austraLasia #2426

Starting again - with a sure and beautifully produced guide

BOLTON (UK): 29th May 2009 -- The English-speaking Salesian world has been very fortunate in recent times; indeed in recent months. I am speaking of the growing availability of quality material on Salesianity. It is a little bit like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! That is what came to mind when Starting Again from Don Bosco eventually found its way to my desk through the 'snailmail' muddle.
    The golden embossed bust of the Founder is but the initial delight when you open this 139 page product of at least two people - Fr Ian Murdoch, former Provincial of the Australia-Pacific Province, who crafted its contents almost to his last breath (Ian died in January this year), and Fr Tony Bailey of Don Bosco Publications UK, who has lovingly and expertly seen to its publication. In today's world of visual communication, Tony has taken what was essentially a spoken set of Retreat Conferences which had enormous impact when they were delivered a little over a year ago, and conveyed that through an 'old' medium that can stand up powerfully, when someone knows his onions, to the 'new'.
    The contents! You are unlikely to find - in fact you will not find - as succinct, as deeply pondered, gently provocative, humbly Salesian (you barely find an 'I' anywhere) alive and rich a work as this set of reflections on Don Bosco and today's Salesian.  And one sees too, how it is the work of a trained historian. As Ian puts it at one point: "It's important to get our own history right before we start building castles of Salesianity and spirituality in the air". Ian might have been an expert on aspects of the Mediaeval Church, but when he turns the same tools to the historical Don Bosco, he does so with today's awareness. There is no better example than when he takes the Companion of Youth, shows how even across the apostolic life-span of Don Bosco there was a development of ideas, then intersperses his analysis of its contents with reflections from the Australian sociological study of youthful religiosity in The Spirit of Generation Y: Young People's Spirituality in a changing Australia.  Ian had involved his own province in this study.
    Ian was not just a country boy; he came from the fringes of the Great Australian desert, at least as the crow flies. I have the sense that he explores Don Bosco like he explored the range country, any country in fact (he loved to trek and tramp); a way of 'writing' the landscape, if you like. Here is an example. He takes the initial dream, notes young Bosco's conjuring skills then says:
    "One of the conjuring tricks Don Bosco plays on us in Memoirs of the Oratory is to tell us the dream of his boyhood in such a way that it fades, melts and dissolves from Turin with its slums and streets and squares, to Chieri with its Churches and very pretty provincial market-town appearance, to Becchi, the open fields and countryside and the little house, the place of the dream". 
See what I mean?
    Starting Again from Don Bosco does not dodge the messy bits. Some things he takes a guess at - why did Don Bosco put 'Da Mihi Animas...' over the door lintel? "Don Bosco, never slow to see a good photo op". Well.... in 1854 or thereabouts he might have been!
    Other things he takes a pot-shot at:
    "obedience, poverty, chastity.....even for GC26 evangelical poverty was singled out again and a precious opportunity to place our evangelical obedience under the microscope was missed". 
    And at yet other times he just flies kites (wonderfully illustrated, by the way, Tony, despite your struggles with the odd Aussie 'fair go'!). And while Francis Motto might not use quite the same terms, he might agree with Ian's description of the Biographical Memoirs as that 'big baggy monster'!
    Yes. Friends, Romans too, along with fellow-countrymen will read this book and marvel at its insights, feel warmed at times and disturbed at others, but any Salesian who understands a modicum of English should not fear to tackle this book. The rewards will be immense. Its first but definitely not only audience is the Australian-Pacific Salesian and those from the UK, since that's where Ian preached this material, but no doubt Don Bosco Publications has published in bulk enough to satisfy much wider demand - which there will be. Why not pop along to joyce@salesians.org.uk and see what your chances are.

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 AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific.  It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome.  For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there.  Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org

Title: australasia 2426
Subject and key words: SDB General: Starting Again - Ian Murdoch
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2426