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STRENNA 2013

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice" (Phil. 4:4)

Like Don Bosco the educator,

we offer young people the Gospel of joy

through a pedagogy of kindness

Rome, 31 December 2012 – 1 January 2013

My Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Salesian Family,

The second year of this three year period of preparation for the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco will focus

on his pedagogy. In 2012 we concentrated on his life history and we have tried to understand better how the

whole of his life was marked by his special love for the young. To this end he devoted all his efforts, precisely

because he saw that this was the mission God entrusted to him.

In 2013 our aim will be to study more deeply his approach to education: what Don Bosco wanted to offer to the

young and the method he used to open the doors of their hearts, in order to win their confidence and so to form

strong personalities from the human and Christian points of view. In practical terms we want to draw close to Don

Bosco the educator. It is therefore a question of studying more deeply and of updating the Preventive System.

This then is the theme of the Strenna for 2013.

Once again this time our approach will not be only an intellectual one. On the one hand a deeper study of Salesian

Pedagogy is certainly necessary in order to update it according to the sensitivities and the demands of our own

times. Nowadays the social, economic, cultural, political and religious contexts in which we are trying to live our

vocation and carry out the Salesian mission have profoundly changed. On the other hand in order to be faithful to

the charism of our Father it is equally necessary to make our own the contents and the method of the education

and pastoral care he offered. In the context of society nowadays we are called to be holy educators as he was,

giving our lives as he did, working with and for the young.

REDISCOVERING THE PREVENTIVE SYSTEM

Thinking about Don Bosco’s experience as an educator, we are called to bring it to life again faithfully in our

day. We are all certainly convinced that in some of its particular expressions and interpretations, his Preventive

System appears to be decidedly “dated,” in so far as it is linked to a world that no longer exists. In fact there have

been a succession of many “revolutions” in the pedagogical, psychological, religious, political, cultural,

philosophical, technological and demographical fields in the course of the XXth century. The world has now

indeed become a “global village.” It is full of constant innovations in the media field on a world-wide

scale which have an influence on all the cultures on the planet. Peoples’ way of thinking appears to be marked by

novel cultural criteria of productivity, efficiency, self-interest, scientific rationality. Therefore in this way of

looking at social phenomena many old categories for interpreting them would appear nowadays to be outdated.

In order to put the Preventive System into practice in the right way, rather than immediately thinking about

programmes and formulas, or repeating “slogans” well-tried and tested and suited to all occasions, today our

efforts must be enployed in understanding Don Bosco’s method from an historical perspective, aware that the

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particular circumstances of the time had given rise to the original basic idea, to the theological, anthropological,

pastoral and pedagogical theories which he thought suitable for the boys of his day. This historical understanding

will help us not to consider his experience in isolation, and to express it with its basic principles in new ways. In

practical terms it is a question of analysing what was different about his way of dealing with the young, with the

ordinary people, with the Church, with society, with religious life. Also what was different about his way of

educating the boys in the first festive Oratory, his approach to the junior seminary at Valdocco, to the clerics both

Salesians and non-Salesians, and to the missionaries. That is not to ignore the fact that already at the first Oratory

in the Pinardi shed there were to be found some important insights which later would be more fully developed in

the full significance of their humanistic-Christian implications:

a. a flexibile structure (this is the way Don Bosco thought of the Oratory) as a bridge between the Church,

urban society and various age groups of the sons of the people;

b. respect for and appreciation of the world of the working class;

c. religion as the foundation of education according to Catholic pedagogical teaching passed on to him in the

context of the Convitto;

d. the vital connection between religious formation and human development, between catechisis and

education. In other words, the convergence of education and education to the faith (the integration of faith and

life);

e. the conviction that teaching is an essential means for the enlightening of the mind;

f. education, likewise catechesis, which is presented in all the ways possible given the limitations of time

and resources: literacy projects for those who have never been able to enjoy any kind of schooling, work

placement, social-assistance provision throughout the week, the provision of activities for groups of mutual

assistance etc.

g. the full use and appreciation of the value of free time;

h. kindness as a feature of education and, more in general, as a feature of Christian living.

On the basis of his own personal practical experience, this method once it was called the " Preventive System,"

became a "system" that was widely publicised and presented as a universal method. Don Bosco proposed it and

wanted it to be adopted for the education and the re-education of young people belonging to the most varied

groups.

