AGCRM365-vecchi-consecration-en


AGCRM365-vecchi-consecration-en

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1. LETTER OF THE RECTOR MAJOR
______________________________________________
“THE FATHER CONSECRATES US AND SENDS US”1
I. A CONSECRATED LIFE- 1. A pressing invitation – 2. A key-word – 3. The
joyful experience of having received a gift – 4. Acknowledgement of God’s
initiative – 5. A project of life in God – 6. Public profession – 7. Some
consequences.
II. OUR APOSTOLIC CONSECRATION – 1. Unique nature of “salesian”
consecration – 2. “Consecrated” uniqueness of our apostolic mission – 3.
Service and prophecy – 4. The many gifts of our consecrated community – 5.
Some consequences – 6. The guide of the consecrated community.
Rome, 8 September 1998
Feast of Our Lady’s Birthday
My dear confreres,
I am glad to be able to send you my greetings, together with those of
the members of the General Council, at a time when some of you are
beginning a new year of pastoral activity and others are gathering the final
results of the previous one. I send a special word of nearness and
encouragement to communities who are in difficult situations because of war
and conflicts of various kinds, especially in Africa. I ask you to remember
them in your prayers.
The preceding letter on the animating nucleus has provoked some
healthy reflection. It has also given rise to a certain concern, which has been
expressed to me by some confreres, and so I take the opportunity to go more
deeply into a theme which is becoming of primary importance at the present
time: the capacity of the salesian community for animation.
I. A CONSECRATED LIFE
1. A pressing invitation.
A question often raised when dealing with this theme concerns its
importance, incidence and influence in our community work of animation, and
the direction given to education and pedagogical practice. It is not related
primarily to the time that consecration leaves available for dedication, a factor
which could be supplied by the greater use of lay resources, nor even to
1 Cf. C3

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competence in group dynamics or in education, easily found nowadays
among the laity, but rather to the specific quality that consecrated life brings
to communion, to the educative and pastoral plan, and to pedagogical
practice.
To these issues the GC24 gave great attention. Even if it did not
develop them in a unified and organic manner, it left us a series of pointers
which give us cause for serious thought. Without pretending to be complete, I
think they can be summed up in the following points.
A first point: the consecration, lived with joyful authenticity, infuses into
the salesian educative community certain sensitivities: the primacy of God in
life2, the importance of spirituality in the work of education3, attention to the
salesian spirit4, a vision of human growth in line with a paradigm of new
humanity, openness to an experience of God for young people and adults5.
A rapid glance at these references leads to a second point that calls for
attention: the identity of the consecrated person must be seen as “a specific
and dynamic force for the education and animation of the EPC”6. It behoves
consecrated persons, therefore, to consider their identity more deeply7, as the
ultimate reason for the roles they have to play and as the possibility of
achieving the best results in conformity with the objective proposed by the
Congregation.
Such a reflection becomes urgently necessary not less because of the
discovery of the vocation of the lay person8 and on the insistence on its
greatest possible development. It must prompt consecrated persons to
cultivate and share the gifts deriving from their particular vocation, aware of
“what we have in common with the laity, as well as our differences”, in the
knowledge that there is a point where everything comes together: the
oratorian heart and style of the Good Shepherd9.
A third point: what we have said should lead to the overcoming of a
certain confusion on the part of some consecrated persons with regard to
their own participation in the educative community and in the light of the
interventions open to the laity10. Their partnership should consist more in the
2 cf. GC24, 54
3 cf. ibid.
4 cf. GC24, 88
5 cf. GC24, 152
6 GC24, 45
7 cf. GC24, 140
8 cf. GC24, 45
9 cf. GC24, 102
10 cf. GC24, 45

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communication of the spirit11 than in the material performance of daily work.
The relationship with the laity should be founded on the sharing of gifts12.
Furthermore, to succeed in the realization of this project, we must insist
on an initial formation13 and on a continuing growth which will help the
Salesians “to deepen the identity of their consecration and to develop solid
convictions about the educative value of consecration itself”14.
The influence of consecration in community animation and in the
orientation of education finds particular development in GC24 nn.149-155, of
which the quintessence would seem to be the statement: “Don Bosco wanted
consecrated persons at the centre of his work, persons oriented to the young
and their holiness. He wanted his religious to be a precise point of reference
for his charism”15.
This desire of his is attributed to divine inspiration; it is therefore
decisive for the mission, which consists not only in temporal advancement,
but also in leading the boys to holiness: “Don Bosco was led by God to form a
community of consecrated persons which would be a leaven for a multiplicity
of services, the spiritual animation of those who wanted to dedicate
themselves to education, and a guarantee of continuity in the mission to the
young”16.
The charism therefore is not expressed in its completeness and
authenticity if it leaves out the laity: but still less if it omits the specific
contribution of those who are consecrated.
And so guidelines like this one follow, for the salesian community: “It
should frequently verify the incidence of its consecrated and communal life; it
should exploit occasions for presenting and explaining to lay people and
youngsters the specific aspect of consecrated life in respect of its educative
importance”17.
The same kind of problem arises from religious communities in
general, and not only from our own. It is true that education, and especially
the kind carried out through schools, is an activity useful for evangelization,
but more than a few religious wonder what place in it is taken by a radical
option for the Kingdom.
11 cf. GC24, 88
12 cf. GC24, 109-110
13 cf. GC24, 167
14 ibid.
15 GC24, 150
16 GC24, 155
17 GC24, 167

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Faced by the delegation of principal tasks to the laity, and by the
assigning to them of our own pedagogical tradition, there are some who feel
themselves rather perplexed about their own contribution, beyond the
possibility of the complete dedication and competence which such dedication
calls for. And this even after having established a proper priority among
obligations as indicated by the GC24: formation, orientation, educative
identity.
From the standpoint of the young, there are many who emphasize how
the latter benefit by the professional approach and generosity of our service,
but they do not always get a clear idea of the reason and meaning lying
behind it.
On the other hand, the fact remains that in some structures the
splendour of the consecrated option cannot be made to stand out because of
the weight of practical activities: we get bogged down in the means, rather
than stressing the ends. So too in the fulfilment of certain organizational or
directive roles the unity between professional approach and oratorian heart,
which defines the image of the Salesian, is not attained.
With respect to the community itself there are some who bewail not the
loss but the weakness of expression, of meaning and of more immediate
manifestation of consecration, like brotherly relationships and daily prayer.
We recognize that this is due in large measure to the multiplicity of
commitments inspired by pastoral charity, it is in fact an impoverishment of
the witness of consecration and for those who are younger an obstacle to its
joyful living.
The GC24 gave a lot of attention, and the Provincial Chapters will
doubtless do likewise, to the relationships to be established with the laity, to
the fundamental ways in which religious will be effective in the educative
community, to the principal objective of their interventions and the quality of
what they do in general. I will not dwell on these points at greater length. I
consider them already realized, or at least brought sufficiently to your
attention. I dealt with them in a preceding letter: Experts, witnesses and
craftsmen of communion18.
The discourse on our consecration leads to the deep significance of
such references, taking us back to their more interior and personal source.
This is the sense in which we have taken it in our programming for the
present six-year period19.
18 AGC 363
19 cf. Supplement to AGC 358, p.16 (Strategies n.32, Interventions n.34)

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2. A keyword.
The discussions of recent years have brought to light different positions
concerning consecrated life and its place in the Church. There are various
keywords which lead us to what could be called the heart of the matter:
charism, sequela Christi, mission.
The Synod on consecrated life was aware of these differences and tried
to smooth them out. It asked the Pope to give a precise answer to certain
questions so that discernment could take place amid the looming challenges
and develop the lasting values of consecrated life, even by means of new
expressions.
Among the questions to be clarified there was the distinctive element:
what it is that determines the identity of consecrated life, and hence also its
specific contribution to the life of the Christian community and to pastoral
work.
It is now well known, because it has already been the object of
numerous commentaries, that the Apostolic Exhortation places it in
consecration. This was already present in the teaching extending all the way
from Vatican II to the Synod on Consecrated Life. But it had been impaired
by a restricted interpretation of consecration itself, by the new profile of
consecrated life in the Church understood as the people of God, and by the
progress of secularization, which has led to a change in the significance of
what is “sacred”.
The declaration Essential elements of the teaching of the Church on the
religious life (31 May 1983), declares: “At the foundation of religious life lies
consecration. By insisting on this principle, the Church puts the emphasis on
the initiative of God and on the new and different relationship with him implied
by religious life”20. Two fundamental elements therefore determine the reality
of a consecrated life: the initiative of God, felt by the subject as a call or
appeal, and a new and singular relationship with him as the basis for the
orientation and organization of the subject’s existence.
The Apostolic Exhortation Redemptionis Donum (25 March 1984),
which aimed at fostering the fruitful exchange then in progress, said in
addressing religious: “The Church thinks of you, above all, as persons who
are "consecrated": consecrated to God in Jesus Christ as his exclusive
possession. This consecration determines your place in the vast community
20 Essential elements of the teaching of the Church on the religious life, 5

