austraLasia #2408
Unwrapping the gift of the Preventive System
MELBOURNE: 5th May 2009 -- On the weekend of 1-3 May the
Australia-Pacific Province celebrated the 150th anniversary of the
Salesians with a gathering of 60 senior leaders from schools across the
province. The occasion was the biennial Salesian Educational Leaders
Conference hosted by the Salesian Principals Association of Australia,
and the theme was Educating with the heart of Don Bosco.
The keynote speaker at the Conference was Fr David
O'Malley SDB, Vice Provincial of the Great Britain Province (GBR) and
Chaplain at Salesian College Thornleigh, near Manchester. A consummate
teacher, Fr David has many years of direct experience in youth ministry
and has written extensively on the topic. All the conference delegates
appreciated his deep insights, borne out of his reflections on his
pastoral practice.
Over the course of the four main sessions, which
took the form of interactive conversations, Fr David unwrapped the gift
of the Preventive System, which he described using the analogy of the
iceberg: "what you get is more than what you see!"
At the external, visible level the Preventive System
is a series of techniques. Even those who do not share our faith
commitment to the evangelisation of the young can engage with young
people using Respect, Understanding, Affection and Humour (RUAH).
'Ruah', however, is the Hebrew word for the breath of God, the Spirit
who pervades and animates the whole of creation, revealing life and the
presence of God. Here we see the Preventive System as a Spirituality.
The experience of working with young people moves us beyond the
material and the mundane to ask questions about the meaning of life and
the purpose of our existence. Here we touch the mystery of life and
this opens up the possibility of encountering the presence of God. It
is in contemplating the person of Jesus Christ that we discover the
Preventive System as gospel. A Salesian reading of the gospels reveals
Jesus the Good Shepherd, who is preventive par excellence. It
is in Jesus' relationship with humanity - revealed in his saving us
from meaninglessness, his gifting us with the fullness of life and his
care of the little ones and the poor - that we discover Jesus as the
model of the Preventive System.
Fr O'Malley's final session was a hands-on extended
meditation using Don Bosco's Hat (his biretta) to explore the mind of
Don Bosco and 'get inside his head'. All participants walked away
with their very own biretta!
The formal input sessions were interspersed with a
series of prayer experiences, the first of which included a series of
skits exploring the theme "Educating with the Heart of Don Bosco'. Year
11 boys from Salesian College, Chadstone, performed the prayerful
dramatic reflections which were written by Ron Ruzzier, Director of
Student Wellbeing at this multicultural school of 900 boys in the south
eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
The penultimate session of the Conference was a
Panel Discussion during which Bishop Tim Costelloe SDB (Auxiliary
Bishop of Melbourne), Fr Frank Moloney (Provincial) and Fr David
O'Malley responded to questions from the floor. The conference closed
with the celebration of the Eucharist during which the Provincial
challenged each school to take up the Rector Major's proposal of
forming or enhancing a core apostolic action group within each school
after the manner of Don Bosco's founding of the Salesians.
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Title: australasia 2408
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces: AUL Preventive System
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2408