As is well-known and as we find written in the Charter of the Charismatic Identity of the Salesian Family, the

Preventive System: “represents the synthesis of Don Bosco’s pedagogical wisdom and constitutes a prophetic

message which he left to his heirs and to the whole Church. It is a spiritual and educational experience which is

based on reason, religion and loving kindness.

Reason underlines the values of Christian humanism, such as the search for meaning, work, study, friendship,

cheerfulness, piety, freedom not detached from responsibility, the harmony between human sound judgement and

Christian wisdom.

Religion means making space for the Grace with saves, cultivating a desire for God, fostering the meeting with

Christ the Lord as this gives a full meaning to life, and is a response to the thirst for happiness, progressively

taking one’s place in the life and mission of the Church.

Loving kindness expresses the fact that in order to create an effective educational relationship it is necessary that

the young are not only loved but know that they are loved; it is a special kind of relationship and an affection that

awakens in the hearts of the young all their potential and makes it mature even into total self-donation.

Reason, religion and loving kindness are today more than ever indispensible elements in the work of education,

and valuable stimuli, in response to the expectations of the new generations, in giving life to a society which is

more human.”[1]

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Once what has been passed on to us from the past has been properly understood, it is necessary to translate into

modern terms the great insights and potential of the Preventive System. It is necessary to bring uptodate the basic

principles, concepts, the original guidelines, re-interpreting on the theoretical and practical levels both the great

fundamental ideas, which we all know (the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls; living faith, strong

hope, theological-pastoral charity; the good Christian and the upright citizen; joy, study and piety; health, study

and holiness; piety, morality, culture, good manners; evangelisation and civilisation… ), and also the great

guidelines regarding method (making yourself loved before feared; reason, religion, loving kindness; father,

brother, friend; friendly approach, especially in recreation; winning over the heart; the educator “consecrated” to

the well-being of his pupils; full liberty to jump, run and make as much noise as they please …). And all of this

put to good use in the formation of the “new” young people of the XXI century, called to live and to come to

terms with a huge and unprecedented range of situations and problems, in decidedly changed times, in which the

human sciences themselves are going through a phase of critical reflection.

In particular I should like to suggest three approaches, examining more closely the first one.

1. Relaunching the “upright citizen” and the “good Christian”

In a world so profoundly changed from that of the 1800s it would be a grave mistake in both sociological and

theological terms to undertake charitable works according to narrow, local and purely pragmatic criteria,

forgetting the much wider aspects of the common good at national and international level. Here we may well

recognise that Don Bosco was certainly not in the position to do more than he actualy did. The way moral

consciousness has progressed nowadays in fact has led to a recognition of the limits of any support provision

which, forgetting the political dimension of under-development, does not succeed in having a positive influence

on the causes of poverty, or on those sinful structures from which derive the social conditions always criticised by

everyone. To think of charity only in terms of giving alms, responding to emergencies means running the risk

of operating in the realms of a “false Good Samaritan role” which, in spite of any good intentions finishes up by

becoming the expression of a poor quality of solidarity, since it operates according to development models which

favour the welfare of some while sugaring the bitter pill for others.

We may recall that in the period following the Council the words “the poverty of the Church” and the “Church of

the poor” were used in various ways, even at times contradictory, yet nevertheless we also need to remember that

we did not invent the Gospel, just as it was not us who invented its dramatic impact on politics and the economy.

Faith makes its mark in history yet cannot be reduced to it. If love for one’s neighbour is not the whole of the

Christian message, can one really deny that it is central and essential to it?

It has been said and written that faced with the modern State which has taken upon itself the welfare and social

assistance of its citizens, the Church no longer has the opening or opportunity for charitable and assistance work

that it used to have in the past. However, the reality of the situation nowadays shows how false such an hypothesis

fostered by secular and political voices really is. Very often the Church is once again the point of reference even

within the heart of the Welfare state. For many years we have heard it said that charitable and assistance work

were old-fashioned and out-of-date means, that were no longer of any use in modern society and in the

democratic state. But today, even in secular circles, the social role of Christian voluntary service is recognised, the

so-called third, non-profit, sector – those initiatives which originate in the parishes, in the associations, in

institutions, in local churches …

Should not the fact that nowadays hundreds of millions of people are living in conditions far removed from that

“civilzation of love,” hoped and prayed for by Pope Paul VI and repeated by his successors, find in us “a direct

response” in our turning to the formula of Don Bosco, that of the “upright citizen and the good Christian”?