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of the Church, the People of God. And at the same time this consecration
introduces into the universal mission of this people a special source of
spiritual and supernatural energy”21.
Consecration has therefore become the keyword summing up the
condition and path of holiness of those who dedicate themselves, by public
profession, to the radical following of Christ. All projects of existence which
are in line with this proposal are called consecrated life, even though among
them there may be notable differences as regards manner, organization and
immediate purpose.
The Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata takes up the argument
directly and speaks of it with studied clarity, assigning to consecration other
qualifying and distinctive elements of this kind of existence. At n.72, under
the heading “Consecrated for mission” it says: “In the image of Jesus, the
beloved Son ‘whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world’ (Jn
10:36), those whom God calls to follow him are also consecrated and sent
into the world to imitate his example and to continue his mission”22.
Of such consecration, which is defined as “new and special”, the sense
is clarified and misunderstandings removed. There is continuity with
baptismal consecration because the latter is assumed in radical form. At the
same time there is an innovation, a ‘leap’, an exodus, an intervention of God,
since this kind of existence is not necessarily included in the grace of
baptism. It implies a personal call or vocation.
The objective excellence of consecrated life does not exclude other
objectives which are excellent in their own way (lay, priestly), nor does it lead
to a spiritual hierarchy. But it gives rise to an enriching difference in
communion, and so represents a typical contribution in terms of sign,
proclamation, witness of Christian life and service to the Church’s mission.
The Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata emphasizes that no other
element, apart from or separated from this one, can provide the correct
physiognomy or justify the presence of religious life in today’s world: not
educative or social commitments, not voluntary work in situations of poverty,
not struggles for great causes of humanity; only the fact that one has felt
called to witness to the primacy of God and to accept the indispensable
centrality of Christ in the orientation and organization of one’s own life. And
because they cannot provide the original feature, so other motivations are
insufficient for assuming a consecrated way of life. And so the weakness is
evident, especially at the present day, of a vocation prompted solely by
21 RD, 7
22 VC, 72

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enthusiasm for work with the young, the advancement of the poor, and similar
purposes. Without more solid and definitive roots such motivations soon fade
away.
All this calls for some comment.
Not everyone has understood the implications of this choice and
insistence. In various meetings and gatherings I have heard reservations
expressed in this regard, and it is useful to look at the underlying motives,
because here and there such reservations can be found lurking even in our
own environments.
Some may think that we are going back to a way of thinking of religious
as persons publicly constituted in a different social situation, an idea
abhorrent to the mentality of the present day. This is totally excluded. No
prerogatives or status privileges follow from our choice of God in either
secular settings or in the Church. And it is worthwhile recalling that our way
of life gives us neither protection or defence, but rather leaves us exposed.
Then there are some reservations that follow from a suspicion that
consecrated persons consider themselves ‘superior’ and are thought to be so
by others. The “objective excellence” of consecrated life, the “new and
special consecration”, the word “more” (more radical, more intense, more
near to, more conformed) which is repeated so often in describing the
commitment of the religious as regards the obligations of every Christian, give
rise to suspicion. And there is also the fear that religious may appear to be
organized as a separate category, in contrast with the present ecclesial vision
of communion to be realized in immediate settings, like the local Churches
and parish communities.
Two other difficulties are raised by some people. One of them is of a
pastoral kind: that the assertion of a first and almost isolated personal
relationship with God once again puts religious at the centre of their own
perfection, detaching them from the fact that they are in and for the world.
The other is spiritual in nature: that it gives rise to an intimist or dualist vision
(sacred-profane, spiritual-corporal, relation with God and action in the world)
of Christian experience. These two aspects concern us closely because of
the apostolic objective of our Congregation set out in art.6 of the Constitutions
and on account of the spiritual activity which inspires pastoral charity.
Neither of the meanings which provoke such suspicions are included in
the term consecration, according to the deeper studies made in recent years.
Rather the total sense of consecration is highlighted. It comprises at one and
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counsels, apostolic mission, fraternal communion, spirituality. It is not an
organizational element above and different from all these, but the event which
is at their foundation. It is the grace and relationship which embraces all of
them.
This is familiar to us because we find it in our Constitutions: “Our
apostolic mission, our fraternal community and the practice of the evangelical
counsels are the inseparable elements of our consecration which we live in a
single movement of love towards God and towards our brothers”23.
Consecration does not consist in an external way of life but in a grace
which transforms from within. Our Rule asserts that we have been
consecrated not by a person or human institution, not in virtue of some
gesture (even a liturgical one), but with the gift of the Spirit: “The Father
consecrates us through the gift of his Spirit and sends us out to be apostles
of the young”24.
This is a theme which is taken up continually in our Constitutions in
other words which are equivalent: vocation, covenant with God, total
donation, love of predilection, radical option. They all indicate the same thing:
a very particular relationship of God and with God which marks our personal
experience and our work of education.
To express this comprehensive meaning within consecrated life
(following of Christ through the vows, life of communion, concrete form of
mission), many types or forms exist. Consecration has multiple expressions,
not just a single one. People speak of ancient, modern and future forms of
religious life. It is well to understand this, so as not to confuse consecration
with only its strictly ‘religious’ aspect, creating a kind of dualism regarding
pastoral commitments. This is still more true when the latter (as in our case)
are carried out in a secular environment and require a professional approach
and secular relationships as well.
For our personal unity, for our witness, for the contribution we must
make to the educative community, it is to our purpose to look again at some
aspects of consecration. Nowadays, rather than as a single ‘moment’, it is
seen as a ‘continuum’ which embraces the whole of our life; rather than a
‘state’ in which one becomes established once for all; it is considered a gift, a
path to be followed, a relationship to be cultivated. “The entire life dedicated
to the service of God establishes a special consecration”25.
23 C 3
24 ibid.
25 Essential elements of the teaching of the Church on the religious life, III, 4

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Consecrated life comprises the personal experience of the call or
vocation, the welcoming in faith of God’s initiative, the choice of a particular
project for being a disciple or follower of Christ, recognition on the part of the
Church of the action of God in the individual, and the public insertion of the
chosen project in the mission.
I think it will be useful to think over these aspects and passages once
again, and to relive them. They are not only of doctrinal value and
enlightening, but are a condition for the lively manifestation of consecration in
our environments.
3. The joyful experience of having received a gift
“A call and the interior attraction which accompanies it”, says the
Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata speaking of consecration26. “Those
who are called to the consecrated life have a special experience of the light
which shines forth from the Incarnate Word”27. “Those who have been given
the grace of this special communion of love with Christ feel as it were caught
up in his splendour”28.
Many oblique references in the Apostolic Exhortation endorse this
subjective element, which is the sign and first step of consecration: the
appeal of the beauty which attracts, the feeling of having been reached by a
particular manifestation of Christ29, being taken up into the horizon of
eternity30 or enveloped in the brightness of truth, of having experienced the
God of love, the interior happiness of new knowledge, the rapture of wisdom.
Consecration consists in the fact that God makes himself felt in our life
in an unusual and even unique way, even to the extent of enveloping it
completely and becoming its principal incentive, the One to whom we listen
most eagerly and love to look at. And this not for any religious or ethical duty,
but as life, sense and joy.
This attraction or falling in love with God is a fact and experience which
we can relive from the past. It marks the progress of our vocational decision.
We can remember when and why we made our decision for him, just as
surely as a husband and wife recall when they met and how their mutual
attraction developed.
26 VC, 17
27 VC, 15
28 ibid.
29 cf. VC,14
30 cf. ibid.

