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AGCRM363-vecchi-community

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AGCRM363-vecchi-community

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1. LETTER OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

_____________________________________________________

“EXPERTS, WITNESSES AND CRAFTSMEN OF COMMUNION”1

The salesian community – animating nucleus

Introduction.

- I. A new phase in our community life.

- 1. Strong expectations.

- 2. Animating nucleus.

- 3. The goal.

- 4. The present moment.

- 5. The model for reference.

- II. A community process for becoming an animating nucleus.

- 1. Redesigning the mission.

- 2. A way of life for communicating a spirituality.

- 3. Making the salesian community a “family” able to arouse

communion around the salesian mission.

- 4. Giving to our educative activity and to that of the EPC the

missionary dynamism of “Da mihi animas”.

- 5. Fraternal life and pastoral work for growth.

- Conclusion.

Rome, 25 March 1998

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

My dear confreres,

The year 1998 sees all the provinces engaged in preparing and

holding Provincial Chapters. This is a grace from the Lord generously

offered to all of our ninety-one circumscriptions, which will have its

effect on the life of the whole Congregation. We do not see these

Chapters as legal formalities nor as merely deliberative assemblies.

For us they are experiences, celebrations and occasions for re-

launching the communion which unites us in our religious consecration

and our mission to young people.

The Provincial Chapters will reflect and manifest working

methods for lay participation in the salesian charism and hence for the

greater responsibility for animation which is being shaped for us. In

this way they are called to make a contribution which will be indicative

for our future.

1 “Religiosi e Promozione Umana” 24, in La vita fraterna in comunità n.10.

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This Congregational event fits into a process within the Church

which can be clearly seen in the six synods which precede the Jubilee:

the visible and practical fulfilment of communion according to the new

horizons of the Church and the world. I had personal experience of

this in the American Synod in which I took part with others.

It was this which suggested the theme for this letter which I offer

you as a stimulus to reflection rather than as a complete treatment of

the topic, given its breadth and complexity.

My recent visit to Africa for the erection of two new Vice-

provinces,2 has been a new proof, if proof were needed, of the

potentialities inherent in “salesian” fraternal life, i.e. life according to

the spirit and style of the origins, codified today in the Constitutions

and Regulations: potentialities for each one of us, for our mission, for

the young people in our environments, for those disposed to work with

us, and for people in general. It is therefore only right to give them

special attention at this juncture.

I. A new phase in our community life.

1. Strong expectations.

Recent General Chapters have formulated guidelines and

organic indications for educating young people to the faith3 and for

involving lay people in the salesian mission.4 The fulfilment of such

proposals requires the creation of some realities closely connected

with them: the establishment of the educative and pastoral community,

its animation on the part of the group of Salesians, the understanding

of the current situation and mentality of young people, and the

formulation of an educative pastoral plan. All this constitutes the

“model” for pastoral ministry, which we intend to follow with practical

proposals to deal with the current situation while remaining faithful to

the principles of the preventive system.

Reading these guidelines, even cursorily, one immediately

becomes aware that the possibility of putting them into practice

depends upon an element that is considered sound and almost taken

for granted: the salesian community.

The community, in fact, is invited to recognize the challenges

which the young people pose and to think about what suggestions to

offer them so that their faith may mature. The community is called to

live and communicate a spirituality, without which efforts to put the

young people in contact with the mystery of Jesus would be

2 Tropical Equatorial Africa (ATE) and French-speaking West Africa (AFO).

3 Cf. GC23.

4 Cf. GC24.

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ineffective. It is to the community that the task is given of bringing the

lay people together, getting them involved, giving them responsibilities

and training them.

The presence of the community is always presumed in the

guidelines, even though not always mentioned explicitly. To its

members the indications are primarily addressed. To them the project

is entrusted.

There is constant reference to it in meetings and documents in

which the situation of our vocational fruitfulness, of our impact and our

renewal are studied. After considering what can be done about some

problem, and deciding how to do it, when it comes down to who should

do it, there is the constant refrain: “it needs a community which…”, and

then come the requirements.

To which community do these expectations refer? To the local

community, to the provincial community or to the world community?

The three levels which work together and in harmony are always

understood, as the Constitutions indicate: “Local communities are a

living part of the provincial community”;5 “Religious profession

incorporates the Salesian in the Society, making him a participant in

the communion of spirit, witness and service that is its life within the

Universal Church”,6 i.e. in the world community.

Looking more closely, however, at the deliberations of the last

two General Chapters it becomes clear that the focal point, from which

one starts and to which one returns is the local community. Assigned

to it are the greater number and the more specific tasks. The Province

is asked to ensure that conditions are such that the local communities

are able to function, to plan the mission in the whole area, animating,

giving support and encouragement and setting up enriching contacts

between the local communities.

There is no question about the identity, the organization at world

level, the guidelines which ensure our unity, or the creative possibilities

for the individual provinces. The amount of encouragement, directives

and aids produced by Chapters and by the General Council is not only

abundant, but faithfully reflects the renewal in the Church and appears

suited to the time in which we live.

What we look at in the first place, and use as a yardstick, is the

vitality, the ability to respond of what we might call the cells or the

basic organisms of the Congregation: the local communities, and in

reference to these, the provincial communities.

It is not difficult to see why. The local communities are the places

where we are at work every day: where we live out our consecrated

lives and express the quality of our commitment to education. They are

5 C 58.

6 C 59.

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in direct contact with the youngsters and the people: they experience

their situations at first hand and have to think of bearing witness by

their lives and of finding apostolic initiatives to respond to the needs. It

is in the local communities that guidelines are tried out and tested: to

see whether they are valid and practicable in our current situations.

There is another reason too. Only by involving the local

communities is it possible to bring all or at least most of the confreres

into the task of rethinking a method of faith education and a new

community approach. Few confreres are involved at provincial and

world level, even though their roles are of great importance and

influence.

The community, therefore, in which we live our daily life and

especially if it is directly exposed to the public gaze, is the place where

the greatest expectations regarding significance and apostolic

effectiveness are to be found.

The expectations in this regard are well stated in the theological

expressions which abound in both the document “Fraternal life in

Community”,7 and the part of the Apostolic Exhortation Consecrated

Life entitled “Signum fraternitatis”. They are pages to be meditated on

in order to find in them ever new spiritual and practical guidance: the

image of the Trinity, a sign of communion with the Church, a prophetic

expression of following the call, a school of Christian love, the place

where one experiences God.

“Salesian” expectations have also been expressed in notions

which immediately give the idea of the requirements and the results:

the community is a family and is built up as such; it becomes a sign, a

school and an environment of faith; we think of it as a special place for

ongoing formation.

In line with these ideas the GC24 drew out very forcefully one

which corresponds to the phase of renewal in which we are at present

engaged; it is in fact its keystone, its driving force: the animating

nucleus.

It is on this that I want to concentrate in this letter, and from this

standpoint to consider other aspects of the community.

2. Animating nucleus.

This is already a familiar expression in our vocabulary. It

represents a benchmark in our current way of understanding pastoral

activity, intimately connected with others no less important, such as the

participation of lay people in the mission, the development of the

educative community, the formulation of the project, the sharing in

pedagogical style, and the communication of salesian spirituality.