With regard to the “upright citizen,” we need to reflect very seriously. Above all, at the speculative level, we need

to include in our thinking everything related to development issues - human, juvenile, working class, while at the

same time paying attention to the various relevant considerations from the philosophical-anthropological,

theological, scientific, historical, methodological points of view. This reflection then needs to take a practical

shape on the level of experience and practical reflection on the part of individuals and of communities. Here I

should like to recall that for the Salesians of Don Bosco, a very significant General Chapter, the GC 23, had

indicated as important for the areas and objectives of education the “social dimension of charity” and “the

education of the young to a commitment and to participation in public life,“ “a sector we have somewhat

overlooked or disowned” (cf. GC 23, numbers 203-210-212-214).

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If on the one hand we can understand Don Bosco’s decision to be concerned only with “the politics of the Our

Father," on the other we also have to ask ourselves how much his initial choice regarding education understood in

the strict sense, and the subsequent practice of his educators to exclude "politics”, from their own lives did not

condition and limit the important socio-political dimension in the formation of their charges. Over and above the

objective difficulties created by the different political regimes with which Don Bosco had to co-exist, were not

others perhaps the contribution of educators prone to conformism, to isolationism with an inadequate culture and

little knowledge of the historical and social context?

Therefore we have to move forward in the direction of an updated re-affirmation of the “socio-political-

educational choice” made by Don Bosco. This does not mean promoting a kind of ideological activism tied to any

particular party political agenda, but the forming of a social and political conscience that then leads to the making

of one’s life a mission for the common good of society with a constant reference to the inalienable human and

Christians values and rights. This therefore means operating according to a more consistent practical

implementation in this area. In other words, the re-appraisal of thesocial aspect of education – which is already an

integral part, even though only imperfectly realised, of the fundamental option for the young, including its

proposals and projects – ought to be an incentive in the creation of explicit experiences of social commitment in

the wider sense. But that also implies a specific theorical and practical commitment inspired by a broader view of

education in itself, as well as realism and practicality. Slogans and manifestos are not enough. What are needed

are theorical ideas and practical operational projects to be translated into programmes that are well-defined and

properly structured.

Someone who is really concerned about the educational dimension will try to exert influence though political

means, so that it is taken into consideration in all areas: from urbanisation and tourism to sport and to radio-

television systems in which very often market criteria prevail.

We need to ask ourselves whether the Salesian Congregation, the Salesian Family, our Provinces, groups and

houses are doing all that they could in this regard? Is their solidarity with the young merely an expression of

affection, a gesture of self-giving or also a contribution of real competence, a reasoned response, suited and

relevant to the needs of the young and of the weaker classes in society?

And the same needs to be said about the relaunching of the “good Christian.” Don Bosco, “consumed” with zeal

for souls appreciated the ambiguity and the dangerous nature of the situation, challenged its presuppositions,

found new ways of combatting evil with the limited resources (cultural and economic…) at his disposal.

It is a question of discovering and of providing the help to live in a conscious manner man’s vocation, as it

truly is. It is precisely in this area that believers can make their most valuable contribution.

In fact they know that human beings and personal relationships are defined by their condition as creatures,

which does not indicate an inferior state or dependence, but gratuitous and creative love on the part of God. Man

owes his very existence to a gift. He is in a relationship with God in which he plays his part. His life has no

meaning outside this relationship. The “other”, whom he perceives and vaguely desires is the Absolute, not an

extraneous or abstract absolute, but the source of his life who calls him to Himself.

In Christ, the true nature of the individual person, which reason can begin to perceive, finds its total

enlightenment. Jesus Christ, through His word, but above all through the power of His human-divine life, in

which He manifests his awareness of being the Son of God, opens an individual to the full understanding of

himself and of his destiny.

In Him we become sons and daughters and are called to live as such in the contemporary world. This is the reality

and a gift the full meaning of which men and women have to gradually appreciate. The vocation of being a child

of God is not an optional extra, something tacked on to being human. On the contrary it is of its very essence, the

indispensible condition for its authenticity and fulness, that which satisfies its deepest longings, those flowing

from its nature as a creature.

