What a gift, time!
The start of a new year in our liturgy, is enlightened by the
ancient blessing with which the Israelite priests used to
bless the people: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May
the Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord look upon you with kindness and give you peace.

Dear friends and readers of the Salesian Bulletin, we are at
the beginning of a new year. Let us express our best wishes to
each other for this new year and for all the time that lies
ahead. Let our greetings be a gift that contains all other
gifts for a truly fulfilling life.
Let this wish be really enlightening. Let us let Don Bosco
who, when he arrived at the seminary in Chieri stopped in
front of the sundial that still exists today in the courtyard,
and reflected: Looking up at a sundial, I read this verse:
Afflictis lentae, celeres gaudentibus horae. Here, I said to
my friend, is our program of life: let us always be cheerful
and time will pass quickly (Biographical Memoirs I, 374).
Our first wish to all of you is to live what Don Bosco reminds
us: live well, live serenely, and bring serenity to all those
around you and time will acquire a different value! Every
moment in time is a treasure; but it is a treasure that passes
quickly. Don Bosco always loved to comment: The three enemies
of man are: death (which surprises); time (which escapes him),
the devil (who lays his snares to entice him) (MB V, 926).
According to an old saying: Remember that being happy is not
having a sky without storms, a road without accidents, work
without effort, and relationships without disappointments.
Being happy is not just celebrating successes, but learning
lessons from failures. Being happy is recognizing that life is
worth living, despite all the challenges, misunderstandings,
and periods of crisis. It is thanking God every morning for
the miracle of life.

A wise man kept a huge pendulum clock in his study that chimed
every hour with solemn slowness, but also with a resounding
echo.
But doesnt it disturb you? asked a student.
No, replied the wise man. Because at every hour I am forced
to ask myself: what have I done with the hour that has just
passed?
Time is the only non-renewable resource. It consumes itself at
an incredible speed. We know that we will not have another
chance. Therefore, all the good we can do, all the love we can
give, all the kindness and the gentleness we are capable of
must be given now. Because we will not return to this earth
again. With a perpetual veil of remorse within us, we feel
that Someone will ask us: What have you done with all that
time I gave you?

Our hope is called Jesus.
In this new year that we have just begun, the dates and
numbers of a calendar are conventional signs; they are signs
and numbers invented to measure time. In the transition from
the old year to the new year, very little has changed. Yet the
perception of a year that is ending forces us to always take
stock. How much have we loved? How much have we lost? How much
have we become better? How much have we become worse? Passing
time never leaves us the same.
The liturgy, at the dawn of the new year, has its own way of
making us take stock. It does so through the initial words of
the Gospel of John words that may seem to be difficult to
grasp, but actually reflect the depth of life: In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was in the beginning with God: all things
were made through him, and without him nothing was made that
was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men;
the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not
comprehend it. At the core of every life resounds a Word
greater than us. It is the reason for our existence, for the
existence of the world, for the existence of everything. This

Word is God Himself the Son. This Word is Jesus. The name of
the reason why we were made is called Jesus.
He is the true reason for which everything exists, and it is
in him that we can understand what exists. Our life should not
be judged by comparing it with history, with its events, and
with its way of thinking. Our life cannot be judged by looking
at ourselves and at our own experience alone. Our life is
understandable only if it is approached from the perspective
of Jesus. In him everything takes on a profound sense of
meaning. Even the apparent contradictions and injustices are
seen in a different light. It is by looking at Jesus that we
come to get a deeper insight into ourselves. A psalm says it
well: In your light, we see light.
This is the way to see Time according to the Heart of God, and
we hope to live this new time in this way.
The new year will bring to all of us, to the Salesian family,
and to the Congregation in particular important events and
novelties. All in the context of the gift of the Jubilee that
we are living in the Church!
Within the spirit of the Jubilee, let us be carried away by
the Hope that is the presence of God in our lives.
The first month of this new year, January, is dotted with
Salesian feasts that lead us to the Solemnity of Don Bosco.
Let us thank God for this delightful dish with which he allows
us to begin this new year.
Let us therefore leave the last word to Don Bosco and let this
maxim of his shape our 2025: My children, preserve time and
time will preserve you forever. (MB XVIII 482, 864).