7 Cf. Fraternal Life in Community, Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life etc. Rome, 1994.

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With these it becomes a “system”, which would not be possible

for them alone without the action of the animating nucleus. Similarly, it

is not possible to understand the purpose and the practical meaning of

the expression itself in separation from the whole “system”. Article 5 of

the General Regulations puts it well, when it inserts it among the

guidelines for our pedagogical and pastoral practice. “The application

of the plan requires that in all our works and settings we establish the

educative and pastoral community, whose animating nucleus is the

salesian community”.8

The frequent use of the expression in GC23 and GC24, the

hopes expressed regarding its understanding and its functioning, have

rightly drawn the confreres’ attention to it. They have come to

understand that it is important to set about putting the Chapter

declarations into practice. And being still at the stage of sorting out the

idea, they raise questions about both the concept and its application.

I consider as perfectly justified the many requests for clarification

made to me and to the members of the Council when we have the

opportunity to meet. I willingly respond to some of these questions

noting, however, that the answers do not provide immediate and

universal solutions. Rather they are useful as points of understanding,

as some experiences already realized, as an encouragement to

continue the research, the experimentation and the codification of

practice.

What do we mean by “animating nucleus”? It is a group of

people who identify themselves with the salesian mission, educational

system and spirituality, and together take up the task of assembling,

motivating, and involving all those who are concerned with a work, so

as to form with them the educative community and to carry out a plan

for the evangelization and education of the young.

The reference point for this group is the salesian community.

That means that the Salesians, all of them, are a permanent part of the

animating nucleus. Each one, young or old, directly engaged in a

working role or retired, makes the contribution which his preparation or

his situation permits.

This also means that the lay people are part of it in accordance

with the circumstances already mentioned.

It even means that the local nucleus could be formed principally

by lay people, always having behind them adequate support, on the

spot or within the province, from the Salesians. This happens in places

where recently we have had to animate through a guardianship,

patronage, or legal requirement.

It needs to be emphasized that the “salesian” community, its

spiritual heritage, its educational method, its brotherly relationships,

8R5

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and co-responsibility for the mission, provide in each case the guiding

model for the pastoral identity of the animating nucleus.

The type we are dealing with here, which ought to lead to the

implementation of provincial plans for relocation and redimensioning, is

one in which the salesian community is present in sufficient numbers

and in quality to animate, together with some lay people, an educative

community and project, accepting that this allows of a variety of styles

of implementation depending on the number of confreres and roles.

The other kind, the one in which only lay people make up the

immediate animating nucleus is complementary: it is a possibility which

could answer certain particular problems of either personnel or

initiatives, and always looks to the “salesian nucleus” as the

inspirational model to inspire it and in which to find support.

3. The goal.

In the light of the above indications, it has been asked whether it

is a matter of necessity or choice. It must be said that the process of

the Church, the changes that have taken place in society with their

repercussions in the field of education, our own periods of rethinking

and verification, have coalesced in the concept of community –

animating nucleus through force of evidence. There is now no longer

any question about convictions or orientations is this regard; it is now a

matter of its concrete realization and our ability to bring it about.

It may be helpful to recall, albeit briefly, the motives underlying

the options; they may suggest useful attitudes.

Nowadays educative and pastoral initiatives have become open

and are based on criteria of participation. Numerous lay people are at

work in this field, and their numbers have increased in recent years to

such an extent that they now constitute a numerical majority; they

include parents and collaborators; they are linked with civil organisms

and other educational agencies; they are open to the locality and

linked with a network of friends and supporters: it is a complex world of

management in which not everything can be done directly and there is

need of complementary responsibility and skills of various kinds.

While traditional educational environments are acquiring new

dimensions, settings for reaching the young with programs to meet

their different situations are becoming more numerous and diversified.

On the one hand there are requests to take on the management of

ever bigger, more complex and intricate works; and on the other there

is a call for new educative fields provoked by the present needs and

prevailing poverty. This has led and is still leading to the demand not

only for more personnel, but for personnel with specific qualifications

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and for linkages in all directions in line with the complex nature of

society.

But all this is only the beginning of the matter. The decisive

reason which has led us to conceive the community as an animating

nucleus is the new season through which the Church is living. It

reveals an acute awareness of communion with God and among men,

and sees communion as the principal way for the realization of man’s

salvation.

This is bound to bring about notable modifications in pastoral

practice. Everything acquires its meaning and dimension in the light of

communion. Ecclesial communities become solidly subjects of the

mission. Within them the vocations of the religious, the ordained

ministers and the laity are turned to account, in line with the specific

gift given by the Spirit to each one. Their respective experiences

interact to their mutual enrichment and become committed together in

evangelization, which becomes “new” also because of this fresh

element: the ecclesial subject which accomplishes it, and in this the

importance of the laity emerges at the present day.

The process has not been a short one by any means. The

travail in the pre-conciliar period, the reflections in the Council itself,

the efforts to set up in a new way both ecclesial life and pastoral work

after the Council, the doctrinal synthesis and praxis which have

matured in these years leading up to the Jubilee, the Synods (on the

laity, ordained ministries and consecrated life), and the Apostolic

Exhortations which followed them, have clarified how the different

vocations complete each other, enrich each other, and are

coordinated; indeed, they could not have an original identity apart from

mutual reference within ecclesial communion.

For our part, we see this form of being religious and of working

for the young from the very beginnings of the Salesian Family. From

the outset Don Bosco involved many persons through his witness and

the novelty of his work, and gained support from both ecclesiastics and

lay people; he attracted to his work both men and women who helped

him to teach catechism, to build schools and workshops, to animate

playgrounds, to obtain work for needy boys with upright employers.

With them he started up groups and occasional forms of cooperation.

When he saw the need to provide a home for some of the boys,

he created a family with the collaboration of Mamma Margaret, with

whom he shared the running of the house. His aim was to unite all

good people and extend their collaboration to the maximum. He

dreamed of their collaboration, suggested it to them, and set about

realizing it by word of mouth, friendship and through letter-writing.9

9 cf. Braido P., Il progetto operativo di Don Bosco e l’utopia della società crustiana, LAS Rome 1982, p.11.

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Soon he became convinced of the need for consecrated

personnel: and this not only because the continuity of the work called

for persons available full-time for the young, but because the religious

quality of the education he had so much at heart needed to have a

priest in charge of it. It was not just a matter of rescuing the

youngsters from a situation of economic poverty, or preparing them for

life through study or the learning of a trade, nor even of educating their

religious sense or conscience, but of bringing them into contact with

the living Christ through the grace of faith, the efficacy of the

sacraments and participation in the ecclesial community.

Vocations to a consecrated life were to be found among the

youngsters themselves. And so he began to gather some of them

together and invited them to form a Society; he asked them to stay

with him permanently, to commit themselves full-time and with all their

strength to a work of charity, to dedicate their whole life to following the

poor, chaste and obedient Christ in a faithful service to God and the

young.

Our charism therefore was born in a context of communion of a

family and educative kind, animated by an almost unlimited openness

in collaborating in doing good to various groups, with the specific aim

of creating cooperation, solidarity and communion.

4. The present moment.

In recent times a great deal of reflection has been given to the

consecrated community.

Of interest is the quality of fraternal life with reference to the

lawful demands now emerging in communities, to the conditions of life

they call for, and to the new possibilities of rapport and communication

which arise as a consequence of culture, of renewal in the Church,

and of present personal sensitivities.

Of interest too, and very much so, is the service to human and

Christian communion which consecrated communities are called upon

to provide in today’s Church (evangelization, ecumenism, interreligious

dialogue) and the prevailing world climate (peace, communication,

reconciliation, ethnic conflicts, the intercultural character of society,

and globalization).

The two levels are intertwined; they are interdependent: we

become experts in community through an experience of brotherhood in

Christ. And so one leads to the other; both have to be reawakened

and renewed in a stage in which the community must come to terms

with certain conditions.

One of these is its present composition: the number of members

in the individual communities is falling and in some cases can go no

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lower. As well as being greatly reduced in number, there is sometimes

a preponderance of those who are aged or at least getting on in years.