But how is the “good Christian” of Don Bosco to be realised? How do we nowadays safeguard the fully human

and Christian aspects through means which are explicitly or mainly religious and pastoral against the dangers

presented by old or new forms of fundamentalism and exclusivism? How do we transform traditional education,

the context of which was “a monoreligious society”, into an open education, and one that is at the same time

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critical, in the face of contemporary pluralism? How do we educate to an autonomous life and at the same time to

being part of a pluri-religious, pluri-cultural and pluri-ethnic world? Faced with the fact that the traditional

pedagogy of obedience, suited to a certain type of ecclesiology has now been superceded, how do we promote a

pedagogy of freedom and of responsibility, aimed at producing individuals who are responsible, capable of

making free, mature decisions, open to interpersonal communication, actively involved in social structures with an

attitude which is not conformist but constructively critical?

2. Returning to the young better prepared

It was among the young that Don Bosco fashioned his way of life, his pastoral and pedagogical heritage, his

system, his spirituality. The single-minded nature of the mission to youth in Don Bosco was always and

everywhere a reality, even when for particular reasons he was not in direct contact with the young, and even when

his activities were not directly at the service of the young, and when he stalwartly defended his charism as founder

for all young people in the world in the face of pressure from ecclesiastics who were not always well-informed.

The Salesian Mission is consecration, it is “a preferential love” for the young, and this preferential love as we

know from its very beginning is a gift from God, but it is up to us to use our intelligence and our hearts to develop

and to perfect it.

The true Salesian does not desert the field of youth. He is a true Salesian who has a vital knowledge of the young;

his heart beats in tune with that of the young. The Salesian lives and works for them, committing himself to

respond to their needs and to their problems. They give meaning to his life: work, school, his affections, free time.

He is also a true Salesian who has a theorical and practical knowledge which enables him to discover their real

needs, to create a youth ministry suited to the needs of the times.

Then, for it to have a real impact, fidelity to our mission requires that we be in contact with the “heart” of today’s

culture, with the roots of current mentality and behaviour. We are facing truly great challenges which demand

serious analysis, relevant critical comment, in-depth cultural exchanges, an ability to appreciate the situation

psychologically. So, limiting ourselves to some questions:

a- Just who are the young people to whom as individuals and in community we “consecrate” our lives? What do

they want, what are their desires and what do we (and God) want for them? Do we know today’s young people?

Are we convinced about today’s young peoples’ problems so different in quantity and quality from those faced

one hundred and fifty years ago by Don Bosco?

b- What is the quality of our professionalism regarding ministry at the level of theorical reflection on

educational programmes and at the level of pastoral practice? The proof of the matter will be found in its

creativity, adaptability, flexibility, its lack of pessimism. What is certain is that for us to achieve “inculturation”

we cannot put our trust merely in the documents of the General Chapters of our Congregations, in the most

important deliberations of the various groups or in the letters of the Rector Major.

c- Nowadays responsibility for education can only be a collective, combined, fully involved matter. What then is

our “link” with the “network of relationships” in the area and also outside the area where our youngsters are

living? What is our precise contribution in the form of participation and collaboration within this globalised

educational network? Have we taken into consideration the possible solutions, discussing them with third parties?

d- If sometimes the Church finds itself at a loss in the face of the young, is the same not perhaps also true of the

Salesians or of the Salesian Family of today?

3. An education of the heart

In these last decades the new generations of Salesians have perhaps been experiencing a sense of confusion in the

face of the older formulations of the Preventive System: either because they do not know how to apply them

nowadays or because unconsciously they imagine them to be some form of “paternalistic relationship” with the

young. On the contrary, when we look at Don Bosco, seen from the point of view of the life he led we discover

him in an instinctive and intuitive manner going beyond the educative paternalism inculcated by the greater part

of the pedagogy of the previous centuries (’500-’700). During this time the pedagogical attitude reflected in fact

European society, which on the political level too was paternalistically structured. On the contrary, Don Bosco’s

whole life was marked by interpersonal relationships with the boys and with adults, from which he also derived

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considerable spiritual benefit himself. There are thousands of episodes and expressions, such as: “Allow me to

say, and I hope I offend no one: you are all thieves: I say it and I repeat it: you have taken all I have […] I still

have this poor heart of mine the deepest affections of which you have already stolen […] this heart is possessed by

everyone and in it nothing more remains than a real desire to love you in the Lord»[2] They illustrate the close

companionship, the modern approach, the uptodate quality going much further than the labels: preventive, loving-

kindness, charity. Stealing the heart in Don Bosco is an metaphorical and symbolic expression. The boys fully

occupy the heart of Don Bosco. There they are at home, there their lives are enriched, there they are happy to be.

