To Fr Vittorio Alasonatti, Avigliana

E I, 143

Invitation to leave Avigliana to come and ‘break bread together, both physical and spiritual’ with the young people of Valdocco

Turin, 1853

My good friend,

if you want to follow God’s voice, silence the voice of nature and your affections for now. God awaits you here. I can’t promise you anything other than work, but I guarantee you will be greatly rewarded in heaven. Take courage, follow the example of the Apostles, and come where the Lord is calling you.

I am invited to go now to this town and now to that town to preach triduums, novenas, or exercises; but I dare not move from here, not knowing to whom I should leave my house.

How much good we will be able to do! I do not have the authority to tell you: Sequere me; but I do have the authority to remind you that God needs you to come and serve him in Turin, for the benefit of these hundreds of children who are waiting for someone to break bread with them, both for their physical and spiritual nourishment. [...]

Fr John Bosco