This is not always a disadvantage, especially if seen in a positive

manner as making it possible to give greater responsibility to

individuals because of the smaller numbers, or as an opportunity for

exchange and charismatic experience between generations if the aged

are in the majority. Such a composition, nevertheless, requires a new

ability for relationships and adaptation of various kinds.

A second element to be considered is the relationship being

created between the community and apostolic work. In some places

we no longer have exclusive responsibility for the work; not all the

members of the religious community are involved in it; often they are

distributed over several sectors with little communication between

them. One feels a disproportion between the religious personnel and

the dimensions of the work. A consequence of this is that there is an

abundance of exchanging of ideas and sharing of responsibility

between the religious who are still active and the lay collaborators, but

much less with the members of the religious community. In many

cases too, many confreres become so overburdened by their various

duties that they cannot follow the regular rhythm of community

meetings.

A third element is the greater insertion of the community into the

dynamics of the Church and a greater openness to the social context.

Consecrated life is seen not as a withdrawal from questions which

concern man, but as being inserted in them with an original

contribution and specific mission. As a result there is a multiplication

of relationships and exchanges with what is external. The time

available for community matters is cut back and is less tranquil and

protected, more invaded by the complexity of life and stimulus from the

neighbourhood. The complexity, events, trends and images penetrate

through the ever more individualized means of social communication,

and challenge not only the quality and frequency of relationships but

also the community’s ability to make judgements in line with the

Gospel.

But the most important fact concerns the change from insistence

on life in common to that of brotherhood determined by the

circumstances of work and of the new demands of the individual.

The two terms, common life, and fraternal life in community

convey the idea immediately, and it is not difficult to distinguish

between their implications. “Common life” means “living together in a

particular and lawfully constituted religious house”, and performing the

same actions (praying, eating, working, etc.) in accordance with the

same norms. For common life it is important to come together

physically.

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“Fraternal life in community” means primarily acceptance of the

individual, quality of interpersonal relationships, friendship, the

possibility of real affection, the joy of being and working together, the

active participation of everyone in the life of the group. Nowadays we

are more concerned about the union of persons, the depth of

relationships, mutual help and support, making the most of each one’s

capabilities and active role, and the convergence of intents and

objectives.

Common life and fraternal life are linked. “It is clear that

‘fraternal life’ will not automatically be achieved by the observance of

the norms which regulate common life; but it is evident that common

life is designed to favour fraternal life to a great extent”.10

A balance has to be found: not purely communion of spirit which

would do away with all manifestations of common life; but not such

great legal insistence on common life as would make subordinate the

more substantial aspects of fraternity in Christ: “Just as I have loved

you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that

you are my disciples”.11

Our Constitutions help us to understand and establish this

balance and fusion of the two aspects. They tell us of the moments

we have in common: they characterize the family spirit,12 they tend to

create a mature rapport among us, to open us to communication, to

make us able to share “joys and sorrows (…), apostolic plans and

experiences”.13

Good order and balance between the two elements brings about

the desire and need to form true communities, in line with the

conditions of each group and individual aspirations; deeply renewed

communities, be they small, medium-sized or large, which have to

animate traditional works or be inserted in more lively fashion among

the people, must nevertheless be always able to help individuals to

grow from both a human and religious standpoint, to express with

greater transparency what they believe, and stir up the desire to

become members: in other words, communities with vocational ability.

5. Our community model.

All forms of religious life have an indispensable element in the

community. But each realizes it in its own way which differs from that

of others.

Our community life is in the first place a reflection of that lived by

Jesus with the Apostles He chose them “to be with him, to be sent out

10 Fraternal life in community, n.3.

11 Jn 13, 34-35.

12 Cf. C 51.

13 Ibid.

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to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons”.14

From this moment onwards, and by virtue of this call, they formed a

solid group in fidelity to the Master and his cause. Together they

enjoyed familiarity with Jesus, and heard from him exclusive

explanations about the mystery of the Kingdom. Together they were

direct witnesses of certain episodes and participants in central events

of Jesus’ life. Together they learned from him how to pray in solitude

and in contact with men; they were given as a group the task of getting

the crowd arranged at the multiplication of the loaves, and all of them

were sent (albeit to different villages) to prepare for the arrival of Jesus

and to proclaim the Gospel. They gathered round Christ to report on

their adventures, and even had some brief discussions on the nature

of the Kingdom and their participation in Christ’s cause. Jesus taught

them the attitudes necessary for following him and for building unity

among themselves: service, forgiveness, humility in their needs, not

judging others, selfless generosity. Together with the preaching of the

Gospel and “so that the world may believe”,15 he commanded them to

live in unity; he prayed for them “that they may all be one”.16 Together,

with Mary, they received the Spirit and began to set up the community,

animating it by the word, the Eucharist, and the service of authority.

This apostolic model is mediated for us through the charismatic

experience of our beginnings. Don Bosco, following Christ the Good

Shepherd, gathered young disciples around him who grew fond of him

as they shared with him the service of the oratories. He asked them to

stay with him and devote themselves full time to wholehearted work for

the young. With them he extended his gaze to distant places which

led to the expansion of the Congregation and refined the spiritual traits

which gave a characteristic physiognomy to his family.

It is a community not only for the young but with the young: it

shares their life and is adapted to their needs. The presence of the

young determines the timetable, the style of work and the manner of

praying. Staying with Don Bosco means staying with youngsters,

offering them all we have and are: heart, mind and will; friendship and

work; sympathy and service. In this relationship and environment the

identity of both the community and its individual members matures.

It is a community highly charged spiritually, characterized by “Da

mihi animas”. Don Bosco shaped his first collaborators, with simplicity

and tangibility, according to the program: work, prayer and

temperance. He asked them to carry out a “work of charity” for the

benefit of their neighbour. Love of Jesus Christ and trust in his grace

was what lay behind his concern for the good of the boys, beginning

14 Mk 3,14-15.

15 Jn 17,21.

16 Ibid.

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with their human and spiritual needs. Even the most abandoned were

helped to make contact with God and the Church, and those who

showed particular dispositions were led explicitly towards holiness.

The nearness of God and the presence of Mary most Holy were almost

sensibly felt.

The community was in no way extraordinary; it was formed of

youngsters long on enthusiasm but short on experience, some with

outstanding qualities and others with normal and even quite modest

endowments, but it was a community led by Don Bosco, with his

understanding of each one’s capabilities, in a “mission” felt by all to be

unique and one in which they were all involved. There were different

roles, tasks and work to be done in widely different ways; but there

was a definite and general sense of membership of the oratory and

belonging to Don Bosco. It was in no way diminished or obscured by

the variety of roles or commitments, or the dimensions of skills and

settings.

Despite the moments of tension and difficulty that we know of,

the Valdocco community appeared united around a plan of action and

the person of its director, something Don Bosco considered

fundamental for its apostolic efficacy. He made every effort, therefore,

to foster creativity and involve everyone through spontaneous or

established forms of participation, so as to ensure unity in activity,

harmony among individuals and consistency of criteria.

In this way the community became the soul of an environment

which attracted and won over the hearts of the youngsters: it produced

a climate of familiarity, which encouraged spontaneity and led to

confidence; it expressed that “pedagogical charity”, the kindness which

gives rise to loving attachment and arouses a parallel feeling.17 Don

Bosco presented it in his Introduction to the Rule in these words:

“When this brotherly love reigns in a community towards one another,

and all rejoice in another’s good just as though it were their own, then

that house becomes heaven itself”.

The youthful oratory community was neither closed nor isolated.