Today, certainly, styles of interpersonal relationships are different: with a pluralistic society, communication and

contacts on a global scale, internet, travel, etc.

We can ask ourselves: nowadays can and do the young and adults find a place in the heart of the Salesian

educator? What do they reveal there? A technocrat, a capable but empty communicator, or else a person rich in

human qualities, completed and animated by the grace of Jesus Christ, within the Mystical Body, etc.? If they

don’t find all this, would not Don Bosco be able to repeat more or less those same words: “When in the heart of

the Salesian the wealth and depth of the grace of Christ is not found, the Congregation and the Salesian Family

will have run their course”?

PRACTICAL STEPS FOR THE SALESIAN FAMILY

Starting from a knowledge of Don Bosco’s pedagogy and in the light of the reflections presented above, the main

focal points and the tasks for the Salesian Family arising from the Strenna for 2013 are the following.

1. The ‘gospel of joy’ was a permanent feature of the whole life story of Don Bosco and the soul of his many

works. “In Jesus of Nazareth God reveals Himself as the «God of joy»[3] and the Gospel is “good news” which

begins with the “Beatitudes” - men and women sharing in the Blessedness of God Himself. It is a question of a not

insignificant but profound gift, since joy rather than being a passing sentiment is an interior force which is able to

resist in the face of the difficulties of life. Saint Paul says: «In all our hardship, I am filled with encouragement

and overflowing with joy » (2Cor 7,4). In this sense, the joy we experience here below is an Easter gift, a foretaste

of that full joy we shall possess in eternal life.

Don Bosco took the desire for happiness the boys had and translated their joy of life into the language of

cheerfulness, of the playground, of celebration; but he never stopped pointing out to them that God was the

source of true joy. Some of his writings, such asThe Companion of Youth, the biography of Dominic Savio, the

explanation contained in the story of Valentino, are a demonstration of the connection that he established between

grace and happiness. And his insistence on the “rewards of heaven” projected the joys of here below into the

perspective of their completion and fullness.

At the school of Don Bosco, the person belonging to the Salesian Family cultivates some of the attitudes

which encourage joy and communicates them to others.

a) Confidence in the victory of good: «Even the most callous boys have a soft spot,” Don Bosco writes. “The first

duty of the educator is to locate that sensitive spot, that responsive chord in the boy’s heart, and take advantage of

it.»[4]

b) Appreciation of human values: The disciple of Don Bosco is able to make his own what is good in the world

and does not bewail his own times; he accepts all that is good, especially if it appeals to the young and the

ordinary people.

c) Education to the joys of every day: a patient effort of education is needed in order to learn or to re-learn, to

enjoy, with simplicity, the many human joys that every day the Creator puts in our path.

Since they entrust themselves totally every day to the «God of joy » and bear witness in words and works to the

«Gospel of joy», all the disciples of Don Bosco are always joyful. They spread this joy and know how to educate

to the happiness of Christian life and to a sense of celebration, remembering Saint Paul’s exhortation: «I want you

to be happy, always happy in the Lord» (Phil 4,4).

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2. The pedagogy of kindness. “The loving kindness of Don Bosco is without doubt a characteristic trait of his

pedagogical method which is considered still valid today, both in contexts still Christian and in those in which

young people belonging to other religions are living.

It cannot, however, be reduced to simply being a pedagogical principle but needs to be recognised as an essential

element of our spirituality.

It is, in fact, authentic love because it draws its strength from God; it is love which shows itself in the language

of simplicity, cordiality and fidelity; it is love which gives rise to a desire to correspond; it is love which calls

forth trust, opening the way to confidence and to profound communication (“education is a matter of the heart”); it

is love which spreads out and in this way creates a family atmosphere, where being together is beautiful and

enriching.

