S
TRENNA
2009
by Pascual Chávez Villanueva
A VAST MOVEMENT
FOR THE YOUNG
THE OFFICIAL GROUPS
OF THE SF
The Salesian Family of Don Bosco is made up of three central groups (SDB, FMA, Cooperators) to whose foundation he himself gave much time, energy, and formative and organizational expertise, because they constituted the key and nucleus of his work, and of a constellation of many other groups. From him the Association of Mary Help of Christians took its rise. (CIC 2).
In the previous article in the month of January, I explained how Don Bosco founded the first four groups of the Salesian Family. But he was not simply the founder of the Salesians, of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians with Saint Mary Dominic Mazzarello, of the Cooperators and of the Association of Mary Help of Christians. In fact, creating an all-embracing family atmosphere, within and outside his houses, he not only originated a particular style of personal relationships and of authority, but, guided but God, he gave rise to a charismatic identity that was shared and was capable of being shared, which finds its expression in the Salesian spirit and mission.
In this way the, the action of the Holy Spirit guided Don Bosco to give life to various apostolic forces, the first, but not the only ones, those founded by himself. His original plan, not fully realised in his own lifetime, remained a driving force to be developed: the Salesian Family with its innumerable groups is the obvious historical proof of this.
◙ If on the one hand one cannot attribute all the developments of the Salesian Family to Don Bosco, since his heritage is not a “museum” but a living reality; on the other hand, all the subsequent foundations in the Salesian Family are attributable to his own apostolic plan, as has been so often said by his successors, guarantors of the authenticity of his spirit and of the Salesian mission.
The miraculous expansion of the Salesians and of Salesian work in the world was certainly the fruit of the co-involvement of so many apostolic forces, especially of the Cooperators. Even today we can say that this involvement of the Salesian Family continues to be the secret of the expansion of Salesian work, in all parts of the world. To commit ourselves therefore to know and love the Salesian Family and help it grow has been and will continue to be a common characteristic of the common Salesian vocation and at the same time, the secret of the fruitfulness of this great spiritual and apostolic movement which had its origins in the heart of Don Bosco.
◙ Don Bosco had therefore begun his work on behalf of poor boys founding the Salesian Congregation (SDB standing for Salesians of Don Bosco), then the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA), the Salesians-Cooperators (SSCC), and the Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA). But all this was only the seed spoken of in the Gospel; that tiny seed which has a great future ahead of it: to become a great tree. For all the Sons of Don Bosco, nowadays this image has become an icon, and all those who know about it speak with full awareness of “the tree of the Salesian Family”.
At the moment there are twenty three groups officially accepted as being part of this great family. It is already a tree with many branches, each different from the others but animated by the same charism: there are groups with members male and female consecrated in the religious life, members belonging to secular institutes and lay people. Their areas of apostolate are also different: some are working in the field of education, others in health services, other in human development or the world of social communication. But all of them with common elements and a common identity that finds its origin in the great heart of the Founder, Don Bosco, now so well-known in all parts of world.