It had relationships with persons of significance, various religious and

civil associations, and with the general context of the city. From the

beginning Don Bosco’s idea was that it should be linked with the

Cooperators’ Association as being two branches of the same tree.

And so he wrote in the Regulations for the Cooperators: “This

Congregation, being definitively approved by the Church, can serve as

a sure and stable bond for Salesian Cooperators, In fact, it has for its

primary purpose the carrying out of works for the benefit of youth upon

whom rests the good or bad state of future society. By putting forward

such a proposal, we do not mean that this is the only means for

17 cf. Letter from Rome, 1884.

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providing for such a need, since there are hundreds of others which

we highly recommend, for they are doing good work. We on our part

propose one, and it is the work of Salesian Cooperators”.18

At the centre of that lively and open world that was Valdocco,

Don Bosco, led by the Lord, wanted consecrated persons who would

pull in other apostolic forces involved in the same project, a guarantee

of development and of the continuation of the mission.

The mission, carried on with the same spirit of Valdocco,

provides our communities with the criterion for resolving tensions that

may arise. This does not lessen any aspect of fraternity but, in fact,

gives it its concrete form. If the meaning of our educative mission to

the young were to fall away, our own fraternity would lose its originality

and force of communication. It would no longer be the hive of activity

that the oratory was, but only a fixed reproduction of it.

The mission, on the other hand, is not an individual insertion

from which one returns to the community only occasionally or to pray

and rest: we share its life and also the responsibility for its apostolic

work: “to live and work together is for us Salesians a fundamental

requirement and a sure way of fulfilling our vocation”.19

The salesian mission is of its nature a community one. The

Constitutions say so with great clarity,20 with the force of a definition:

the mission is entrusted to a community, provincial and local.21

It is a mission to youth: it aims at the growth of young people in

line with the energies God has given to each individual and the grace

Christ has communicated to the world. The preventive system, which

is a synthesis of its content and praxis, requires a family atmosphere

and hence a network of relationships. We are not tutors of individuals,

nor specialized coaches: we work in and through a community and try

to create broad youthful environments. The ensemble of content and

experiences which educational praxis recognizes as adequate for the

human development and growth in faith of the young, calls for a

convergent synergy of interventions which cannot be realized by a

single person working alone.

We may add, moreover, that youngsters must be guided towards

maturity in relationships and social life with all its implications; and that

the process of faith which we suggest has as its objective the leading

of them to an experience of Christian community lived in line with its

characteristic dimensions.

Communion and fraternity therefore, the community and family,

are the condition, process and substantial part of the mission. This is

18 Bosco G., Regulations for Cooperators, quoted in Regulations of Apostolic Life

19 C 49.

20 Cf. SDB C 44; FMA C 51.

21 Cf. C 44.

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something that prompts us to make of it an authentic experience and

to become its expert craftsmen.

II. A community process for becoming an animating nucleus.

The above reflections give rise to further questions: How does

the salesian community become competent as the animating nucleus

of a large group of individuals, who are frequently professionally

prepared? What does being an animating nucleus call for from the

community? What weight does religious consecration have in the

animation of an educative community?

We shall try to respond by analyzing certain perspectives more

deeply and exploring some other possibilities. We shall concentrate

our attention not only on the reality of animation as already presented

by the GC24, and on the manner, methods and content of animation

which have been frequently repeated, but also on what renders the

animating nucleus competent for carrying out its service.

1. Redesigning the mission.

A qualifying element for the community in its animating role is the

reshaping of the mission and its proper place in it, against the broad

background conceived by Don Bosco and as expressed today in the

Constitutions: in the Salesian Family, “by the will of the Founder, we

have particular responsibilities: (…) to foster dialogue and fraternal

collaboration”;22 we bring about in our works the educative and

pastoral community (…), so that it can become a living experience of

Church and a revelation of God’s plan for us”.23 To be well set up from

a community aspect, considering the educative community and its

components as the first objective of our activities in favour of the

young, and taking up together theoretically and practically the work of

animation, will lead to the clarification of the salesian and pastoral

value of such work.

Around us there are adults linked with Don Bosco in various

ways: through empathy, commitment, spirit; and to them we are “sent”

by virtue of our vocation. Our service to them is not something of little

importance: it is one of spiritual and salesian animation.

We are called not only to give dynamism to a group of educators

or collaborators by suitable methods; we are called to give rise to “an

experience of Church”, to give rise to and extend a vocational reality.

22 C 5.

23 C 47.

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It is not only a matter of making better use of the resources we have

available, the laity for example, but of communicating the faith and the

salesian spirit.

In this way animation comes to be a primary part of our mission

and an original manner of living our communion, to which we must

dedicate more than spare time or mere ‘functional’ attention.

Don Bosco’s charism is concentrated to a particular extent in the

SDB community; it was moulded by him directly through the force of

consecration, through the daily sharing of the charism with others,

through the plan of life called for by salesian spirituality, and through

total dedication to apostolic work.24 Such concentration is not an end

in itself; it is there to communicate and spread the particular gift of the

Spirit to the Church which is the salesian spirit.

We are not a welfare society or an educational organization

which has as its final objective specific material or cultural realizations;

we are charismatics. That means giving life to a work which raises

questions, gives motives for hope, brings people together, prompts

collaboration, and gives rise to an ever more fruitful communion for the

realization together of a plan of life and action in line with the Gospel.

Ours is a collaboration with the Spirit. He animates the Church

and the world. He opens them to the Word, excites the desire for unity

and the will for agreement, and renders efficacious efforts and

commitments for the transformation of the world in accordance with

God’s design; he distributes charisms and sows the seeds of good in

humanity, so that they may strengthen in themselves the elements of

peace and communion.

Constituted as we are by the Spirit in consecrated communities,

we become mediators of his animating activity: we help people to

accept and welcome his interventions, we create the conditions

needed for his gifts and inspirations to strike home in reality, so as to

give full and ample realization to the mission to which he has called us.

The tasks of animation, particularly in the EPC, aim at making

available to all what the Spirit has given to us: faith in God’s loving

plan for every individual, love of Christ expressed in total dedication to

the salvation of the young, the pedagogical wisdom we learn from the

Good Shepherd, and conformation to Christ through the model of Don

Bosco.25

Only this way of thinking of the mission will render adequately

effective in the community the experience of the Spirit, who is to be

found in the primacy given to the meaning of God, in the following of

Christ, in the pastoral charity with which we place ourselves completely

24 Cf. GC24, 236.

25 Cf. GC24, 159.

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at the service of the young with our salesian educative and spiritual

heritage.

To be animators therefore of the activity of persons involved in

Don Bosco’s mission and spirit is not an extra function for particular

occasions: it is a vocational trait forming part of the identity of the

consecrated individual Salesian or community, and a main part of the

pastoral praxis.

“Every SDB is an animator, and strives always to fulfil the task

more efficiently”.26 There is no need for special qualities beyond those

that correspond to the salesian vocation. It is a matter of living the gift

inherent in the community style with the young people and laity who

manifest the same sensitivity and join forces in the same educative

initiatives.

2. A way of life for communicating a spirituality.

The various adjectives associated with the term ‘animation’ are

well justified, because they reveal doctrinal bases, processes and

objectives of various kinds. Ours is a spiritual animation, not in a

limiting sense but in a descriptive one. It does not exclude other

aspects of animation, but brings them all together in a particular

perspective.

To become an animating nucleus we have to live our spirituality

with awareness and conviction, and express it with joyful spontaneity.

