4194(II)_Letter to Elderly and Sick Confreres

November 11, 2016

By Fr. Guillermo Basanes, SDB
General Councilor for the Missions

Generalate, Rome, 11 November 2016 -- To the eldery and sick confreres and to confreres who for various reasons are unable to be involved in direct educative-pastoral activity.

Dear confreres

Cordial greetings from the Generalate, the house of the Successor of Don Bosco.

I want to say to you, also on behalf of the Rector Major, a sincere thank you for your closeness and for your affection, but above all, for your fraternal prayer for Fr Ángel Fernández, for the whole Congregation and in particular, for all the missions and all the missionaries of the world.

Since GC27 chose me to be Councillor for the Missions, I have relied frequently on the prayers of so many confreres who are elderly, sick or who are unable to be involved in direct educational missionary work.

You know that our Constitutions ask the Councillor for the Missions “to promote throughout the Society the missionary spirit and commitment” (C 138). This also requires much prayer! For this reason the Missions Sector has promoted throughout the Congregation, in the light of the missionary intentions of the Holy Father, the Salesian prayer intentions for each month.

Especially in recent times we have entrusted the missions and missionaries to the prayers of confreres who are in the various infirmaries of the Congregation. In fact, since 2014, every 11th of the month we of the Missions Sector go to the infirmary of the Pontifical Salesian University, here in Rome, to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with those who are confined there. At that moment we feel in close communion with all of you, dear elderly and sick confreres. And why the 11th of the month? You already know it. It is the monthly memoria of the first Missionary Expedition of the Congregation, the one sent by Don Bosco himself on a day like today, 11 November 1875.

The seventh successor of Don Bosco taught us in his beautiful letter “ Martyrdom and passion ” (Fr Egidio Viganò, in ACS 308):

“Sick confreres were for Don Bosco, a kind of ‘paschal mediation’, for obtaining the blessings of the Lord on the apostolic activities of the community. Sufferings accepted in the spirit of the ‘da mihi animas’, do not exclude the confrere from the pastoral campaign; in fact they place him in the very front trenches and invest him with a distinctive role. Our active asceticism does not teach us to bypass or eliminate affliction; it accepts it and turns it to good account by transforming it into a means of salvation.”

Furthermore, suffering accepted as a participation in the mystery of Christ has an important apostolic value. Naturally it brings with it a certain distress that is understandable (after all, Christ himself was "sad even unto death"); but there is also a deep and vibrant joy in being a participant in the redeeming mission of the Savior.

Dear confrere, with these few words and powerful thoughts, finally with all my heart I wanted to tell you two things: a big thank you and also, that we count on you! A big thank you for your fidelity and for your testimony, for your patience and for your generous daily contribution to the Congregation and its mission, for all the souls whom you have helped and still help to save. And at the same time, to tell you that we rely so much on you, on your prayers and on your patient daily offering, especially with Jesus in the Eucharist. Through your prayer and offering I entrust to you this year two special intentions:

- First, for all the novices of the Congregation, scattered in each of the seven regions, who are discerning their missionary vocation ad gentes, so that they may not be afraid to give themselves to the Lord once and for all and to place themselves at the disposal of the Rector Major to go as missionaries;

- Secondly, for our missionary presence in the Americas, especially among the indigenous peoples who are the poorest and most abandoned. This is, in fact, the theme of the Salesian Missions Day 2017. For this occasion we have also prepared a special prayer which I entrust to you, dear confrere, in the name of Don Bosco.

May Mary's maternal consolation be your inspiration and your support every day of your Salesian life.

Thank you!

Fr. Guillermo Basanes