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For some it may have been a sudden flash at a moment of particular
spiritual intensity, for example a retreat. For most people it will all have
happened gradually: a first taste through contact with religious environments
or persons, in which we discerned particular values; then, little by little we
came to discover the source from which the values proceeded; we shared in
the experience of those who had impressed us, through friendship,
collaboration and confidences. We discovered a panorama of life that was
new and full of meaning. And finally, we felt ourselves captured, in line with
St Paul’s expression: “Christ Jesus has made me his own”31.
It is the biblical experience of belonging to God and being unable to
detach ourselves from him, even though aware of our weakness and
infidelity: “LORD, you have enticed me, and I was enticed (…);within me there
is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding
it in, and I cannot”32.
Sometimes we hear personal stories of this kind at youth gatherings
when a young religious relates to companions how and why he or she
decided to enter religious life.
The accounts vary widely, both as regards anecdotes and
circumstances. But underlying all of them there is a common design: first a
brief glimpse of the worth of Christ, of God the Father for our own life;
reflection led us to choose them as the “love” of our own existence, preferring
it to any other possible human experience. That is how it began. The rest of
the story we hear from religious, including our own confreres, who have
responded joyfully to the call.
Consecration does not consist principally in a signed statement, in an
ensemble of external signs, in a social state, in separation from the world; but
in the fact that God has entered into the life of a person and has taken the
first place there, living in him and making him his confidant and partner.
It is not something exclusive to religious, nor even to Christians.
Wherever God intervenes, by creation or salvation, he consecrates with the
presence of his love and bestows an inviolable dignity. The first consecration
is human existence: it is the first act of love which establishes the inviolable
character of the person, his superiority over everything, and even the
fundamental traits of our being.
Through faith and baptism, which are God’s self-communication
through the ministry of the Church, our belonging to him becomes something
31 Phil 3,12
32 Jer 20, 7-9

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conscious and is transformed into the principle of new personal development.
We have ourselves expressed this so many times to the young in speaking of
the baptismal consecration which makes us children of God, members of his
people, and temples of the Spirit.
The unique thing about the consecrated person in the religious life or in
the “world” is that he feels all this as the principal element, an indispensable
point for his own self-realization. God reaches him at the point when he is
planning his own life and, through the gift of the Spirit, draws him to himself in
a radical and exclusive manner: this is the fact which gives rise to the
consecration which the Church will discern, make public, and confirm by
inserting this gift into its own communion and mission.
The recent congress of young religious, which took place in Rome in
October 1997, expressed this first element of the consecration in the motto:
Vidimus Dominum. We have had an experience of a meeting, an unveiling, a
“vision” of the Lord.
The eager enthusiasm of this experience must not grow less as we
grow older or acquire deep-rooted habits. It is destined rather to increase
and fill the whole of life. If it fell short, religious life would lose its motivation
and be drawn into functionalism, i.e. into nothing beyond the correct fulfilment
of one’s duties.
What would happen to us would be what takes place in old couples who
continue to live together in peace, but do not expect either anything new nor
further happiness.
And I want to add that this is something which is indispensable
nowadays. We are living in times when the “subjective” is coming to the fore;
communication leads to emphasis on “emotionalism”; the young go where
their “heart” leads them; precision becomes less and less important, as
something having no relevance to life. To the young religious, the Pope said:
“This wisdom (of the consecrated life) is the zest of the mystery of God, the
flavour 33
of divine intimacy; but it is also the beauty of remaining together in his name”
4. Acknowledgement of God’s initiative
In line with this intuition, relish, clear perception of the presence of God
and of the attraction of Christ together with our own joyful and welcoming
acceptance, there begins to take root in us the conviction of being on the
33 John Paul II, Message to Congress VIDIMUS DOMINUM of young religious, 29.9.97.

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receiving end of God’s love and attention, not in a general way as an
individual in a crowd, but personally: “I have called you by name”34.
“He chose us before the foundation of the world for adoption as his
children”35. Scripture is full of such passages describing God’s attitude in our
regard.
The first step is his. We did not go to him; he came to us and entered
into our life. The category of “gift” for interpreting the fact, not only of vocation
but of existence itself, is the dominant one and is used continually in the
Apostolic Exhortation.
Striking is the use of the verb “consecrate” in the passive voice.
Frequently it is said “we have been consecrated”. Consecration is not an
effort on our part to attain a certain degree of virtue, or to put the thought of
God at the centre of our life. It is rather the consequence of a fact which is
within us and at the basis of our project. Consecration is a visit, a gift, a
coming of God towards us, an inrush of his grace into our life. In the Gospel
the initiative is expressed through the glance Jesus bestows on certain
people, the call, the invitation, the fascination to which he gives rise, the
practical involvement and questioning, his visit to a house.
You see the same kind of thing in the vocations of the prophets. They
are sudden and unforeseeable. It is not that the prophet goes in search of
God, but that God seizes him and takes possession of him. Amos says he
was tending his sheep when he heard God’s voice36. Similar sudden calls,
albeit in widely differing circumstances, are recounted by the other prophets.
Usually this element is placed first for theological reasons of causality.
The initiative is taken by the Father who places us on the way to Christ.
“This is the meaning of the call to the consecrated life: it is an initiative
coming wholly from the Father (cf. Jn 15:16), who asks those whom he has
chosen to respond with complete and exclusive devotion”37. The initiative, in
history, also belongs to the Son. Jesus calls and invites: “Of some he asks a
total commitment, one which involves leaving everything behind (cf. Mt 19:27)
in order to live at his side and to follow him wherever he goes”38. The
initiative belongs to the Spirit who, from the depth of mind and heart, evokes
openness, clear understanding, relish, ideas, tendencies and love for God
and his work. “It is the Spirit who awakens the desire to respond fully; it is he
34 Is 43,1
35 Eph 1,4
36 cf. Amos 1,1
37 VC,17
38 VC,18

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who guides the growth of this desire, helping it to mature into a positive
response and sustaining it as it is faithfully translated into action”39.
It is a matter of being ready to listen, to respond, to allow oneself to be
taken over, to accept willingly. The initiative and possibilities do not lie in us.
We need to feel a presence who has made us the object of his predilection
and to respond with love. The consecration is founded totally on this
relationship. It is not mainly an effort of overcoming ourselves, but a
confrontation, a combat with God. In the biblical image of Jacob who
struggled with God, the dominant idea is the desire for the closeness and
blessing of the Lord, from whom we cannot separate ourselves, even though
at times his presence may provoke resistance in us. The image is a vigorous
expression of a relationship felt as vital, even though in a life which has its
problems.
This initiative of God must not remain a personal “secret”, a theological
doctrine, but become an acknowledgement or proclamation which explains to
the young why we made our choice of life. We should reawaken it above all
in the inevitable moments of trial which we often try to resolve by our own
unaided efforts.
5. A project of life in God
From the two facts described above, which existentially are only one
(presence of God and welcome, vocation and response, call and following,
gift and correspondence with it, revelation and adherence), there follows a
third: an orientation and choice of life.
There has matured in us the feeling and conviction that we are his, that
“in him we live and move and have our being”40, that he is the first and only
one of importance, not in abstract or in general for the world or for the human
race, but for us.
On him we have concentrated our hopes and expectations. We seek
him “at daybreak”41, i.e. continually, as a source of meaning, as a confidant,
as a companion.
From this stems a bond which gradually fills us with light and peace,
even psychologically, and characterizes us before the world. The
consecrated person is one who has put God and religious values, the faith
39 VC,19
40 Acts 17,28
41 Ps 62,2

