1

DON BOSCO EDUCATOR

PASCUAL CHÁVEZ VILLANUEVA

LET US LEARN LESSONS FROM EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO

US

DON BOSCO NARRATES

Speaking of myself and telling my story, I have to start from the first years of my life. Beautiful and difficult years, years in which I learned to be a boy and become a man.

I can tell you with great simplicity: that Don Bosco whom you may already know something of, the Don Bosco who one day would become a priest and educator and friend of youth, took lessons from a lot of things that happened in those early years.

I put before you the values that I breathed, that I'd learned to live and I, afterwards, passed on as my heritage to my Salesians. Over the years they would become the basis of my teaching.

The presence of a mother. Mamma Margherita was just 29 years old when my father died; died within a few days due to a terrible pneumonia. Energetic and courageous woman that she was, she did not feel sorry for herself; but rolled up her sleeves, and took on her double duty. Sweet and determined, she was both father and mother. Many years later, I became a priest for young people, I can say as a result of experience in the field: "The first happiness of a lad is to know that you are loved".

For this, with my lads I was a real dad, with concrete gestures of peaceful love, happy and ‘catching’. I loved my boys and I gave them concrete proof of this affection, giving myself totally to their cause. This love, strong and manly, I learned about from the volumes I inherited from my mother and for which I am grateful.

The work. My mother was the first one to set us an example. She always insisted: "Whoever doesn’t get used to working when they are young, will almost always become a ‘lazybones’ until old age". In the family chat after dinner and after the evening prayers (the famous "good night") I insisted that "Heaven is not made for ‘lazybones’".

The meaning of God. My mum had condensed the entire catechism into a phrase that she repeated at every moment: "God is watching you!". I don't: at the school of a full-time catechist as was my mother, I grew up under the eye of God. Not a God-COP, cold and unforgiving who bit me openly, but a good and generous God whom I could see in the succession of the seasons, whom I learnt to know and to thank when the wheat was harvested or after the grapes were gathered, a great God whom I admired, obsessed in the evening staring at the stars.

"We Think!" This is an old phrase spoken in Piedmontese; and how much better to find wisdom in this saying. It was used to talk, to explain, to arrive at a common decision, taken without a particular person wanting to impose their views. Later, I'll make the word "reason" one of the pillars of my educational method. The word "reason" will be for me synonymous with dialogue, acceptance, trust, understanding; will become a research attitude because between the teacher and the boy there can be no rivalry, but only friendship and mutual esteem. For me, the young lad will never be a passive person just carrying out orders. In my contacts with the lads, I will not ever pretend to listen, but really listen to them, discussing their views, their reasons.

The pleasure of working together. For many years I was the absolute protagonist among my companions: I am thinking of my first experiences as acrobat at the Becchi, those wonderful Sunday afternoons; I think of the popularity gained among my schoolmates in Chieri, to such an extent that in a page of the autobiography I could say that "I was revered by colleagues as a captain of a small army". But I understood later that it was the desire of everyone to be the centre of attention. That was the beginning of the Cheer Society, a sympathetic group of students where everyone was equally involved. The Regulation was composed of three short articles: to be always cheerful, fulfil their duties well, avoiding anything that wasn't worthy of a good Christian. Later, Societies would start, youth groups, true workshops of apostolate and holiness within everyone's reach. I was saying that they were "things for the young" for promoting their initiatives, and making space for their natural creativity.

The pleasure of being together. I wanted educators, whether young or old to be always among the young, as "loving fathers". No act of mistrust in them, but just walking alongside together, to build and share together. I'm really pleased to say with deep joy: "With you I am well. It's just my life to be with you."