4677(I)_House Chronicles, Small steps with a great effect
Chronicle shows how God was always our guide
March 23, 2018
EAO, 22 March 2018 -- Every day one simple entry, seven times a week and 365 times every year. This is the daily life of our House Chronicles. In most of our communities is the Rector who writes. Maybe it's a daily 'penance', but brings many long lasting fruits. As one provincial writes in the Chronicle during his canonical visitation (ITM 2008): "The Chronicle need to be more complete. There are many 'empty dates'... long periods without 'news'. I guess that from February to November in 3 pages is too little.Chronicles are very important for our Congregation where the sense of history left by Don Bosco is one of our most outstanding characteristics."
There are few pages about the importance and way how to keep the Chronicles (link for download is below). Good chronicle is not only the diary, but should offer a good insight into the community life and mission, so that next generation may learn from our experience recorded in photos and writings.
House Chronicle is among the most visible sign of our strong or weak sense of belonging to the Congregation. We come a go to specific community, but the Chronicle remains and help our successor as Don Bosco was convinced:
"I see this work as very useful to those who will follow after us and as redounding to God’s greater glory. And so I shall strive to continue writing” (cf. BM XII, 52). And the same idea is repeated by Don Bosco in his introduction to the Memoirs of the Oratory: “To whom will this work be of use? It will serve as a guide for overcoming future difficulties by past experiences; it will show how God has always been our guide in everything… (MO, p. 16)."
Also today, before going to sleep....
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