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and what it offers, at the centre. “The Lord is my chosen portion and my
cup”42
This becomes not only a vague desire but a formal intention: the effort
to attain and live the mystery of God not as a brief daily or weekly pause, e.g.
in the Mass or prayer, but as a permanent relationship able to inspire
decisions and way of life.
For this reason we adopt a concrete proposal, a visible way of life,
which bears the sign of God. We are incorporated in a community which has
already made the same option and has set out a plan for its development.
This kind of community life too is “consecrated”, not by virtue of material
separation from the world, by signs and external practices (this would be an
alien vision of the Christian faith), but because the communion arises from
the ongoing action of the Spirit, life is planned under the inspiration of the
gospel, and the Church recognizes it as one of its authentic and visible
expressions. Our Constitutions express it in art.50: “God calls us to live in
community… (In them) we become one heart and one soul to love and serve
God and to help one another”43.
In this project emphasis is laid on the desire to be conformed to Christ,
expressed in the evangelical counsels we have taken up by vow. Even
though precise in their specific object, they have a meaning which is open
towards generosity, and a limitless creativity.
They express the quintessence of the gospel and are a sign of the life
to which the gospel gives inspiration. Nowadays they are exposed to more
serious questions and to new challenges. And it is quite other than
superfluous to reflect on them again in the light of the tendencies, manners
and usages of the present day to rediscover their positive force, challenge
and prophecy. The challenges in fact give rise to new expressions and bring
out new messages. Understanding them in the evangelical sense, choosing
them as a way of life, deciding to profess them publicly, being creative in
expressing them at the present day, is a gift which proceeds from the Trinity
and reflects the mystery of donation.
To imitation must be added two other requirements. In the first place
there is the rapport, friendship and intimacy with Christ. The assumption of
his preferences and attitudes would not be sufficient. A personal relationship
is needed. Jesus is a living person to meet and live with. Between him and
the consecrated person a deep rapport is established. This we are taught by
42 Ps 16,5
43 C 50

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the life of the disciples. Jesus in fact had listeners, admirers, followers,
disciples and some who were particularly close to him and on terms of
intimacy. He said of them: “You are my friends”44. They were moved to
share their life with him and to stay together. “Master, where are you
staying?”45 Once again we should meditate on the fact that consecration
grafts us more intimately into the life and paschal mystery of Christ.
Nowadays, when all institutional bonds seem weak and all formal
memberships seem transitory and of little consequence, this personal
experience becomes a convincing testimony and a guarantee of fidelity.
At this point a comment may be opportune: it is fitting that affective
manifestations of friendship with Christ be given, in addition to effective ones.
Two extremes need to be avoided: to convert love into a superficial
sentiment, a simple movement of sensitivity; and at the other extreme to
make our heart arid through forgetfulness or intellectualism. If the will
frequently finds itself held back in the love of God, one of the reasons is that
our human sensitivity has become atrophied. As long as faith or the thought
of God fails to reach our feelings, they remain marginalized and ineffective.
There were some saints who showed great tenderness in their love for God.
We may recall St Francis of Assisi but, not less though with a different style,
St Francis de Sales from whose spirituality we take our inspiration.
In addition to imitation and intimacy there is also active participation in
Christ’s cause, i.e. to spend ourselves for those things for which he worked
and suffered. We shall deal later with this at greater length, when we focus
on the prevalently apostolic character of our consecration.
This process of friendship, imitation, participation, discipleship, is called
in the Apostolic Exhortation “conforming one’s whole existence to Christ”46.
“By professing the evangelical counsels, consecrated persons not only make
Christ the whole meaning of their lives but strive to reproduce in themselves,
as far as possible, ‘that form of life which he, as the Son of God, accepted in
entering this world’ (LG 44)”47.
This aspect too of consecration provokes in us some practical and
helpful questions. Does the heart of the project, the option for Christ,
preserve within us its central position, even to the extent of giving light and
colour to all the rest?
44 Jn 15,14
45 Jn 1,38
46 VC,16
47 ibid.

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Do we succeed in getting over to our young people and collaborators
that our life is lived under the impulse of a great “love”, which seemed
beneficial to us even from a human point of view?
6. Public profession
These three facts: call-response-project, presence-welcome-choice,
invitation-correspondence-covenant are expressed by profession. In it the
individual “consecrates himself”, in the common expression for offering
himself, devoting himself, making himself completely available. As in
Baptism, the Lord consecrates the person whom the Spirit has prompted to
offer himself and gives him new grace to enable him to walk with Christ in
newness of life48.
The oldest formulas are trimmed down to the essentials. Those of the
present day, on the other hand, tend to be rather long and analytical. But all
of them emphasize that the object of the consecration are not things, nor
activities, nor moral obligations, but the person; that the ultimate aim is not a
task but the love of God who is perceived and the desire to correspond with it;
that the principal subjects are the Lord and the one making profession: “God
my Father, you consecrated me to yourself”. (…) “I offer myself totally to
you”49.
“Religious profession is a sign of a loving encounter between the Lord
who calls and the disciple who responds by giving himself totally to God and
to his brothers and sisters”50. The demands of consecration are therefore
total, exclusive and perpetual: all, only and for ever. There was a period in
which the formula used was “until death”. It was not an indication of time but
of intensity: until the holocaust, until the consummation.
Profession is of unique importance in the organization and development
of our spiritual life. It is not a passing act, a rite which is performed and done
with, leaving obligations to be respected, but the beginning of a relationship
which will be prolonged all through life, like that of matrimony. It should foster
attitudes and expressions, and give direction to life. Hence it is not only a
plan for sanctification, a contract of membership in a community, but
especially a source of grace, as is for newly-weds their initial promise of
mutual belonging to each other.
48 cf. RD, 7
49 C 24
50 C 23

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On the grace received and on the obligation of corresponding to it the
whole of life will be built. Its influence on daily life makes all the difference
between the authentic Salesian and his halfhearted confrere. Hence it is
more than fitting that there be an immediate preparation, especially for
perpetual profession, which has by now become common in the
Congregation. It should not be reduced in time and content but should
emphasize both the deeper meaning and the appreciation of the experience
already gained.
Profession is the public recognition on the part of the Church of God’s
invading presence in the life of a person, and of the will of the individual
concerned to live such an event in the Christian community and at the service
of the Kingdom, and hence not in an intimist and individual form. The Church
recognizes him and incorporates him in the communion and mission of the
people of God. It authenticates the gift, and serves as the mediator of the
consecration51. And so the liturgy enhances profession with a special
celebration: it invokes on the individuals the gift of the Holy Spirit and
associates their oblation to the sacrifice of Christ, while the numerous
presence of the community at the act gives to it a charismatic and ecclesial
importance.
This action of the Church is to be linked with a point vigorously
discussed nowadays in certain circles, especially from a practical point of
view: the indispensable nature of consecrated life for the quality of
communion and mission in the Church. We read in the Apostolic Exhortation:
“The consecrated life, present in the Church from the beginning, can never
fail to be one of her essential and characteristic elements, for it expresses her
very nature”52.
“The idea of a Church made up only of sacred ministers and lay people
does not therefore conform to the intentions of her divine Founder, as
revealed to us by the Gospels and the other writings of the New Testament”53
Profession is not a generic promise of love, subjectively conceived and
expressed, but the assumption of a real project, raised up by the Spirit, lived
by the Founder to a degree of holiness, and recognized by the Church as an
efficacious way for the sequela Christi. It leads therefore to a “return to the
Rule”54 which gathers together the spirit, discipline and customs already tried
out for the realization of the project.
Interest in spirituality has become a phenomenon of the present day.
Some go looking for books which put it forward and explain it. In the
51 cf. Essential elements of the teaching of the Church on the religious life, I, 8
52 VC, 29
53 ibid.
54 VC, 37

