austraLasia 1692

Don Bosco's dreams examined - another resource for the English-speaking world

NEW ROCHELLE: 18th November 2006 -- It seems people are in a generous mood at the moment, and English-speaking readers of austraLasia are reaping the benefits. Yesterday's publication of a sample collection of prayers from the Project of Life gained an immediate response with letters coming in from Japan, Philippines, Australia.  The entire collection is now available in zipped form from Bosconet home page.
    Now another offer - Fr Mike Mendl from the US (New Rochelle) is offering some of his extensive work in textual study of original Salesian materials.  He offers us a detailed study of Don Bosco's dreams and a sample interpretation of the Dream of the Two Columns.  The former item was prepared as an introduction to a proposed new edition of  Dreams, Visions and Prophecies of Don Bosco, ed. Eugene Brown - many would recall the first edition.  When the proposed new edition did not go ahead, Mike then published the introduction in Journal of Salesian Studies 12 (2004), no. 2, pp. 321-348.  The second item is based on a talk he gave at a Congress in Colombus, Ohio, in 1997.  But the two go nicely together.
    The advantage of viewing these two items from Bosconet (available for now in the 'What's New' section) is that they were converted, without too much difficulty, into html and nicely arranged so you can click your way through the sections, the footnotes, and always end up returning to where you left off reading.  You can also, if you wish, save the entire file quickly for offline reading.  That takes just seconds to achieve.  For those intending to take part in the Salesianity week in Thailand in January, the longer study of Don Bosco's Dreams may well be helpful, even though the focus of that week will be on the Memoirs of the Oratory.
    The availability of scholarly material in English is an urgency well noted at all levels of the Congregation starting from the Rector Major and his Council.  The last two days demonstrate that Salesians in the English-speaking world are at least continuing to do their bit to spread this material where it can be made available, sometimes in quite creative ways.
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