They had hoped to bury Don Bosco's body in the church of Mary Help of Christians. That was not possible. They got permission to do so beyond city boundaries at the house at Valsalice which had been a study centre for young Salesians for some time. This was a blessing. For forty years, the younger generation of the Congregation had the good fortune to be able to pray daily over their Father's graveside while being prepared for the Salesian mission.

Saturday 4 February 1888, at 5.30 p.m. was when the burial took place. There wasn't the crowd that had attended the public funeral rites which took place on the Wednesday before. Only the small group of Superiors, the Mother General of the FMA and two sisters, and 120 Salesian clerics. Archbishop Cagliero in the name of the Superior Council entrusted this valuable 'deposit' to the Salesians at Valsalice. He asked them to look after it well, and to go to the spot where he was buried often, “to be inspired and to renew their fervour by practising the virtues of he whose remains were contained there”. Just as “the early Christians took courage to fight for the faith, suffer and die for Jesus Christ and fortified themselves at the tombs of the martyrs …, so too may you, we, everyone come often to this tomb and draw the strength from it that that sustained our Don Bosco during his toughest undertakings working for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and warm ourselves with the fire of love which was always burning within and made him an apostle, not only in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, but in the furthest regions of this earth”³.

Fr Rua spoke as well: "Divine Providence is entrusting custody of this sepulchre to us", he said, addressing himself to the Salesians. Therefore show yourselves worthy of this good fortune, and by practising Don Bosco's virtues you can make him happy to be here amidst you in body, like a father amidst his children".⁴

Some days later, the Rector Major sent a circular letter to the Rectors: "Dear confreres, adopting the advice given us by a pious and kindly Cooperator, from now on our watchword and motto will be: The children's holiness will be proof of the Father's holiness; this will increase our beloved Don Bosco's joy, whom we trust has been welcomed into the Father's bosom, while also redounding to our great spiritual benefit".⁵

On 19 March, after the Holy See had confirmed his appointment as Rector Major, Fr Rua described his guidelines for governing:

“We ought consider that we are very fortunate to be sons of such a Father. Therefore we must be solicitous in shouldering and in time further developing the work he began, faithfully following the methods he practised and taught, and in our way of speaking and acting seek to imitate the model that the Lord in his goodness has given us. This, my dear sons, will be the programme I will be following while in office; let this also be the studied goal of every Salesian”⁶.

He was not only speaking a necessary task in that particular moment of transition. It was an indication of a process destined to mark the entire history of the Congregation, to guide the activity of successive generations of Salesians. It is the programme followed by Don Bosco's best disciples at any time and in any geographical latitude, until today, as a characteristic feature of charismatic fidelity.

Fr Rua was only taking up Don Bosco's magisterium, where he had constantly insisted on religious observance, a modest lifestyle, prayerful reflection and inwardness as dynamic elements of fidelity to the Salesian mission and identity.

From the time he founded the Congregation until his final days, Don Bosco had clearly pointed out the path to follow:

“Our Congregation has a happy future prepared for it by Divine Providence and its glory will endure so long as our rules are observed",he writes in his “spiritual testament” –. When the desire for ease and comfort grows amongst us, our pious Society will have run its course. The world will always welcome us as long as all our concern is for under-developed peoples, for poor children, the members of society most at risk. This is our real wealth which no one will envy and no one will take from us. … When it happens that a Salesian yields up his life whilst working for souls, you can say that our Congregation has registered a great triumph and that on it will descend in abundance the blessings of Heaven”⁷.

All of this comes from his austere, radical view of religious life. The consecrated individual offers God a total, generous, unconditional gift of self. He wrote this in his introduction to the Constitutions: the vows are like “so many spiritual cords by which we consecrate ourselves to the Lord and place our will, our goods, our physical and moral faculties in the power of the superior, so that we may all form but one heart and soul in order to promote the greater glory of God”⁸. Whoever feels he is not able to keep them should not make them, or should at least defer professing them until he feels in his heart that he is firmly resolved to keep them”. This is an “heroic” consecration which we need to prepare well for; “but once we have done so, let us try to maintain it, even at the cost of long and serious sacrifice”⁹.

This is a way of understanding the view Don Bosco has of the Salesian.

His obedience ought follow the example of Jesus, “who practised it even in the most difficult things, even to death on the cross, and should the glory of God demand as much from us, we also ought be obedient, even to the point of sacrificing our lives”. Obedience characterised, however, by Salesian loving kindness: obeying “willingly and promptly” showing ourselves to be “compliant even in things which are most difficult and contrary to self-love”, doing them “courageously, even at the cost of pain and sacrifice“The kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and the violent are taking it by storm” (Mt 11:12)¹⁰.