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Constitutions it is found already studied by successive generations who have
lived it; it is handed on to us in a magnificent manner in particular formulas
which reflect this long existence. A rapid reading, or hearing it read in
community, do scant justice to the depth and rich nature of the text. A deeper
reading, which gives due value to the whole and to individual expressions,
which compares the meaning of those expressions with the history of the
charisma and with personal life, will help us to understand and appreciate the
wisdom of the process offered by profession.
We know that “our living rule is Jesus Christ, the Saviour announced in
the Gospel, who is alive today in the Church and in the world, and whom we
find present in Don Bosco”55. For this very reason “we willingly accept the
Constitutions as Don Bosco's will and testament…, we meditate on them with
faith and pledge ourselves to put them into practice; they are for us, the
Lord's disciples, a way that leads to Love”56.
From what we have said so far it is evident that life becomes ever more
authentically consecrated through God’s call or invitation, the experience of
his felt presence, the will to respond, a concrete plan of life which puts Jesus
Christ at the centre of life, and the action of the Church which inserts the
whole ensemble into its own communion and mission.
Consecration embraces the whole of life and is realized after the
manner of a crescendo, a covenant, a pact of love and fidelity, the final
communion.
7. Some consequences.
We can now draw some important conclusions for our work among the
young and among lay people.
Consecrated persons take up sanctification as the main aim in life. This
is common to all forms of consecrated life. In their way of life, of
relationships, of work, they want to live and in some way communicate the
mystery of the liberating God who is close to us, by “conforming one’s whole
existence to Christ”57 They want to be a living memorial of Christ58.
The Constitutions tell us that holiness is the most precious gift we can
offer to the young59. But it is difficult for them to build their humanity on this
55 C 196
56 ibid.
57 VC, 16
58 cf. VC, 22
59 cf. C 25

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alone. Discordant and contradictory messages and suggestions reach them
from outside. It is difficult for them to evaluate them, make judgements and
especially decide on their path in life. The libertarian atmosphere all around
makes it difficult to listen to the voice of conscience and to establish mature
moral criteria.
It is not easy for them either, in the secular context, to perceive the
transcendence of Christ and believe that he is alive today and not just an
edifying story from the past.
Placed in this manner in a strict relationship with the mission, holiness
becomes the chief contribution of Salesian religious to education and human
advancement. In fact it has a temporal value not only because of works of
charity for the benefit of the poor, but also for the outlook, the meaning and
the dignity it gives to human social life.
The existence of consecrated persons, therefore, has a primacy without
parallel. Their project of community life ensures a right order of priorities: the
contemplative element of prayer and interior life, the apostolic element of self-
donation for the Kingdom, and the ascetical element of penance and exodus;
and all these lived in an intimate rapport and collaboration with Christ under
the guidance of the Spirit.
Another consequence, linked with the preceding, is that consecrated
persons are seen as experts in the experience of God. Such experience is
at the origin of their vocation. Their plan of life and what they usually do
tends to cultivate this and foster it. All Christians, on the other hand, should
want to have a certain experience of God; but they can give their attention to
it only at intervals and in less favourable circumstances, and so they run the
risk of neglecting it altogether.
Those who are consecrated offer themselves as confidants for all in the
world who are in search of God. To those who are already Christians they
offer the possibility of having a new religious experience in their company;
those who are not believers they join in their process of searching.
Nowadays this kind of service is becoming widespread and much
sought after, as is shown by the opening of convents and monasteries to
those who want to use them for days and periods of reflection. We, on the
other hand, are called to provide a similar service among young people.
There is a law of life which is applicable in all circumstances: no value
will survive in society without a group of people who dedicate themselves
completely to promoting it. Without medical personnel and the organization

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of hospitals good health would not be possible. Without artists and the
corresponding institutions the artistic sense of the population would decline.
The same kind of thing happens with the sense of God: religious, whether
contemplatives or not, form the group of mystics who are able to help those at
least who are close to interpreting life in the light of the Absolute and
experiencing it.
This applies to all the essential aims of religious life. And so the
Founders placed the sense of God above all the features and activities of
their institutes. Believers and non-believers alike see mediocrity in
consecrated religious as a deformity, and the religious themselves feel an
unfillable void if this dimension disappears.
The Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata sees religious life as a
privileged setting for dialogue between the great religions60, because at its
origin is an option which, in general terms, is shared by all deeply religious
persons.
The salesian Constitutions recall the same point in art.62: “In a world
beguiled by atheism and the idolatry of pleasure, possession and power, our
way of life bears witness, especially to the young, that God exists, and that
his love can fill a life completely”61.
A demonstration of this professional profile of ours is our personal
experience of God, made conscious, sought after, more deeply analyzed and
matured as adults; it is shown also by the ability to initiate others, and
especially young people, along the same lines. They are looking for some
moment of spirituality, even though it be out of curiosity or a passing whim.
This is clear from the way they frequent retreat houses. It would be a sad
state of affairs if those consecrated were more concerned about the
administration of such houses, than about being qualified to guide others
towards the spiritual life.
II. OUR APOSTOLIC CONSECRATION 62
1. Unique nature of “salesian” consecration
60 cf. VC 101,102
61 C 62
62 cf. C 3

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Consecrated life is realized in a unique fashion in the salesian
charisma. We have already made a few brief references to the point, to
preserve unity among what we were saying. Now we can focus more directly
on the point.
Our Constitutions tell us that ours is an apostolic consecration: “Our
mission sets the tenor of our whole life”63. God’s call reached us through the
experience of the mission to the young; for many this was the spark that
began the fire of all that followed.
It is in the mission that the gifts of consecration are made, appear in
their charismatic uniqueness and grow in us. There is a single movement of
charity which draws us towards God and moves us towards the young,
especially the poorer ones among them, which prompts signs of love and
correspondence with the Father and urges us to provide the services of which
the young are in need.
The two dimensions are in fact related like concentric circles: we
contemplate God in his providing presence and in his work of salvation, we
discern him in events, we can understand his sentiments and actions in the
light of the image of the Good Shepherd who goes in search of his flock and
gives his life on the Cross. We live the work of education with the young as
an act of worship and possibility of an encounter with God.
If one of these elements were eroded or absent, our joyful educative
experience and our plan of spiritual life would lose its zest: in a word, the
particular grace of our consecration would fall back to the common level, and
our charism would lose its value.
It is true that our spirituality is balanced on the other side by our activity.
In fact “as he works for the salvation of the young, the Salesian experiences
the fatherhood of God, and continually reminds himself of the divine
dimension of his work”64.
Da mihi animas, apostolic spirituality, pastoral charity, oratorian heart:
these are all phrases which provide a measure of the originality and unity we
want to give to our life. Very true of us is what Vita Consecrata says of
consecrated persons in general: “the task of devoting themselves wholly to
‘mission’ is included in their call”65, just as it is true that in the fulfilment of the
mission we find the material, motivation and stimulus to live in depth that love
63 C 3
64 C 12
65 VC, 72

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of God who “provides in advance for all his creatures, is ever present at their
side, and freely gives his life to save them”66.
It must be emphasized that our mission is centred in the area of youth,
and follows the way of education. Here the charism is manifested and we
find once again a secret of our vitality. This gives us ample scope nowadays
for creativity regarding the application of our resources, the reformulation of
the projects, and the renewal of activities.
Far from us, therefore, should be any dichotomy between interior life
and pastoral commitment, between religious spirit and educational work, or
the escape to any other forms which are not in line with those three words of
Don Bosco: work, prayer, temperance.
A clarification is needed nonetheless, but I will not delay on it because I
think it is obvious: the mission does not consist in the professional work we
accomplish. A religious, man or woman, is an educator like all others, but not
in the same way as those others. The mission is not even just the pastoral
service one wants to offer. It is a spiritual experience; the feeling of
collaborating with God, of being “sent” by him through the experiences in
which we see the expression of his will, in the first place religious profession
in which we have manifested our intention to follow his call and to be united
with him in his work for the benefit of the world and of every individual.
The purpose of the mission goes beyond the results, excellent though
they may be, obtainable by professional work. It consists in living, bearing
witness to, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God: the possibility of life for all,
in particular for the poor, the revelation of God’s love for each one, the
meaning of life. The kind of life we take up and the work we do serve as
ways and means to this end.
This is the thread of the story Don Bosco tells of his life in the Memoirs
of the Oratory starting from his first dream. “The Lord sent me to look after
boys. I must therefore cut down on other work and keep myself fit for them”67.
This was an enduring conviction which became ever more deeply rooted in
him as time went on and events became more complicated. “The conviction
of being under a unique kind of divine pressure dominated the life of Don
Bosco; it was at the root of his most daring decisions and ready to break out
in unusual ways. The belief of being the Lord’s instrument for a very
particular mission was deep and well founded within him. It produced in him
66 C 20
67 BM 7, 171

