A heart as big as the shores
of the sea
A new time is given to us: from the Heart of God to the heart
of humanity, reflecting Don Boscos great heart.

Dear friends and readers,
In this December issue I address you with best wishes for a
new year! For a new time given to us to live intensely and
with newness of life, and I make the gift that the Holy
Father has given us in recent days my own, as a propitious and
timely wish: the Encyclical Letter Dilexit Nos on the human
and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.
We Salesians are used to singing: God has given you a heart
as big / as the sands of the sea. / God has given you his
spirit: / he has released your love.
Pope Pius XI, who knew him well, said that Don Bosco had a
beautiful speciality: he was a great lover of souls and
saw them in the thoughts, in the heart, in the blood of Our
Lord Jesus Christ. After all, there is a burning heart in the
coat of arms of our Congregation.
Pope Francis introduces himself thus in No. 2 of Dilexit Nos:
The symbol of the heart has often been used to express the
love of Jesus Christ. Some have questioned whether this symbol
is still meaningful today. Yet living as we do in an age of
superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another
without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable
consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned
about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to
rediscover the importance of the heart.
How powerful this indication from our Pope is, as he shows us
a new way of living in a new time that is given to us, the
upcoming year.
In no. 21, Pope Francis writes: This profound core, present
in every man and woman, is not that of the soul, but of the

entire person in his or her unique psychosomatic identity.
Everything finds its unity in the heart, which can be the
dwelling-place of love in all its spiritual, psychic and even
physical dimensions. In a word, if love reigns in our heart,
we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are
meant to be, for every human being is created above all else
for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to
love and to be loved.
And he adds in number 27 of the same Encyclical Letter:
Before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind,
enlightened by the Spirit, grows in the understanding of his
words and our will is moved to put them into practice. This
could easily remain on the level of a kind of self-reliant
moralism. Hearing and tasting the Lord, and paying him due
honour, however, is a matter of the heart. Only the heart is
capable of setting our other powers and passions, and our
entire person, in a stance of reverence and loving obedience
before the Lord.
I will not quote more, hoping to have whetted your appetite to
read this splendid Encyclical Letter which is not only a great
gift for living the time that is given to us in a new way, and
that would already be sufficient; it is also a profoundly
Salesian indication.
How much Don Bosco wrote and worked on spreading devotion to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus as divine love that accompanies our
human situation.

A magnificent drive
We find the following, referring to Don Bosco, in the
Biographical Memoirs, volume VIII, 129,: A most ardent
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus animated all his
activities and rendered his familiar talks fruitful and his
sermons and priestly ministry persuasive. Seemingly, the
Sacred Heart helped him also by special charisms as he went
about his arduous mission. (Testimony referring to Fr
Bonetti)
This testimony of Don Boscos devotion to the Sacred Heart is

manifestly identified with the Basilica of the same name built
by Don Bosco in Rome at the request of the Pope of the time.
The physical building recalls and reminds us all of Don
Boscos monumental devotion to the Sacred Heart. Just as it
was with Our Lady, so it was with the Sacred Heart; Don
Boscos devotion is manifested in the churches he built,
because devotion to the Sacred Heart is the Eucharist,
Eucharistic worship.
Don Boscos heart in constant love with the Eucharist: this
becomes a magnificent personal impetus to make this something
living and true in the new year, a true and profound wish for
the New Year fully lived. As the hymn continues: You have
formed men / of sound and strong heart: / you have sent them
out into the world to proclaim / the Gospel of joy.
I would like to conclude this brief message by wishing
everyone a Happy New Year with the image that Pope Francis
gives us in the first pages of the encyclical, referring to
his grandmothers teachings on the meaning of the name of
carnival sweets, the busie or lies& When she dropped the
strips of batter into the oil, they would expand, but then,
when we bit into them, they were empty inside. Like lies,
they look big, but are empty inside; they are false, unreal.
May the New Year be full and rich in substance for all of us,
becoming real in the acceptance of God who comes among us.
May his coming bring peace and truth, and may what is seen
from the outside correspond to what is inside!
Heartfelt best wishes to you all!