In the congress of young religious which took place in Rome in

September 1997, the pious idea was expressed that not only

individuals should be canonized but whole religious communities as

well, as a subject which had lived in a solid and exemplary manner the

ideal of evangelical life. It was added that a vocational handicap is

inherent in the fact that the young see and are attracted by individual

models without seeing a corresponding community life behind them:

solitary saints, in communities which seem extraneous to their sanctity.

At Valdocco Don Bosco created a school of spirituality which

found expression in the environment, in the work of everyday, in the

quality of fellowship and in prayer: simple in outward appearance, but

substantial and authentic. He invited his youngsters and anyone who

wanted to collaborate with him to follow him in the same spirit in line

with their own possibilities and circumstances. “At Valdocco”, the

GC24 reminded us, “there was a particular kind of atmosphere:

holiness was built up together; it was shared and mutually

communicated, in such a way that the holiness of some cannot be

explained without the holiness of the others”.27

26 Ibid.

27 GC24, 104.

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To build and enjoy this climate of shared holiness is something

to which consecrated persons are committed. The religious

community is the setting for an experience of God. Everything is

thought out with this in mind and with a view to this end. “The spiritual

life must therefore have first place in the Families of consecrated life…

Apostolic fruitfulness, generosity in love of the poor, and the ability to

attract vocations among the younger generation depend on this priority

and its growth in personal and communal commitment”.28

The GC23 indicated this as an adequate response to the

challenges of educating young people to the faith. It invited

communities to become a “sign” of faith giving gospel transparency to

their lives so as to become also a school of faith. Faith, in fact, cannot

be communicated unless it be lived as the great resource of one’s own

existence. “Spiritual and pastoral renewal are two aspects which

mutually compenetrate and are interdependent”.29

To be animators as a community, i.e. to be an animating

nucleus, is to accompany the educative activity we share with others

by that breath of the Spirit which can give meaning to the

advancement of the person and to the efforts for changing society: the

experience of God’s love, the light that comes from Christ, and the

vision of man which emerges from the Word of God.

As with the apostolic community after Pentecost,30 it is like

having the ability to “go out” towards the others, to attract, unite,

convert and create community with new criteria in the light of the risen

Christ. “The first duty of the consecrated life is to make visible the

marvels wrought by God in the frail humanity of those who are called.

They bear witness to these marvels not so much in words as by the

eloquent language of a transfigured life, capable of amazing the

world”.31

The experience of God which is at the beginning and is also the

objective of our life-plan must be reawakened, relived and deepened in

line with the characteristics of our spirit. We can in fact be led to

reduce life to efficiency, to believe that the various elements of our

religious life are there as functions of their educative results. This in

turn can lead to a progressive internal emptying, to a fading of even

the deepest motivations and, as a consequence, to a certain delusion

or loss of confidence in our interventions, in those we are working for,

in the community and in the laity.

The capacity for spiritual animation, of our kind, supposes and

requires the experience of prayer: the personal prayer, which comes

as a grace and is assiduously learned and practised; and community

28 VC 93.

29 Cf. GC23, 216-217.

30 Cf. Acts 2,1 ff.

31 VC 20.

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prayer, felt and shared at prepared moments, calm and free without

haste or dispersion.

Prayer gives back to us the taste for being with Christ and the

meaning of the mission. Don Bosco reminds us that “just as food

nourishes and preserves the body, so do the practices of piety nourish

the soul and make it strong in time of temptation. As long as we

observe our practices of piety, we shall live in harmony with everyone

and we shall see the Salesian cheerful and happy in his vocation”.32

Are not those words: “living in harmony with everyone, cheerful and

happy in his vocation” just about the truest representation of the

animator?

Two signs seem important to me in this matter of expressing the

spirituality of the community through the diligence and quality of its

prayer. The first concerns the Word of God which we can consult and

share when it is a question of enlightenment in our personal and

community life, the situations of the youngsters and the challenges of

culture. The Bible recounts the religious experience of humanity: the

attitudes, trials and reactions of those who lived in this world in

accordance with the sense of God, and indeed in accordance with the

covenant they had made with him. It is a story of spirituality lived right

in the heat of events.

And then the Gospel not only provides us with the teachings and

examples of Jesus but puts us in contact with him personally and with

his mystery. Only evangelical discernment can give us a Christian

mentality at the present day, and help us to maintain a vision of faith,

an attitude of hope and a criterion of charity.

The second sign is the participation of the young and our

collaborators in our prayer, our ability to introduce them to prayer and

give them a taste for it. We are not short of examples in this regard,

and what we have begun we should continue. Let us not limit

ourselves to extraordinary and stimulating celebrations, but

accompany the young in a journey of prayer so that they come to want

it and it becomes an attitude, a habit, and even a need.

Our youngsters and collaborators often come to know us as

workers and as friends who are close to them, generous and available,

and desirous of their good, but they do not discern the deeper

motivations which underlie our life and constitute its originality. And so

they do not understand the implications of consecrated life, and do not

feel a desire to follow our own chosen path, even though they remain

good friends with us.

To bring others to share in an experience of God, to set up a

pedagogy of prayer leading to a personal relationship with Christ, and

32 Introduction to the Rules and Constitutions, Turin 1885.

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open to youthful sensitivities in line with our spirituality: this is the form

of animation more befitting a religious community.

As well as offering occasional experiences, rather like samples

to attract people, we are called to be educators and masters in

spirituality. If that sounds over-ambitious, let us say that we want to be

companions and authoritative witnesses, leaders and guides in the

ways of spirituality. More than a few of the laity and young people are

looking for a spiritual experience. They want something with internal

sense and meaning to balance all the external agitation and

disturbance. The GC24 puts spirituality at the centre of our effort at

sharing. “We are called to share in the Salesian Family with all the lay

people, not only in the carrying out of daily work but primarily in the

salesian spirit, to become sharers in the responsibility for the mission,

in our works and beyond them”.33 The goal of formation, of and with

the laity, is a shared holiness,34 on account of which “spirituality is

called to be the soul of the educative and pastoral community, the core

of the formative journeys we have to make together in an atmosphere

of the exchange of gifts”.35

It is the same task that the Church entrusts to those who are

consecrated. “Today a renewed commitment to holiness by

consecrated persons is more necessary than ever, also as a means of

promoting and supporting every Christian’s desire for perfection. To

the degree that they deepen their friendship with God, consecrated

persons become better prepared to help their brothers and sisters

through valuable spiritual activities. The fact that all are called to

become saints cannot fail to inspire more and more those who by their

very choice of life have the mission of reminding others of that call”.36

The principal mediation for the fulfilment of this task is our daily

life, inspired by faith and close to the young and the laity, which

diffuses a style of life as though by osmosis or contagion; it is the

educative environment in which values appear concretely realized,

with significant attractive models, with proposals that involve, and with

motivations which shed light on behaviour.

It will also be necessary to accompany individuals making use of

communal occasions which lend themselves to sharing and

communication, and to make ourselves available for personal

dialogue. It all certainly requires both attention and purpose.

3. Making the salesian community a “family” able to give rise to

communion around the salesian mission.

33 GC24, 88.

34 Cf. GC24, 104.

35 GC24, 241.

36 VC 39.

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It has frequently been noticed that the community responds not

only to proposals for religious perfection and efficacy in work, but also

to deep desires and aspirations of the individual: for deep and

authentic relationships, for communication, for personal enhancement,

for friendship and affection.

The need is experienced for authentic adult fellowship and an

attraction is felt towards it. Although we may have opportunities for

individual relaxation of various kinds, and at the present day we are

not lacking in sources of information, personal encounters and

experience of friendship, the sharing of sentiments and situations

remains in a class by itself.