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the religious attitude characteristic of the biblical servant, of the prophet who
could not fail to fulfil the divine will”68.
This “interior and further dimension” distinguishes the one who is sent
from the competent and conscientious executive, from the convinced
professional satisfied with his particular craft; it is at the heart of the attitudes
which shape an apostolic spirituality. It frees us from excessive attachment to
success and satisfaction, from desires (sometimes subconscious), from self-
affirmation and from individualism. It keeps us awake to the essential
dimensions of our work and infuses a sense of serene trust.
2. “Consecrated” uniqueness of our apostolic mission
Many are involved in the apostolate, including the youth apostolate and
that of education. Nowadays many of them perform it with the salesian spirit.
The mission of religious however has certain characteristics of its own,
which make its service part of ecclesial communion, and different from a
similar material service offered in another condition of life.
It is of interest to give some more thought to this statement because it
touches us closely: as educators we do all that would be done by any
competent Christian educator; as priests we do all that would be done by a
diocesan priest, supported if you like by a pastoral practice and by a
particular spirituality. But the mission is carried out through life before
through work, especially nowadays when the common view is that work is
perceived as a means, and not as having to give sense to life.
A characterizing element of the mission of consecrated persons is
specifically the choice of life, not only as a source of energy for the work, but
as a message and service in itself. “By the action of the Holy Spirit who is at
the origin of every vocation and charism, consecrated life itself is a mission,
as was the whole of Jesus' life”69.
Before and more than doing anything, the mission of consecrated life
consists in living in a certain way in the Church and in the world, in the place
chosen in it by God. In other words, one does not embrace consecrated life
only to do excellent things from a religious or promotional standpoint, which
can be done in other ways at the present day, but because one has perceived
and wishes to manifest the presence of God in history and in life, in the areas
and ways involved in the particular vocation.
68 Stella P., Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica. Vol. II, p.32
69 VC, 72

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The Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata explains here and there the
reasons behind this assertion. By assuming the “form of life in Christ”,
consecrated persons become for the Christian community, and for those in
the world who are wondering about these things even vaguely, a reference to
the fact of Jesus. The religious dimension, which they express in
concentrated form, recalls the need for the reditus ad Deum, a return at least
to the thought of God.
In this sense consecrated persons are already a proclamation,
message and a service. They have something to say to man reminding him
of the dimension which Scripture calls “heart”: interior life, conscience,
spirituality.
In situations in which the tendency is to consider only the material
conditions of life, even with the good intention of transforming them,
consecrated life keeps alive the need to consider another dimension without
which all external progress, albeit necessary and demanding, can become
largely insufficient.
Personal and collective existence is ruled by a constellation of values
assumed by all: respect for other people, work, health, honesty and sincerity,
social responsibility. ‘Constellation’ implies that among them there is a
hierarchy which enables them to be seen as a system. Each one focuses on
some of his own preference and in harmony with these organizes all the rest.
Consecrated persons place at the centre the religious value and the
confession of Christ, and from this they move on to others, maintaining the
first as the justification and matrix of all they do. And so they take up
education, attend to the sick, and undertake research. Every branch of
human activity is open to those who are consecrated, provided their
inspiration and motivation are those of persons who have made God their
principal choice and option. It is an abnormality when another dimension
gains the ascendancy and the religious spirit becomes only marginal.
Religious have a mission to encourage and support all who commit
themselves in some way for the benefit of others, even independently of the
faith. I have in mind young people, even non-practising ones, who approach
us to become involved in our initiatives, drawn by the kind of life they see in
us. For those already living the faith, the witness of consecrated persons
gives meaning to their dedication to their brothers and sisters, recalling that in
the work of salvation everything comes from the divine banquet which is
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Finally we emphasize the perspective of the “going beyond”; it is a
service of vision and hope concerning what lies beyond earthly life. It is a
matter of living the yearning of the Church for the fullness of life, the desire for
the motherland which fills the Christian heart, the expectation of the coming
meeting with the Lord which is the essential content of faith and which opens
the windows towards transcendence for all.
“Thus it can be said that consecrated persons are ‘in mission’ by virtue
of their very consecration, to which they bear witness in accordance with the
ideal of their Institute”70. This is its main aspect. The conclusion seems to be
that pastoral work, educational or progressive, without the manifestation of
the radical choice of life following Christ, cannot delineate the proper mission
of the religious. On the other hand, if such work is taken up in the light of
consecration, it becomes an efficacious expression and under certain
conditions releases extraordinary energies of charity with particularly eloquent
messages.
3. Service and prophecy.
“When the founding charism provides for pastoral activities, it is obvious
that the witness of life and the witness of works of the apostolate and human
development are equally necessary: both mirror Christ who is at one and the
same time consecrated to the glory of the Father and sent into the world for
the salvation of his brothers and sisters”71.
We just said that, under certain conditions, educative pastoral work
frees up energy and gives out messages.
The first of these conditions is the prophetic character. It is of the
whole Church and for all ages; but it is urgently needed at the present day
and is particularly indicated for religious. They become a sign and suggestion
for orientation, rather than a mere solution for a human need; they do not
supply for what others ought to be doing, but offer that which is their own: the
gospel. Jesus performs cures, but he also “reveals new dimensions of life”.
“opens up horizons of God”, says and does things which are
“incomprehensible” and “daring”, open to criticism and apparently useless at
the time but which lay down new criteria of existence.
70 VC, 72
71 ibid.

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In the Apostolic Exhortation no less than ten numbers are dedicated to
this aspect in the chapter on mission72, and they provide us with a criterion for
the setting up of our own work or works.
In a world marked by communication, to be able to produce a message
would seem to be one of the principal elements of pastoral work. What is
important in fact is not only what is realized materially but also that to which it
gives rise or stirs up, what it hints at to raise questions, the ideas it inculcates,
what it points to, the challenges it launches. It has been said that
consecrated life must not only respond to challenges, but itself launch new
ones: to the “closed” outlook, to the seeking of instant pleasure. It is
interesting to read the signs of the times, but we need to write them anew.
We must enter into dialogue with the current mentality, but we must insert in it
elements which would not logically be there at all.
The prophetic dimension must not be confused with simple
contestation, in particular within the Christian community, with the theatrical
gestures so willingly amplified nowadays by the mass media with its flare for
the spectacular. But it is true nonetheless that prophecy implies something
new, a break with what is taken for granted, the overcoming of immediate and
restricted visions so as to go beyond: it confirms what is small and hidden but
nevertheless true, as Jesus did with regard to the widow’s mite, the radical
assumption of what is of daily occurrence, but fertile just the same.
The functions of prophecy and prophets can be seen in the history of
God’s people; they are not far removed from our own needs and experience:
prophecy brings back to mind, raises questions, indicates an orientation,
interprets events, strengthens and supports, infuses hope, and brings people
to their senses and to conversion.
It is not an easy job being a prophet; and so those who attempt it
lightheartedly and with vanity end up in discouragement or fall back on other
positions.
Elijah can serve as a paradigm of prophecy. Of him it is said: “He lived
in God's presence and contemplated his passing by in silence; he interceded
for the people and boldly announced God's will; he defended God's
sovereignty and came to the defence of the poor against the powerful of the
world (cf. 1 Kg 18-19)”73.
The problem for religious, including Salesians, is how to give
expression to this dimension effectively. It requires fidelity to the message, to
72 cf. VC, 84-93
73 VC, 84

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the style of life and of initiatives at the present moment in history. The
prophets spoke in the context of their own society and events, transcending
them but without ignoring or diminishing their import. It means that the
proclamation must be authentic and the signs and words intelligible.
One of the main difficulties of consecrated life in the face of today’s
world is the feeling of being culturally extraneous, and this can weaken
prophetic thrust and lead to forms of frustration, resignation, discouragement,
withdrawal and even abandonment.
Hence among the many interesting and often original suggestions
contained here and elsewhere in the Apostolic Exhortation, attention is called
to “a greater cultural commitment”. To be prophetic consecrated life must be
able to shake up this world which is distancing itself from the gospel. And for
this it must be able to read, evaluate, assume, give new meaning to and
challenge cultural currents or fashions, in their roots in addition to their
manifestations.
Following the three elements of consecration, some prophetic
processes can be proposed. The specific mission becomes prophetic when it
plans and realizes a different and “more” evangelical manner of facing up to
the questions typical of the area of its particular commitment; not just provide
a stopgap, sop or simple maintenance.
In this sense we have to ask ourselves today what we can put into
education and into our presence among young people to produce that impact
of novelty in the expression of love that Don Bosco was able to do in his own
context.
Prophetic testimony demands not only dedication and competence in
one’s own work, but also the commitment to think creatively and give cultural
motivation to new and more evangelical ways of presence and action, so that
the gospel can be leaven in every situation.
The radical following of Christ must lead to a discernment of current
values and a proposal which represents an alternative kind of education.
It may produce a criticism which calls in question certain orientations or
exaggerations of our society. This demands vigilance and evangelical
persistence. It implies frank critical action in face of the exaltation of the
sexual instinct disconnected from any moral norm, and from the “culture of
transgression” which leads to very real aberrations; of the quest for money at
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insensitivity and the practical abandoning of the poor to their fate by both
governments and public opinion; and finally as regards the exaggerated and
narcissistic desire for success, of making the grade at any price, of becoming
someone of importance, of having power.
But contestation is not sufficient in itself, and is still less so if it appears
as wholesale condemnation. With a fulfilled and serene life and commitment
to cultural reflection, the consecrated person proposes ideals on which
people can base their happiness and which offer the wisdom contained in the
gospel. We do this by way of guidance and an educative program assumed
in the first place by ourselves.
The following is an interesting note in this connection: “While those who
follow the evangelical counsels seek holiness for themselves, they propose,
so to speak, a spiritual therapy for humanity, because they reject the idolatry
of anything created and in a certain way they make visible the living God”74. It
is a therapy for treating insatiable desires, the state of emptiness, seeking
immediate satisfaction, selfishness.
Attention, reflection, interpretative capacity and dialogue, should
together give rise to the ability and readiness to enter into communication
with and confront secular culture, if it is true that the gospel is an enrichment
for mankind, and the closer we get to Christ the more we become men and
women.75
Fraternal life in common becomes prophetic when it refines a critical
conscience in the face of individualism. With it we unite ourselves with those
who elaborate a “culture of solidarity”, contributing our own experience and
reflection. This is particularly striking when, as we set out in the preceding
Letter, it leads to the expansion of communion and the spirit of reconciliation,
welcoming the most needy and exchanging the gifts of the charisma in the
educative community.
4. The many gifts of our consecrated community
Another original aspect of the contribution our experience as
consecrated persons can provide, if it is lived in depth and radiantly
expressed in our educative work, stems from the form of our community. In it
there are gifts and personal charisms which are assumed and given new
significance by consecration. And there are tasks interpreted and lived in the
light of the consecration.
74 VC, 87
75 cf. GS, 41

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In particular the salesian community is enriched by the significant and
complementary presence of the salesian priest and the salesian brother76.
Together they provide an unusual complementarity of energy for witnessing
and the educative mission.
We may wonder what exactly the figures of the salesian brother and the
salesian priest demonstrate in the experience and witness of apostolic
consecration; what does the lay character emphasize in ‘consecration’, and
what does ‘consecration’ give to the lay state, both of them moulded and
fused by the salesian spirit. Similarly we may wonder what the ministerial
priesthood highlights in salesian consecration and what the latter gives to the
ministry.
The original value is not found in external additions of status or category
of members, but in the resulting physiognomy of the salesian community
itself.
The salesian brother “combines in himself the gifts of consecration
with those of the lay state”77. He lives the lay state not in secular conditions
but in the consecrated life; as a salesian religious he lives his vocation as a
layman, and as a layman he lives his community vocation of a salesian
religious”78.
“To his consecrated brethren”, declares the GC24, “he recalls the
values of the creation and of secular realities; to the laity he recalls the values
of total dedication to God for the cause of the Kingdom. To all he offers a
particular sensitivity for the world of work, attention to the local environment,
and the demands of the professional approach associated with his educative
and pastoral activity”79.
In him professional techniques, secular fields of work, practical forms of
involvement show their basic orientation towards the ultimate good of
mankind, especially the young, and towards the Kingdom. “Everything is
open to him, even those things which priests cannot do”, but everything is
placed in the light of the radical love for Christ, polarized in the direction of
evangelization and the eternal salvation of the boys.
“The presence of the lay Salesian enriches the apostolic activity of the
community. It reminds the priest members of the values inherent in the lay
76 cf. GC24 174; C 45
77 GC24, 154; cf. 236
78 cf. The Salesian Brother, Rome 1989, n.119
79 GC24, 154

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religious vocation and recalls them constantly to an active collaboration with
lay people. It also recalls to the salesian priest the vision of an apostolic goal
and ideal that is complex in its reality, because it goes beyond priestly and
catechetical activity in the strict sense” 80.
Especially in certain contexts and in face of a certain way of perceiving
and conceiving the priest as a sacred or cultist figure, the style of
consecration of the salesian brother proclaims in a concrete manner the
presence and communication of God in daily life, the importance of becoming
disciples before being teachers, the duty of witnessing to a personal
experience of faith over and above functional or ministerial commitments.
Certain attitudes, which are taken for granted in the priest, because
they are thought to be part of his “job”, are more challenging when they are
found in the lay religious too.
The figure of the salesian priest combines in itself the gifts of
consecration and those of the pastoral ministry. The priesthood has in him a
particular expression which stems not only from his specifically priestly
identity but also from the fruitful fusion with the salesian apostolic
consecration.
Ecclesial reflection has made it clear that the priesthood is not
something generic, neither as the exercise of the ministry nor as a grace. Its
practice and spirituality are shaped by his specific vocation.
Contributing to the sign have been those who coined for Don Bosco’s
biography the title: “A priest educator”, or “A priest for the young”. The
charism has given rise to a unique manner of being a priest and of exercising
the ministry.
The priest is a sacramental mediation of Christ, to whom the Salesian is
conformed in pastoral charity and in the desire to save the souls of the young
in an educative context. His word not only reflects the word of Jesus, but
shares in it. In the world of education the use of the word takes place in
situations and circumstances, themes and forms which are “sui generis”.
They range from the homily to personal and friendly conversations, from
catechesis to the classroom. He uses the pulpit, the teacher’s desk and the
playground. He adopts forms of preaching, of greeting and of giving advice.
He brings light to the problems of the young and heals their wounds.
The salesian priest’s activity of coordination and animation is a
participation in the pastoral ministry of Jesus and of the Church. He makes
80 The Salesian Brother, n.133

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use of the grace of the latter to unite the community and direct it towards the
Father. In the environment and in the educative community such a ministry
has requirements, objectives and typical methods.
Nonetheless the service of sanctification has in the field of education,
with poor and needy boys and with collaborators, its particular processes
which are most significant and fruitful in the sacraments, but are not limited to
them. It is all a matter of initiation into the life of Christ.
In the salesian community clerics and laymen build and bear witness to
a model brotherhood, eliminating the separation based on roles and
ministries through their ability to share different gifts in a single project. This
relationship is the source of mutual enrichment and stimulus for a harmonious
experience, in which the priesthood does not eclipse the religious identity and
the lay characteristic does not conceal the radical nature of the consecration.
All this is an antidote to the over-clericalization of the religious priest, which is
deplored in some areas of consecrated life, or to the over-secularization of
the lay religious.
We shall have to be particularly careful to encourage in priests a
sensitivity to the lay dimension in the history of the Church and of salvation,
and to foster in brothers an experience which is not generic but nourished by
pastoral charity. In this way the grace of unity will be evident in the life of
every confrere, in the characteristics of the community, and in the fulfilment of
the mission.
In the Congregation there are just over 11,000 priests, all of them raised
up by God as educators of the young. What would happen if all of us revived
and practised our “typical” priesthood with intensity? And here I am not
talking about taking up a ministry outside the setting which has been
entrusted to us, but specifically of using all the resources of the priesthood in
the youth environment and in the educative community.
Similarly we have a far from indifferent number of consecrated laity:
about 2,500 of them. What an influence it could have on the young and on
educators if they lived out their lay state to the full in the light of the love of
God and their fellowmen! Their significant and credible presence makes
clear to the young the values of following Christ and being his disciples,
things they frequently identify with the priesthood. “To those who do not feel
themselves called to the religious life it offers a more immediate model of the
Christian life, of sanctified work, and of the lay apostolate. It provides the