Salesian poverty is, “literally”, possessing nothing, “making ourselves poor to become rich with Jesus Christ … who was born into poverty, lived deprived of all things and died stripped of his clothes on the cross”. It is to be practised from the Gospel point of view of following Christ, as radical, but real detachment: “All that is beyond food and clothing is superfluous for us and contrary to a religious vocation. It is true that at times we shall have to suffer some inconvenience on our journeys, at work, in times of health and in sickness; we shall sometimes have food, clothing or other things not to our liking; but it is precisely then that we ought to bear in mind that we have made profession of poverty and that if we wish to have its merit and reward we ought to bear with its consequences”¹¹.

Chastity, “an extremely necessary virtue, a great virtue, crowning all the others …, and very much besieged by the enemy of our souls”¹², is not only an essential aspect of consecrated life, but an essential virtue for the Salesian who must deal “lovingly” with abandoned youth: “Whoever does not have the well-founded hope, with divine help, of preserving this virtue in words, works, thoughts, should not enrol in this Congregation, because he would be exposed at every step to great danger”¹³.

And fraternal charity is the vital lymph of Salesian communities: “When this brotherly love reigns in a community and all the members love one another and each one enjoys the other's good, as if it were his own, well then, this house becomes paradise …. But as soon as self love and there are rifts and disagreements between members, then the house becomes like hell”. So we need to live “united in heart and mind, serving God and helping one another in charity”. Fleeing murmuring, gossip, jokes that can irritate our confreres, quarrels and conflicts. Showing ourselves always to be “affable and gentle in manner to everybody”. Reigning in our anger, avoiding “unpleasant words”, “a haughty and harsh manner”. Generously forgiving and immediately asking for forgiveness when we make a mistake. And beyond this: “Do not content yourself with just loving your companions with words only, but go out to help them with whatever kind of service you can render”¹⁴.

In his first circular Letter to Salesians (9 June 1867, Pentecost Sunday), Don Bosco felt the need to clarify for his confreres what the “general purpose of our Society” was. It is an important document that is well worth taking the time to read:

“The first object of our Society is the sanctification of its members. Therefore each one on entering will strip himself of every other thought, every other concern. Whoever enters to enjoy a tranquil life, have comfort and pursue studies, be freed from his parents' commands or be exempt from obedience to some superior, would have a twisted purpose and his would no longer be that Sequere me of the Saviour's, since he would be following his own temporal interests and not the good of souls.

“The apostles were praised by the Saviour and were promised an eternal kingdom not because they abandoned the world, but because by abandoning it they showed themselves ready to follow him along the way of tribulation, as in fact happened, consuming their life with fatigue, penance and suffering, and eventually suffering martyrdom for the faith.

“Nor is it a good purpose for one who enters or remains in the Society who believes he is necessary for it. Let each one have this firmly etched on his mind and in his heart: beginning from the general superior down to the least of the members: no one is necessary in the Society. God alone is its head, its absolutely necessary master. Therefore its members must turn to their head, their true master, the one who will reward them, to God, and let each one enrol in the Society out of love for him; out of love for him work, obey, abandon whatever he possesses in the world in order to be able to say to the Saviour whom we have chosen as a model: ecce nos reliquimus [omnia] et secuti sumus te, quid ergo dabis nobis? …

“Whoever seeks an easy and comfortable life does not enter our Society for a good purpose. Our basis is the words of the Saviour who says: whoever wants to be my disciple, let him sell what he owns in the world, give it to the poor and follow me. But where do we go, where do we follow him, if he did not even have a place to lay his head? ‘Whoever wishes to be my disciple, says the Lord, follows me in prayer, penance, and especially by denying himself, accepting the cross of daily tribulations and following me’: Abneget semetipsum, tollat crucem suam quotidie, et sequatur me [Lk 9:23]. But follow him for how long? Until death, and if necessary, even death on a cross.

“What is what someone does in our Society who wears himself out in sacred ministry, teaching or other priestly activity, until death, even a violent one in prison, in exile, by the sword, water, fire; until the point where having suffered or died with Jesus Christ on earth he can rejoice with him in Heaven ….

“Once a member has entered with these good dispositions he must show that he is without pretence and accept with pleasure any task that might be entrusted to him. Teaching, study, work, preaching, confession, in church, outside church, the humblest tasks have to be taken up happily and willingly because God does not look at the task but at the intention of the one doing it. So all duties are equally noble because equally worthy of merit in God's eyes”¹⁵.

This insistence of Don Bosco's on holiness as the “first object of our Society” is significant: holiness understood as total giving of oneself to God out of faith and love, following (sequela) Christ until death; sequela is a word which express availability for whatever service is requested of us in the Congregation (“any task that may be entrusted to him”), working tirelessly for the mission, with prompt and joyful obedience in observance of the Rule.

In his farewell letter, Don Bosco recommended to his Salesians: “Instead of weeping, make firm and efficacious resolutions to remain staunch in your vocation until death. Watch, so that neither the love of the world, nor the affection of parents, nor the desire of a more agreeable life induce you to make the great mistake of profaning the sacred vows, and so transgress the religious profession by which you are consecrated to the Lord. Let none of us take back that which we have given to God”¹⁶.

“And then, my dear sons and daughters – he wrote on 6 January 1884, in a letter to both the Salesians and the Salesian Sisters –, do we wish to go to Heaven in a carriage? We became religious not to enjoy ourselves but to suffer and to earn merit for the next life. We consecrated ourselves to God not to command but to obey; not to attach ourselves to creatures but to practise charity towards our neighbour, moved solely by the love of God; not to live a comfortable life but to be poor with Jesus Christ, to suffer with Jesus Christ on earth, to be made worthy of his glory in Heaven.

“Courage then, dear and beloved sons and daughters; we have put our hand to the plough - be firm; let no one of you turn back to admire the false and treacherous world. Let us go on. It will cost us fatigue, hunger, suffering, thirst and perhaps even death. We shall always answer: "If the greatness of the reward delights us, the fatigue we must bear to merit it should not dishearten us”¹⁷.

In 1876, at the conclusion of the Retreat at Lanzo Torinese, Don Bosco did not give the usual sermon with “reminders”. He preferred to recount a long and adventurous dream. He wanted certain virtues to be well stamped on his sons' minds, virtues he considered essential: humility, obedience, patience, hope … And also a view of the future “triumph” and of the development of the Congregation across the world. He told them he had been invited to climb a huge rock at the centre of a field that seemed limitless: “People of every colour, dress, nation were gathered there. I saw so many people that I did not know if the world could have that many …. What stood out was that everywhere I saw Salesians leading groups of boys and girls and with them a huge crowd of people”.

The person who was acting as his guide told him: “Look, Don Bosco; for now you will not understand everything I say, but pay attention: everything you have seen is all the harvest prepared for the Salesians. See how huge this harvest is! This huge field you find yourself in is the field in which the Salesians must work. The Salesians you see are the workers in the Lord's vineyard. …. But do you know the conditions for what you see happening? I will tell you: look, you need to print the Rule and on the first page, in large letters, remember, print the words that will be your coat of arms, your rallying cry, your badge. Note well: Work and temperance will see the Salesian Congregation flourish. You will explain these words; repeat them, insist on them. You will have a handbook printed that explains them and makes it well understood that work and temperance are the legacy you leave the Congregation and at the same time will also be its glory. … are you convinced? Have you understood it well? This is the legacy you will leave them; and say clearly that while your sons follow this, they will have followers from the south, north, east and west”.

At that stage a number of vehicles appeared which were to take the Salesians to Turin after the Retreat. They were strange vehicles, Don Bosco tells us: “had no support of any kind and I was afraid they would fall off, so I didn't want to let them leave. But the person said to me: “Go, go: they don't need support, they just need to carry out these words: Sobrii estote et vigilate. Whoever carries out these two things will not fall, even though there is no support and the carriage is running fast”.

The dream then continues with some further details and Don Bosco ends his account saying: “I have told you this dream now, before you leave, convinced that in all truth it would be a worthy conclusion to the Retreat if we would decide to keep to our motto: Work and temperance; if we all do our best to avoid the four large nails that destroy Congregations: the vice of greed; seeking an easy life; complaining and idleness, to which we should add that each one must be open, frank and confident with his superiors. This way we will do good for our souls and at the same time can also save those entrusted to our care by Divine Providence.

And then he concludes but points to one crucial factor: “If we wanted to give a special reminder that can serve throughout this year, it would be this: seek every way of preserving the queen of virtues, the virtue that safeguards all others; and if we have it, it will never be alone, in fact it will be accompanied by all the others; if we lose it, the others will either not be there at all or will soon be lost. Love this virtue, love it a lot and remember that to keep it you must work and pray: Non eicitur nisi in ieiunio et oratione [Mt 17, 20]. Yes, prayer and mortification”¹⁸.

By meditating on this mandate from the Founder, which we have listened to at the place he was buried – aware of the moral and historic responsibility coming from our position and the service the Lord has entrusted us with – let us begin the journey of the 27th General Chapter.