In the society of communication, which is still of the “mass”

variety even though made individual through the receiving apparatus,

difficulty is experienced in communicating in depth, and there is still a

feeling of isolation and loneliness.

You can spot this particularly between young people and an

environment of a religious kind tinged with subjectivism and tending to

provide immediate satisfaction for sentiment. They listen willingly to

personal stories; they look for encounters where they can be

courteously received and welcomed without rigid norms or conditions;

they go for human relationships which make them feel free and help

them to express themselves; they form groups in which they feel good

and create solidarity through communication of proposals, desires and

realizations.

What gives meaning and effectiveness to religious associations

and communities, their force of attraction, does not lie so much in what

they have and do, in their operations and work, as in what they live,

their style of relationships, their unity.

This is why the first Christian communities caused such an

impact. The external sign of the news of the Resurrection,

immediately clear to everyone and even those without any knowledge

of the content of faith, was the solidarity of the group of those who

were assiduous and in agreement “in listening to the teaching of the

apostles and in fraternal union, in the breaking of the bread and in

prayer”; a group which “had all things in common” and there was no

difference among the members. The power of conviction it unleashed

made the group esteemed by the people and considered reliable and

even desirable. “And day by day the Lord added to their number those

who were being saved”37 – it appears to be almost a consequence!

For Don Bosco too fraternal charity, manifested in the family

spirit, was the immediate sign the Salesians should offer to the young,

to the collaborators and to people in general. “Love one another,

advise one another, correct one another, and do not be carried away

37 Cf. Acts 2,42-47.

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by either envy or rancour. Let the good of one become the good of all,

and let the troubles and sufferings of one be regarded as the troubles

and sufferings of all, and let each one strive to banish or at least to

mitigate the sorrows of others”.38

The Constitutions have many references to this thought of our

Father with its double emphasis on the communal style and its impact

on the young. One of the places where our communal life is presented

is in art.51: “The family spirit is the hallmark of the salesian community

and inspires every moment of its life: work and prayer, meals and

recreation, meetings and other encounters. In an atmosphere of

brotherly friendship we share our joys and sorrows, and we are

partners in our apostolic plans and experiences”. Art.16 recalls

another point of emphasis; it refers to the educative and vocational

effect we have so much at heart: “This is a witness that enkindles in

the young the desire to get to know and to follow the salesian

vocation”.

When we wonder how in the present situation we can move

towards this ideal and express it without ambiguity, there comes to our

mind the “grace of unity” which leads us, who are Salesians, to

cultivate harmoniously and simultaneously the three notions of

consecration, mission and fraternity,39 giving to each of them its proper

weight and combining them in a style of life and plan of action.

The first is precisely fraternal life. This presupposes that we

have the time available and the energy necessary to cultivate and

render communion visible as a gift to be offered to the young; it

supposes the ascesis which develops in us the capacity for loving, and

the experience which prepares us for a mature rapport with our

collaborators. Many are the attitudes and manifestations of this kind of

fellowship. “Every day, communities take up again their journey,

sustained by the teaching of the Apostles: ‘love one another with

brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honour’ (Rom 12,10);

‘live in harmony with one another’ (Rom 12,16); ‘welcome one

another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you’ (Rom 15,7); ‘I myself

am satisfied… that you are… able to instruct one another’ (Rom

15,14); ‘wait for one another’ (1 Cor 11,33); ‘through love, be

servants of one another” (Gal 5,13); ‘encourage one another’ (1 Thess

5,11); ‘forbearing one another in love’ (Eph 4,2); ‘be kind to one

another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another’ (Eph 4,32); ‘be subject

to one another out of reverence for Christ’ (Eph 5,21); ‘pray for one

another’ (Jas 5,16); ‘clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility

towards one another’ (1 Pet 5,5); ‘we have fellowship with one

another’ (1 Jn 1,7); ‘let us not grow weary in well-doing…, especially

38 Don Bosco, Souvenir for the first missionaries.

39 Cf. C 3.

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to those who are of the household of faith’ (Gal 6,9-10)”.40 I will dwell

on two elements which emerge at the present day: interpersonal

relationships and communication.

Relationships are one of the indications of the maturity of an

individual: perhaps, indeed, the main parameter reflecting each one’s

quality and limitations. Their quality, the way they are set up and

managed, manifest how far love, the first energy and first

commandment, has progressed in us and to what extent we have

been able to evince it.

For this reason we pay particular attention nowadays to

relationships in work and in formation: not only from a formal point of

view, but with an eye to the internal and substantial aspect. In

fraternal life relationships are needed which are able to overcome

weariness and habit because they are renewable, and are not broken

off because we are capable of daily reconciliation. They must however

be deep and internal, and not merely functional with respect to work;

they must lead to a maturing in friendship and growth in the Lord, and

in solidarity in the mission; above all they must be inspired by self-

sacrifice and self-giving and not selfishly centred on oneself and one’s

own concerns.

It is a common opinion among observers of groups and

communities that the greater part of internal difficulties that arise and

which seem to concern work or ideas are in fact linked with problems

of badly set up interpersonal relationships which come to light in work

or in ideas.

On the other hand difficult relationships, situations of conflict

which have not been suitably healed through reconciliation, act within

a person, blocking the maturing process and creating difficulties in the

way of the calm and joyful self-donation to the mission and to God.

The sadness and distress which can follow are harmful in every sense.

Internal bitterness wears the person down. It is a great service to help

to loosen these knots, to clarify their roots, to see them as personal

limitations and face them calmly, instead of remaining bogged down in

them.

We need to educate both ourselves and others to rapport, even

by a word, by support or encouragement. Relationships need

animation with the creation of opportunities for their expression and

growth. It is an aspect of the charity of all, and particularly of the

Rector and the Provincial through whom the unity of the community is

built up.

No one can expect to be only a receiver in the community, as

though it were an environment made primarily and independently by

40 Fraternal Life in Community, 26.

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his own contribution. On the other hand it is necessary to make up for

the shortcomings of some by a greater capacity for giving on the part

of the others. In communities there are always limits of

communication, timidity, and excessive regard which put a brake on

familiarity. The Lord compensates for such limitations through those

confreres who are willing to put a bit more into the conversation, into

the preservation of proximity, union and joy, so that the level of

community life may not decline as regards mutual affection and family

environment. “A fraternity rich in joy is a genuine gift from above to

brothers and sisters who know how to ask for it and to accept one

another, committing themselves to fraternal life and trusting in the

action of the Spirit”.41

The preceding comment may seem unusual for a circular: too

particular, almost technical. I picked it up from the document Fraternal

Life in Community, which says: “It may be useful to recall those

qualities which are required in all human relationships: respect,

kindness, sincerity, self-control, tactfulness, a sense of humour and a

spirit of sharing”.42 It was also suggested to me by the GC24 which

spoke of our relational spirituality: a spirituality which not only loves

with internal charity but (as Don Bosco had already taught in dealing

with boys) is able to establish adult relationships conforming to the

environment of life and prevailing sensitivities. And it was suggested

too by the importance that attaches nowadays to relationships

established almost specifically as objects for study and training in all

forms of human activity. Finally it was inspired by the thought of St

Francis de Sales, in whom “gentleness” was translated part and parcel

into personal relationships even to the extent of constituting a

distinctive trait of his personality.

Relational spirituality has as its source the charity which makes a

person able and willing to create, heal, reestablish and multiply

rapport. Such charity becomes ‘pastoral’ when it is exercised within

the ministry of ruling and guiding an ecclesial community.

In addition to relationships and included in their dynamic is

communication. Today the desire in communities is that this be not

limited to what is merely functional, but should include vocational

experience as well; that there be exchange of news not only from the

media or happenings at work, but also considerations, requirements

and intuitions concerning our life in Christ and the way we understand

our charisma. It is to this that such practices as the revision of life,

community verification, exchange of prayer tend, as well as the

discernment of situations, projects and events.

41 Ibid, 28.

42 Ibid, 27.

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The present time has rendered communication in religious

communities more necessary, and has modified its manner and

criteria: it has become looser and more widespread. The complexity of

life is such that we have to exchange views about tendencies, criteria

and events of a family kind, and about external matters too: we either

succeed in understanding them and interpreting them in the light of the

Gospel, or we remain excluded from the life and movement of the

world.

The habit of assessment has become necessary, as also has the

elaboration of common criteria for the process. It frequently requires

the application of a method of trial and error. We must be ready to

express ourselves with simplicity, be ready to modify judgements and

positions, even only for the purpose of fraternal and practical

convergence: mediation of this kind always helps the community,

provided that essential values be not compromised.

Communication is necessary also because of the positive

pluralism of visions and gifts existing in the community: there are rich

qualities of intelligence, of spirit, of fantasy, and of practical skills that

can be passed on. And moreover there are so many themes in

consecrated life on which communication can take place with profit:

the apostolic project, spiritual experience, challenges of the mission,

guidelines of the Roman Congregations, and the tendencies of the

Church.

Communication calls for learning, practice and also animation.

We would say for spiritual learning to a greater extent than the

technical kind. When we communicate we lay ourselves open to some

extent. A certain reserve has to be overcome, which makes us

unwilling to talk about ourselves; there is also confidence in the other

person which has to be consolidated, and which will reassure me that

he will accept what I say with maturity and in a positive manner.

Experience shows that not everyone has the courage to do this.

We need a measure of learning also to receive communication, without

judging the other person, without cataloguing him in a specific

category on the basis of what he has said, without any lessening of

esteem and expectations in his regard because of the difference of

views.

As well as learning practice is needed too. If you neglect the

capacity for communication it gets rusty. You lose the taste for it and

its facility. Practice leads to the use and understanding of different

kinds of language suited to various situations, which range from

gestures and attitudes to calm and relaxed conversations, all of it

inspired by charity and not technical calculation. We may recall Don

Bosco with his hand placed lightly on the head of the boys, with his

ready smile, the word in the ear, his ‘good-nights’, the kind of

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conversation he had with Dominic Savio, the way he asked for his

boys’ opinions and discussed with them. And the effort, so typical of

the preventive system, to make his affection perceptible and free it

from a generic attitude or from enclosure in a cold exterior. In the

practice of communication too we need to learn the value of active

silence and capacity for solitude. These are aspects which have

almost been destroyed by the ‘Babel’ of conversations, messages,

music, festival and plain noise.

A valid communication is always prepared and controlled by

reflection, discretion and the ability to withdraw.

Learning and practice is needed therefore on the part of all, but

animation too is needed by those who are directing matters so as to

create a suitable atmosphere for calm and relaxed communication.

Providing opportunities; a style of direction which makes it easy to

express opinions, to ask for and prompt such opinions, to be pleased

at a multiplicity of contributions, to make it clear that no one is going to

be judged by what he says in the cut and thrust of a debate.

In addition to attention to fraternal life, the enhancement of

community experience requires an improvement in our way of

working together. The religious community is the place where the

change takes place from I to we, from my work or sector to our

mission, from the pursuit of my methods and objectives to a

convergence on the evangelization and good of the young. This calls

for a patient running-in period to overcome whatever holds us back or

separates us through an individualized view of work and ill-regulated

autonomy in initiatives which makes us little disposed to build with

others. Many initiatives could be rendered more powerful merely by

bringing together items which are similar but juxtaposed, by linking

together those which are complementary, and converging times and

personnel in specific areas.

The Constitutions and Regulations provide opportunities for

understanding, coordination and convergence. Councils and

community assemblies tend to come up with the same kind of

statement of the situation in the light of the Gospel and of our original

vocation, to project in integral form the great aspects of pastoral work,

such as the orientation of the education of young people to the faith or

the formation of the laity.

The weekly ‘community day’ has provided a new opportunity for

a useful exchange of thoughts and ideas.

In a period in which the tendency is towards linkage, synergies

and networks, we have to learn that fragmentation and watertight

compartments are unproductive and do not form us as men of

communion. In those communities which include certain sectors which

must have a certain autonomy for various reasons, it is desirable that

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there be at least some occasions for common programming and

orientation.

From the beginning the salesian community has lived cheek by

jowl with the young, participating fully in their life, and vice versa the

young have shared the daily life of the Salesians. Today many boys

and young men want to see and take part in our fraternal life and join

in our work. Our community life, therefore, has to be structured in

such a way that it is possible for us to pray with the young, share

moments of fellowship and programming with our lay collaborators,

and even welcome some of these youngsters and lay people to

experience with us a period of community life.

4. Giving to our educative activity and to that of the EPC the

missionary dynamism of “Da mihi animas”.

The pedagogy developed by Don Bosco and passed on by him

to his first Salesians was born of pastoral charity, able to understand

and make allowances for the youth situation, and to start up initiatives

designed to meet it. It was not just a matter of being active on their

behalf, staying in their midst, and devoting his energies to them.

Underlying all this was the desire to lead them to faith in Christ, the

way truth and life, making himself a sign and witness of Christ’s love.

That was the fundamental experience which manifested the unique

nature of salesian spirituality. The GC23 expressed it in a text which

some have called the “salesian credo”.43

This is the experience we must communicate and help our

collaborators to live, animating a style of pedagogy centred on

personal relationship between the educator and the pupil. When this

develops more deeply and becomes confidence, it provides the

opportunity for revealing the predilection of Jesus Christ for each one

of the youngsters.

We shall try to create a family atmosphere,44 with plenty of

suggestions and initiatives covering all the needs and interests of the

young, which sparks off their participation and gets them involved in

their own formation; an atmosphere which has its high-spots in the

celebrations which form an introduction to the mystery of life and grace

associated with the transforming force of the sacraments, especially

those of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.

Of this style and program we are called to be reminders and

stimulus. We must manifest with tranquility, but nonetheless with

missionary courage, that faith in Jesus Christ brings light and a new

43 Cf. GC23, 94-96.

44 Cf. GC24, 91 ff.

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energy to education: it is the image of the man apparent in Jesus, the

confidence in life passed on to us by the Resurrection, the

consciousness of a filial rapport with God; it is the transcendent

horizon, the revelation of love as the secret for the realization of the

individual and of civilization.

Our life is a prophecy in the area of education: it manifests the

meaning and the goal towards which human values must be

developed: the liberating force of the personal relationship with God,

the historical fruitfulness of the beatitudes, the ability to get the best

out of the poorest individuals and groups, neglected and rejected by

others.

In a context trying to do without God, we bear witness to the fact

that his love brings an unusual lucidity and happiness; in face of the

quest for pleasure, possession and power, we are able to say that “the

need to love, the urge to possess, and the freedom to control one’s

whole existence, find their fullest meaning in Christ the Saviour”.45

If our commitment to education is not a temporary service but an

original contribution, we must “bring to bear on the world of education

a radical witness to the values of the Kingdom, proposed to everyone

in expectation of the definitive meeting with the Lord of history”.46 It

must be said that it is to this that all our efforts of preparation tend; it is

true that they have a professional dimension, but it is leavened and

motivated by a deeper dimension still, the pastoral dimension. The

latter must not be played down, nor must the former be made a

watertight compartment. We educate by evangelizing.