For the educator, it is a love which demands a strong spiritual effort: the willingness to be there and to stay there,

self renunciation and sacrifice, chastity in affections and self-control in attitudes, participation in dialogue and

patient waiting in order to identify the most appropriate moment and the best ways, the capacity to forgive and to

renew contacts, the meekness of the one who sometimes knows how to lose, but continues to believe with

unlimited hope. There is no real love without asceticism and there is no asceticism without an encounter with God

in prayer.

1. Loving kindness is the fruit of pastoral charity. Don Bosco used to say: «On what is this reciprocal affection

based? […] On the desire I have to save your souls, which were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ,

and you love me because I try to lead you on the paths of eternal salvation.. Therefore the good of our souls is the

foundation of our affection.»[5]

2. In this way loving kindness becomes a sign of the love of God, and a means of re-awakening his presence in

the hearts of those who are reached by Don Bosco’s goodness; it is a way of evangelisation.

3. From this comes the conviction that the apostolic spirituality of the Salesian Family is characterised not by a

generic kind of love, but by the ability to love and make oneself loved.”[6]

3. Education is a matter of the heart. To understand the famous expression “education is a matter of the heart of

which God alone is the master” (BM XVI, 376)[7] and therefore to understand the Pedagogy of kindness in the

Preventive System, it seems to me important to listen to one of the most renowned experts on the educator Saint:

“Don Bosco’s pedagogy pervades everything he does; and everything he does reflects his personality; and

everything Don Bosco is can be summed up in his heart.”[8] This was his greatness and the secret of his success

as an educator: Don Bosco knew how to harmonise authority and kindness, love of God and love for the young.

“Don Bosco’s love for these boys manifested itself in practical and timely ways. He took an interest in the whole

of their lives recognising their more urgent needs and with an insight into those most hidden. To say that his heart

was totally dedicated to the boys meant that the whole of his being, intellect, heart and will, his physical

strength, everything he was and had was directed towards their good, in fostering their all-round development,

and with the desire for their eternal salvation. For Don Bosco, therefore, being a man of the heart meant being

totally consecrated to the good of his boys and devoting to them all his strength to his last breath!”[9]

4. The formation of the upright citizen and of the good Christian. “The forming of «good Christians and upright

citizens » is the aim most often expressed by Don Bosco to indicate everything of which the young stand in

need in order to live fully human and Christian lives: clothes, food, lodging, work, study, free time; joy,

friendship; active faith, the grace of God, the way to holiness; participation, dynamism, a place in society and in

the Church. His educational experience suggested to him a plan and a particular style of approach which he

himself summed up in the Preventive System, which «is totally based on reason, religion, and especially loving

kindness.»[10]

Having an educational presence in society includes the following: a sensitivity to educational issues, educational

policies, the educational quality of life in society and culture.

5. Salesian humanism “for Don Bosco meant giving due weight to all that is positive in the life of individuals, in

creation, in the events of history. This led him to accept the genuine values present in the world, especially if

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pleasing to the young; to place himself in the flow of culture and of human development in his own times,

encouraging the good and refusing to lament about the evil; wisely seeking the cooperation of many people,

convinced that each one has gifts that need to be discovered, recognised and put to good use; believing in the

power of education which provides support for the young person’s development, and encouraging him to become

an upright citizen and a good Christian; and always and everywhere entrusting himself to the providence of God,

preceived and loved as a Father.”[11]

6. Preventive System and Human Rights. The only purpose the Congregation has for its existence is the

holistic salvation of youth. Like Don Bosco in his day we cannot be spectators; we have to be protagonists, fully

engaged in their salvation. The letter from Rome of 1884 is demanding that we too in our own day put the “boy at

the centre” as the focus of what we do and of all the on-going life commitments we make in each of our

communities every day. For this reason, for the holistic salvation of the young, the Gospel and our charism are

requiring us to pursue the issue of human rights; it is a new way and a new language that we cannot neglect. We

must leave no stone unturned for the salvation of youth. Nowadays we could not look a child straight in the eyes if

we were not also engaged in promoting his human rights.