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salesian community with a particular apostolic incarnation in the world, and a
particular presence in the Church’s mission”81.
5. Some consequences.
What we have been saying has many practical applications in three
areas. I refer to them only briefly so as to prompt further reflections.
The first is our religious community. The signs of the following of
Christ must be evident and recognizable in the primacy we give to the
religious spirit and the spiritual life. These are manifested in calm, regular
and participated prayer. Nowadays, as we said earlier, convents and
monasteries are inviting Catholics and others to an experience of prayer. It
was typical of Don Bosco and his Salesians to pray with the young and the
ordinary people. It would be interesting if our prayer could be so educative
that we could share it, in particular circumstances, with anyone who wanted
to join in.
Consecration is also manifested in dedication to a communal work
which is well ordered and prepared, and carefully carried out. I was struck
when reading the Rule of a religious institute by the following points about
work: “It is obedience and a prolongation of the Eucharist and of the Divine
Office, and the normal object of our offering; hence it is well prepared, cared
for, and carried out with religious zeal”82.
Consecration is also shown in evangelical temperance. Today there is
a request in many places for a return to daily austerity in the face of the
spreading of consumerism, inequality and waste. Temperance embraces all
the visible manifestations of the vows. Consecration flourishes especially in
unity of spirit and action; it is the sign that Jesus himself recommends to his
disciples, the sign that Don Bosco most wanted to see in his communities.
The second area for offering the gifts of consecration is the educative
and pastoral community, in which it leads to an emphasis on the primacy of
spirituality as the principal source of energy for the educator. We frequently
say that the preventive system is both spirituality and pedagogy, and that
between the two there is so close a connection that it is not possible to give
effect to the second unless the first is realized. This conviction corresponds
to a statement of Don Bosco: “The practice of this system is wholly based on
81 The Salesian Brother, n.133; cf. GC21, 195
82 Little Family of the Annunciation, Document 10/25

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the words of St Paul who says: Love is patient and kind; love bears all things,
hopes all things, endures all things”83. The preventive system, said the
GC24, has a religious soul84. It is a pedagogy of the Spirit. The human and
professional dimension must be exploited to the full, but all must be leavened
by the orientation towards God and the faith.
The third area on which consecration can make itself felt, is the
educative environment. Here much can be taken up from what we have
already said about prophecy. Through word and example young people can
see in our life a critique and a pointer: criticism of the excesses of the
transgressive mentality, the pursuit of material goods which can impoverish
others, purposeless freedom; a proclamation of new and original ways in
which the individual can achieve self-realization, the real goods proposed by
the Beatitudes, and self-donation as the mainspring of life.
The clearest manifestation of our presence as consecrated persons in
educative environments is their pastoral leavening. From the outset the
educator aims at revealing the love of God to the young, whatever the starting
point and the route to be followed. He does this through an opening up to the
faith, preparing the young for a meeting with the living Christ and sustaining a
process of growth through catechesis, the sacraments and participation in the
Church. A neutral education or one without reference to Christ would have
no meaning for us. Our consecration invites us therefore to rethink and
realize evangelizing by educating.
6. The guide of the consecrated community.
The development of the gifts of consecration and the communication of
its riches to the educative community and the young are entrusted to the
shared responsibility of the community. The animation of the latter is also
shared, but it has in the rector its point of reference and the one bearing the
main responsibility. He is at one and the same time the religious Superior,
the director of the apostolic work, and the spiritual father of the community.
Much thought has been given to his figure and role, and rightly so, on
account of the evolution that has taken place in communities and in the
arrangement of activities. Both figure and role matured in Don Bosco himself,
who was a rector for a long time and in the most creative phase of his life. Of
our Father is remembered in particular his concern for spiritual good, the
kindness which inspired his relationships and the wise guidance given to
83 cf. Constitutions SDB (English edtn.) p.248
84 cf. GC24, 100 and passim

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individuals and groups: three points which characterized his fatherliness.
They were expressed in many of his actions and attitudes.
Rightly does our text The Salesian Rector note that the first task of the
rector is “to stir up in the individual members the awareness of who they are;
to bring their abilities and charisms to the fore; to help them to keep alive the
spirit of the theological virtues. (…) In other words to create an environment
and conditions which will enable every Salesian, in submission to grace, to
mature in his vocational identity and reach the fullness of ‘union with God’ so
characteristic of Don Bosco. All this presupposes a certain technical ability
on the part of the one who must organize and direct the community, but
animation is more than this: it is a spirit and even a spiritual art”85.
Recent General Chapters have insisted on a “spiritual” animation, able
to present once again in contextualized form the motives which are at the
basis of our life, in order to foster an ever more conscious and complete
response to the Lord. The present situation of our communities, their role in
the new operational setup, the need to animate a community of consecrated
persons, the insistence on the local community as the place for ongoing
formation, all require the Superior to give priority to certain aspects of his
service. They are set out well in our Manual, but it is well to read them also in
the Synodal text: “The one who presides over the community should be
considered, first of all, a master of the spirit who, while exercising a function
or ministry of teaching, carries out a true spiritual direction of the community,
an authoritative teaching made in the name of Christ, with regard to the
Institute’s charisma. He serves God to the extent in which he promotes the
authenticity of community life and serves the brethren by helping them to
realize their vocation in truth”86.
We need to recognize the positive signs there are in the Congregation
in this connection, such as the willingness to accept the responsibility of
direction often in conditions of scarcity of personnel, the ongoing formation
which is going ahead almost everywhere, the new care for the expression of
brotherly unity, and interest in understanding possible methods of spiritual
direction.
Going back to the points developed in the first part of this letter, I feel it
a duty to ask rectors to give animation to consecration, reawakening in the
confreres the happy experience of their calling, emphasizing the initiative of
God in the life and action of the community, and putting forward the project
once again in its various aspects with a deepening of the significance of
profession.
85 The Salesian Rector, Rome 1986, n.105
86 Consecrated Life and its mission in the Church and in the world, Instrumentum laboris, 59

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There are some elements that must be preserved so that no community
is without the Word of God, prayer meetings, fellowship in the experience of
consecration, and shared responsibility in communal witness and action.
I recall the usefulness of the discernment which leads, in a spirit of
sincerity and conversion87, to the seeking of the will of God in questions which
regard the apostolic project88, the life of he community89, the gifts and abilities
of confreres90, vocational clarification91 and cultural opportunities.
The Constitutions tell us that in line with our traditions, “communities are
guided by a member who is a priest, and who by the grace of his priestly
ministry and pastoral experience sustains and directs the spirit and activity of
his brothers”92.
It is not only a juridical requirement, but concerns the substance, ways
and means that are associated with the rector’s service of authority. He is
asked to dedicate to it all the gifts and energies of his priesthood and to
animate specifically as a priest and not just as an expert. For the community
and for his educative environment he must be a sacramental mediation of
Christ. The religious community and educative environment are the field
where the Lord calls him to reap the fruits of his priesthood.
***
Every day at the end of meditation we renew our entrustment to Our
Blessed Lady, invoking her under two linked titles which sum up salesian
history and spirituality: Mary Immaculate and Mary Help of Christians. It is a
practice we have continued everywhere with affection and heartfelt devotion.
At the end of these reflections I find myself spontaneously moved to join
you in spirit in reciting together this prayer of entrustment.
The Constitutions, following a spiritual tradition, see in this image of
Mary the representation of our apostolic consecration: “Mary Immaculate,
Help of Christians”, they say, “leads us to the fullness of our offering to the
87 cf. C 91
88 cf. C 44
89 cf. C 66
90 cf. C 69
91 cf. C 107
92 C 121

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Lord and gives us courage for the service of our brethren”93. The two aspects
fuse together in a single movement of charity.
May she teach us to live in these days of ours the unconditional
following of Christ and the constant and devoted service of which she is the
Mistress and example94, and to communicate to the young the joy that is to be
found in following Jesus.
93 C 92
94 cf. VC, 28