“Because of their special consecration”, Vita Consecrata reminds

us, “their particular experience of the gifts of the Spirit, their constant

listening to the word of God, their practice of discernment, their rich

heritage of pedagogical traditions built up since the establishment of

their Institute, and their profound grasp of spiritual truth (cf. Eph 1,17),

consecrated persons are able to be especially effective in educational

activities and to offer a special contribution to the work of other

educators”.47 And it goes on to add: “In this way they can give life to

educational undertakings permeated by the gospel spirit of freedom

and charity, in which young people are helped to mature humanly

under the action of the Spirit”.48

At the present day the service of education is requested and

reappraised to cover extension of formation to the entire existence, but

also with a vision that decisively overcomes the ‘unidimensional’

temptation so as to take up the person in his integrity and take into

consideration the individual character of each one.

45 C 62.

46 VC 96.

47 Ibid.

48 Ibid.

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And so educative service is asked to “assist” every individual in

the development of all his capacities, to communicate a vision of life

open to his neighbour, to generate in each one the ability to live in

freedom and in truth in accordance with his own conscience

enlightened by experience and by faith.

As a religious community we are the animating nucleus of an

ensemble of educators who intend to communicate these values and

put forward this vision of life.

The task supposes that we ourselves make the effort to become:

- persons capable of living our own lives with confidence and

joy, with an attitude of understanding and dialogue with the young and

their world, with attention to culture, and with the will to collaborate with

all who are working for a more just, free and more cohesive world;

- educators who are competent, who make of their service to

the young and the poor a commitment for the Kingdom; for the

animation of an educative community and other apostolic forces; good

will by itself is insufficient; improvisation does not pay when it is a

matter of the Christian promotion of an environment on a long-term

basis;

- animators willing to share a formative process with lay

collaborators,49 in the life of every day, in communal moments of

particular formative value, duly prepared and qualified, such as the

elaboration of the PEPS, the verification of the EPC, the discernment

in the face of practical situations, and similar occasions;

- leaders who have made their own the value of participation

and of sharing responsibility, and are able to animate by creating and

renewing opportune circumstances;

- Salesians who manifest a particular sensitivity for the

education of the very poor and become promoters of a culture of

solidarity and peace: this sensitivity constitutes one of the most

effective of apostolic signs and seems able to bring many people

together.

5. Fraternal life and pastoral work for growth.

Fraternal life (with its communication and relationships) and a

good set-up of the work, help us not only to feel better but also to

grow; they are enriching from a cultural, psychological, social and

especially spiritual point of view.

There is cultural growth, because in listening to others and

collaborating with them we receive information, new view points, facts

and interpretations of a wide range of realities. Nowadays rapport and

49 cf. GC24, 144.

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communication with competent persons are considered indispensable

and are much sought after. There are people of this kind living in our

own communities, everyone of them indeed probably has something to

offer us. They can be found also among the laity.

There is psychological growth because easy relationships are

developed, the ability to welcome persons of different mentalities; we

become more capable of self-giving, of overcoming frustrations and

internal hang-ups, fixations on ourselves and our success.

There is social growth, because the capacity is strengthened for

insertion in working groups, in teams for participation and in various

settings, with freedom and sincerity; we become able to handle social

anxiety, that first feeling we get of unease and being an outsider when

we find ourselves in a context or group we do not know or with whom

we are not familiar.

And finally, at the head of all the rest there is a spiritual or

comprehensive growth, because the attitudes and aptitudes set out

above are part of an effort to respond to the Lord in a way in keeping

with the charism and a manner for fulfilling the mission.

Experiences of ongoing formation, carried out away from our

own community do produce benefits, such as a rethinking, a new

synthesis, doctrinal updating, a new vocational enthusiasm; but when

we get back to the community and daily life, that renewed vision of life

and work that we glimpsed in those extraordinary conditions of time

and environment, can be translated into practice only with difficulty.

The customary rhythm takes over again and the “ordinary” common

and human context dilutes the exemplary experiences of prayer,

mutual exchange and study. And so the course of ongoing formation

remains an isolated incident in the run of life, even though its beneficial

effects cannot be denied.

Four variables therefore have been introduced into the concept

of ongoing formation, in line with formational sciences. They concern

place, time, matter and method.

The preferred place for ongoing formation is the local

community. It is more realistic, because that is where we learn to

manage our life and react as salesian religious in face of the daily

round.

The time best suited and most continuous for ongoing formation

is that marked out by the alternation of work, study, comparisons and

meetings with people. The remaining time is useful for support and

backup.

Material or content: it is true that a systematic exposition on the

Church, Jesus Christ and the community is helpful, because it provides

motivation, light and fresh orientation. But all this is subsequently

found distributed, fragmented, and to some extent watered down in

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daily life. The community, in which we have to read in real terms what

has been explained to us, is the one in which we live side by side with

our confreres, who have their own ideas, are marked by their past

experiences and have their limitations, even though they have also

many rich qualities which we must be able to discover and accept.

The same can be said of the ecclesiology we have heard

expounded, of the youth ministry we have heard explained, of the

deeper aspects of the preventive system: they are frames of reference

which are useful because they are enlightening. But they must then

be transferred to the particular concrete circumstances of an ecclesial

community and its specific conditions, to our own field of pastoral work

and the youngsters to be found in it, to the salesian environment in

which all we have heard about the preventive system has to be

applied. This latter, i.e. the concrete manner of applying visions and

frames of reference, or dealing with particular cases, forms the

particular matter for the ongoing formation which takes place in the

local community. There we submit it to reflection and verification to

see what kind of response we are making to the demands of our

vocation and work. I would say that ongoing formation has more in

common with the model of a well-made practical training period than

with that of the studentate.

Finally, but linked with what we have already said, a word is

needed about the means or most efficacious way of setting about

ongoing formation: certainly there is reading, study, attention to

spiritual life, and theological updating. But art.119 of the Constitutions

and art.99 of the Regulations both speak of fraternal communication:

listening calmly, noting and synthesizing with care, adopting

evaluations and criteria, moving in well-weighed directions. All this will

certainly be endorsed and relaunched through the use of the so-called

special times and a personal habit of reflection.

Relationships, communication and programmed work, therefore,

result in processes of formation and growth. At present not everyone

understands this. No blame for this attaches to anyone, because in

formation praxis in the past communication had neither the weight nor

the possibilities it has today. But while not blaming anyone, we must

know how to create and multiply opportunities for communication, deal

with the matter of rapport, be aware of the kind of platform needed for

these things and foster them as a practice of pastoral charity towards

confreres and communities.

Conclusion.

4 Pages 31-40

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4.1 Page 31

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I bring this letter to an end on the feast of the Annunciation, two

years after the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation Vita

Consecrata. Community life aims at being a reflection of the life of the

Trinity, as far as that is possible for man: a relationship of love which

generates the unity in which distinctions are founded, summed up and

expressed. It appears as a sign and exemplary realization of ecclesial

communion. Through the multiple graces it brings with it, through the

support it gives to the confreres, through the benefits found within it

and the asceticism it calls for, it is a path which leads us to a purified

and authentic love.

Of this love Mary shows forth the three greatest manifestations

known to humanity, and we express them in the three titles: Virgin,

Spouse and Mother. Such is her relationship with God; such the

dimensions which make her an image of the Church. We are sure, in

line with Don Bosco’s words, that she is part of our community as she

was with Jesus’ disciples at Cana and in the Cenacle. To contemplate

her and invoke her will help us in our communion.

This is my hope and prayer for each community and every

confrere that, with Mary’s help, we may express all the richness of the

communion which is the fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Juan Vecchi.