The preventive system and human rights interact and enrich one another. The preventive system offers human

rights a unique and innovative educational approach in regard to the movement for the promotion and the

protection of human rights, a feature of which until now has been condemnation “after the event”

- condemnations of violations already committed. The preventive system offers human rights a preventative

education, in other words proposals and action to be carried out “beforehand”.

As believers we can say that the preventive system offers human rights a view of the human race which is inspired

by the spirituality of the gospels and which sees as the foundation of human rights the objective fact of the dignity

of each individual “without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other

opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”[12]

At the same time human rights provide the preventive system with new frontiers and opportunities for dialogue

and for collaboration in networking with others in order to identify and to remove the causes of injustice, evil and

violence. In addition, human rights offer the preventive system new frontiers and opportunities to have a social

and cultural influence as an effective response to the “drama of modern humanity, of the separation between

education and society, the gap between schooling and citizenship.”[13]

In the new globalised context, human rights become one of the means capable of going beyond narrow national

boundaries in order to set shared limits and objectives, create alliances and strategies and mobilise human and

economic resourses.

7. To be read. The Preventive System in the education of the young, the Letter from Rome, the Lives of Dominic

Savio, Michael Magone, Francis Besucco, are all writings of Don Bosco which illustrate well both his experience

as an educator and the choice of his pedagogical methods. These books in fact were written so that we might come

to know our dear founder and father’s pedagogical and educational sensitivity, what was dear to him in putting

young people at the centre of things, in helping them take the lead in their own formation, the atmosphere to be

created to ensure success in education. From this point of view, the biographies become three methods which are

different according to the starting point for each of these three boys from the Valdocco Oratory, and suited to their

needs. For Don Bosco it was necessary to start from where each boy was without waiting for some ideal situation

to arise, concentrating on the values and attitudes they brought with them and setting goals to be reached.

CONCLUSION

I conclude this commentary on the Strenna for 2013 with a poem sent by a Salesian confrere from India. The text

expresses very well what true education really is, especially since it is seen and described in the words of a child

who tells his mother what is going through his mind and stays in his heart as he watches what she does. As I read

the poem I was reminded of what John Bosco said about Mamma Margaret.

In fact the practical atmosphere that education created at Valdocco, and which nowadays is spread around the

world has its roots in Don Bosco’s childhood lived in the austere and solid setting of the Becchi, and especially of

the people around him. Don Bosco himself said: “They ask me how I educate the boys. I bring them up as my

mother brought us up in the family. I don’t know any other way.”

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Mamma Margaret was Don Bosco’s first and the best educator. Having been left a widow she knew how to show

her sons the demanding love of a father and the gentle and selfless love of a mother. From her Don Bosco learned

those values and attitudes that he used with his boys, and that as the years passed became the foundation of his

pedagogy left to his Salesians:

· An active.presence Salesian assistance is not just supervision; it is a presence that makes the boy feel he is

loved; which shares with him the taste for working and growing together while making him the protagonist.

· Daily work. Taught by his experience of a peasant's work in the fields of the Becchi and with the Moglias,

Don Bosco loved to tell his boys: “A lazy boy will always be a donkey,” “Whoever does not get used to work in his

youth, will pretty well always be an idler to his old age.” At Valdocco laziness was not tolerated and work

alternated with prayer, play and learning.

· The sense of God. Mamma Margaret was for John also a teacher of religion: she prepared him for

confession and for first communion, and above all she taught him to recognise the presence of God in ordinary

daily life, in creation, in the joyful and the sad events of life. Observing her generosity towards the poor and

needy, the future priest gradually acquired a religious piety capable of becoming at the appropriate time practical,

simple and genuine charity.

· Reason synonymous with dialogue. Peasant wisdom gave the expression “let’s talk about it” different

meanings; it was used for having a discussion, explaining one’s ideas, arriving at an agreed shared decision which

was taken without anyone wanting to impose his own point of view. Subsequently, Don Bosco made the term

“reason” one of the supporting columns of his educational method. From this point of view the conversation

between Dominic Savio and Don Bosco is indeed an agreement about education which guided the young saint in

his commitment: “So, I am the cloth and you are the tailor; take me with you then and make me into a beautiful

garment for the Lord.”

In this light of this memory, this poem becomes a message for every adult aware of being an educator, since

children and youngsters watch and do what you do, not what you say.

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING