austraLasia #3332
DB:
The
Priest, The Man, The Times
An
old favourite back in print
BOLTON: 16
December
2013
-- Given all the interest in Don Bosco the man,
the saint,
the educator and the erudite studies now available (including
in
English) we would not want to forget that the power of the
written word
often shows through and convinces rather more in simple
narrative than
in academic discourse. Proof of this was Don Bosco himself, of
course.
Fr Bill Ainsworth, who died in 2005 at 97 years of age, and
was much
beloved in many parts of the English-speaking Salesian world,
was a
writer in that narrative tradition. Don Bosco Publications UK
has
chosen to reprint his Don Bosco The Priest, The Man, The
Times.
In 1966 Fr Ainsworth came to Australia, to be
part of the
formation team at the Studentate, amongst other things. He
also, I
recall well, came to Tasmania (which is part of Australia, one
hastens
to add - but delightfully idiosyncratic in style and climate).
I
recall it because I was in practical training and 'Fr Bill',
as we knew
him, endeared himself to us 'mere clerics' very much indeed.
We learned
many things from him but two I recall in particular.
On one occasion, on a drive up Mount Wellington overlooking
Hobart, and
which reminded him very much of a similar scene in Cape Town,
he wanted
to know the story behind the road that led to the summit. We
had to
confess we knew little about that and his reply was 'Make it
up, then',
and he launched into an impromptu pseudo-history of the Mt
Wellington
summit road which included, amongst other characters, the
Gingerbread
Man! He was never short of a story.
The second occasion was on a wild, wet winter's night beside
the fire
at Swansea on Tasmania's East Coast, in what had been an old
inn during
convict days but was then given over to summer camps for kids.
He
showed us how to mull beer! We were horrified of course. Fancy
plunging
a red hot poker into a cold Aussie beer! But with that out of
the way,
once again it came down to stories around the fireside and
frequent
trips to the municipal library, as much to chat to the
librarian and
the church organist as for anything else.
The same Fr Ainsworth published his Don Bosco The Priest, The
Man, The
Times in 1988 for the Centenary celebrations of Don Bosco's
death. So
it is appropriate that Don Bosco
Publications
has chosen to reprint this delightful book about Don Bosco as
we lead
up to the bicentenary celebrations for Don Bosco's birth.
You might believe you know Don Bosco well - have read just
about all
the stories and anecdotes about him that there are to read. If
so, be
prepared for a surprise! and trust Fr Bill too - he might have
been
prepared to introduce to the Gingerbread Man into a bit of
local Tassie
history, but he has been far more circumspect about Don Bosco.
Yet he
had an eye for detail, and the stories that perhpas we skipped
over and
di not really notice.
There is
something expansive about Fr Ainsworth's way of narrating Don
Bosco
that avoids the triumphalistic or the super-hero, while
leaving us in
no doubt that Don Bosco was a triumph of God's grace and a
hero we can
follow. Look at this passage, for example:
Don Bosco in these years was not the only pebble on the beach,
as if
Our lady and all Heaven were concentrating their interest and
benevolence only on that rather murky district of Valdocco.
Wonderful
indeed as their help to Don Bosco was, he was by no means the
only
builder of great churches to the glory of God; he was not the
only
priest caring for social misfits, not the only one working in
hospitals
and prisons, running oratories, running evening classes.
During the
very times we have been describing, four great parish church
went up in
the city of Turin all the work of dedicated, hardworking
devout priests
and people. One church, with its various parochial buildings,
cost
almost 500,000 lire more than Don Bosco's Sanctuary. The
spirit of God
is active everywhere, fruitful in creation. Well, we can't
tell
everybody's tale, but while we concentrate on Don Bosco's, we
acknowledge with admiration the work of many other great men
and women
of God.
We can't tell everybody's tale, but ... and in so doing he has
told us
so much abotu Don Bosco! Pick up a copy from DBP!
