ROME: 24th April -- A vigil of prayer tonight raised the curtain on what the Rector Major described as one of the most glorious moments in Salesian history.  More than a thousand members of the Salesian Family packed Don Bosco's own Church in Rome, Sacred Heart, on a warm Spring evening, and heard Fr. Pascual Chavez say that last night, as he slept in a room Don Bosco himself had often slept in, he prayed to be able to dream his dream - a dream of holiness for so many of the young and those who are with them in all those characteristic ways given us by Don Bosco.

 

Fr. Augusto, Sr. Eusebia and Alexandrina were all Salesian in their particular circumstances; priest, sister and cooperator.  Fr. Chavez reminded the family gathered from all over the world that 'Salesian' is not so much an adjective as a noun, and a noun that speaks of the person.  The three did not add 'Salesian' descriptively to life - they were Salesian in all the particularities of their life lived the way Don Bosco had modelled it.  They lived life as man, woman, younger, older, according to the logic of the Cross and with Salesian sensitivity.  They are masterpieces of the Holy Spirit.  It is now our task to live out our mission which is, simply put, to live out the fullness of God's love in us too.

 

The Mother General of the Salesian Sisters and the Central Coordinator of the Salesian Cooperators added their own joyful thanks to the Rector Major's words, and the entire Congregation responded with applause and, finally, the stirring Salesian evergreen 'Don Bosco Ritorna'.

 

Tomorrow, the three models of Salesian holiness from the three branches of the Family founded directly by Don Bosco, will be presented to to the Universal Church in the ceremony of Beatification in St. Peter's Square.