played down, nor must the former be made a watertight compartment. We educate by evangelizing.

“Because of their special consecration”, Vita Consecrata reminds us, “their particular experience of the gifts of the Spirit, their constant listening to the word of God, their practice of discernment, their rich heritage of pedagogical traditions built up since the establishment of their Institute, and their profound grasp of spiritual truth (cf. Eph 1,17), consecrated persons are able to be especially effective in educational activities and to offer a special contribution to the work of other educators”.⁴⁷ And it goes on to add: “In this way they can give life to educational undertakings permeated by the gospel spirit of freedom and charity, in which young people are helped to mature humanly under the action of the Spirit”.⁴⁸

At the present day the service of education is requested and reappraised to cover extension of formation to the entire existence, but also with a vision that decisively overcomes the ‘unidimensional’ temptation so as to take up the person in his integrity and take into consideration the individual character of each one.

And so educative service is asked to “assist” every individual in the development of all his capacities, to communicate a vision of life open to his neighbour, to generate in each one the ability to live in freedom and in truth in accordance with his own conscience enlightened by experience and by faith.

As a religious community we are the animating nucleus of an ensemble of educators who intend to communicate these values and put forward this vision of life.

The task supposes that we ourselves make the effort to become:

- persons capable of living our own lives with confidence and joy, with an attitude of understanding and dialogue with the young and their world, with attention to culture, and with the will to collaborate with all who are working for a more just, free and more cohesive world;

- educators who are competent, who make of their service to the young and the poor a commitment for the Kingdom; for the animation of an educative community and other apostolic forces; good will by itself is insufficient; improvisation does not pay when it is a matter of the Christian promotion of an environment on a long-term basis;

- animators willing to share a formative process with lay collaborators,⁴⁹ in the life of every day, in communal moments of particular formative value, duly prepared and qualified, such as the elaboration of the PEPS, the verification of the EPC, the discernment in the face of practical situations, and similar occasions;

- leaders who have made their own the value of participation and of sharing responsibility, and are able to animate by creating and renewing opportune circumstances;

- Salesians who manifest a particular sensitivity for the education of the very poor and become promoters of a culture of solidarity and peace: this sensitivity constitutes one of the most effective of apostolic signs and seems able to bring many people together.

5. Fraternal life and pastoral work for growth.

Fraternal life (with its communication and relationships) and a good set-up of the work, help us not only to feel better but also to grow; they are enriching from a cultural, psychological, social and especially spiritual point of view.

There is cultural growth, because in listening to others and collaborating with them we receive information, new view points, facts and interpretations of a wide range of realities. Nowadays rapport and communication with competent persons are considered indispensable and are much sought after. There are people of this kind living in our own communities, everyone of them indeed probably has something to offer us. They can be found also among the laity.

There is psychological growth because easy relationships are developed, the ability to welcome persons of different mentalities; we become more capable of self-giving, of overcoming frustrations and internal hang-ups, fixations on ourselves and our success.

There is social growth, because the capacity is strengthened for insertion in working groups, in teams for participation and in various settings, with freedom and sincerity; we become able to handle social anxiety, that first feeling we get of unease and being an outsider when we find ourselves in a context or group we do not know or with whom we are not familiar.

And finally, at the head of all the rest there is a spiritual or comprehensive growth, because the attitudes and aptitudes set out above are part of an effort to respond to the Lord in a way in keeping with the charism and a manner for fulfilling the mission.

Experiences of ongoing formation, carried out away from our own community do produce benefits, such as a rethinking, a new synthesis, doctrinal updating, a new vocational enthusiasm; but when we get back to the community and daily life, that renewed vision of life and work that we glimpsed in those extraordinary conditions of time and environment, can be translated into practice only with difficulty. The customary rhythm takes over again and the “ordinary” common and human context dilutes the exemplary experiences of prayer, mutual exchange and study. And so the course of ongoing formation remains an isolated incident in the run of life, even though its beneficial effects cannot be denied.

Four variables therefore have been introduced into the concept of ongoing formation, in line with formational sciences. They concern place, time, matter and method.

The preferred place for ongoing formation is the local community. It is more realistic, because that is where we learn to manage our life and react as salesian religious in face of the daily round.

The time best suited and most continuous for ongoing formation is that marked out by the alternation of work, study, comparisons and meetings with people. The remaining time is useful for support and backup.

Material or content: it is true that a systematic exposition on the Church, Jesus Christ and the community is helpful, because it provides motivation, light and fresh orientation. But all this is subsequently found distributed, fragmented, and to some extent watered down in daily life. The community, in which we have to read in real terms what has been explained to us, is the one in which we live side by side with our confreres, who have their own ideas, are marked by their past experiences and have their limitations, even though they have also many rich qualities which we must be able to discover and accept.

The same can be said of the ecclesiology we have heard expounded, of the youth ministry we have heard explained, of the deeper aspects of the preventive system: they are frames of reference which are useful because they are enlightening. But they must then be transferred to the particular concrete circumstances of an ecclesial community and its specific conditions, to our own field of pastoral work and the youngsters to be found in it, to the salesian environment in which all we have heard about the preventive system has to be applied. This latter, i.e. the concrete manner of applying visions and frames of reference, or dealing with particular cases, forms the particular matter for the ongoing formation which takes place in the local community. There we submit it to reflection and verification to see what kind of response we are making to the demands of our vocation and work. I would say that ongoing formation has more in common with the model of a well-made practical training period than with that of the studentate.

Finally, but linked with what we have already said, a word is needed about the means or most efficacious way of setting about ongoing formation: certainly there is reading, study, attention to spiritual life, and theological updating. But art.119 of the Constitutions and art.99 of the Regulations both speak of fraternal communication: listening calmly, noting and synthesizing with care, adopting evaluations and criteria, moving in well-weighed directions. All this will certainly be endorsed and relaunched through the use of the so-called special times and a personal habit of reflection.

Relationships, communication and programmed work, therefore, result in processes of formation and growth. At present not everyone understands this. No blame for this attaches to anyone, because in formation praxis in the past communication had neither the weight nor the possibilities it has today. But while not blaming anyone, we must know how to create and multiply opportunities for communication, deal with the matter of rapport, be aware of the kind of platform needed for these things and foster them as a practice of pastoral charity towards confreres and communities.

Conclusion.

Of this love Mary shows forth the three greatest manifestations known to humanity, and we express them in the three titles: Virgin, Spouse and Mother. Such is her relationship with God; such the dimensions which make her an image of the Church. We are sure, in line with Don Bosco’s words, that she is part of our community as she was with Jesus’ disciples at Cana and in the Cenacle. To contemplate her and invoke her will help us in our communion.

This is my hope and prayer for each community and every confrere that, with Mary’s help, we may express all the richness of the communion which is the fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Juan Vecchi.