Salesian Youth Spirituality

THE CHRISTIAN WAY OF LIFE LIVED IN DON BOSCO’S STYLE

spirituality

youth spirituality

salesian youth spirituality

'yes' to life

main themes

Not the Church asking young people to come close to it, but the Church

(through Don Bosco) coming close to the young. The salesian presence in the

world today only makes sense if it is seen as proposing to young people a

way to holiness. It is a proposal for every young person from the moment of

entry into a salesian environment, but only explicitly to some, according

to their capacity to receive it as such.

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The salesian presence in the Church takes on meaning from that moment in

which it is understood as an original spiritual experience which relives

the Gospel in our time. Don Bosco understood this, giving life to a method

of living the Christian life open to all young people, but more especially

to those otherwise deprived culturally and religiously.

Salesian youth spirituality is the living out of the Salesian spirit,

rethought for the young of today, and with reference to the theological

understanding of the second Vatican Council.

SPIRITUALITY:

a re-reading of the Gospel in a particular context

something able to hold together all those attitudes and actions

which characterize Christian existence

the possibility of a God-experience in the context of ones own

life and history

a path to holiness; a specific project of life in the spirit.

YOUTH SPIRITUALITY:

Gospel applied to the young; a new lifestyle

aimed at the lowest rung (the most deprived), but therefore

available to all above, and with a view to advancing each to a

better rung * effort to approach the individual in freedom and

faith, helping him to become progressively more involved in his

own growth

aimed at making a young person a protagonist for good amongst his

or her peers.

SALESIAN YOUTH SPIRITUALITY:

Inspired by the intuitions, life and teachings of Don Bosco, not

just in the sense of repeating his words and actions. The Gospel

according to Don Bosco!

Inspired by the history of the Salesian phenomenon after Don

Bosco

Centred on the Preventive system which is a pedagogy, a pastoral

method and a spirituality.

1.1 MOST BASIC UNDERSTANDING IS: ‘YES’ TO LIFE!

The cardinal virtue of Salesian youth spirituality can be discovered in Don

Bosco’s wish that educators teach young people to "serve the Lord in

gladness".

Don Bosco’s holiness is a happy holiness. Happiness says "yes" to life, has

a love, even a passion for life.

Not all spiritualities in the Church today can be said to be spiritualities

of the love for life. Some seem to take a step back from life, or put in

first place the belief that we are sinners and therefore little able to

meet God.

Often, the "yes" that young people give to life seems a long way from the

Gospel. Salesian spirituality offers important elements that enable one to

keep the Gospel and a youthful "yes" together:

God as Father..he comes close to us by his own

initiative.

A viewpoint about God which excludes distance.

Jesus seen as a model for daily life.

Daily duty as our most important appointment with God.

Importance given to work enlivened by charity (love)

Faith in human intelligence, education, culture

Strict relationship between gladness and service of the

Lord.

An intuition about holiness as happiness (Dom. Savio)

We can say that Salesian spirituality recognizes in the "yes" to life the

most important meeting place for God’s gratuitous, saving action, and our

free, responsible response.

To meet God:

it is not necessary to refuse life, or to ignore life

in order to take on "sacred" activities.

rather is it appropriate to welcome life and all it

offers.

We can love life as Jesus loved it. He is the prototype and model for every

spiritual event. Jesus loved life by placing himself at the service of its

growth around him (Kingdom of God): in miracles, words of hope, solidarity

with those who had sinned, friendship with disciples, passionate struggle

against abuses of all kinds.

Every time a young person welcomes life, and struggles to be constructive

about it, this continues Jesus’ work: it becomes a spiritual event. "Yes"

to life is like a seed that contains its own plant:

its first and most basic direction is that of discovering ones

own self-awareness and that of others.

a second direction is the acceptance of ‘finitude’ as a decisive

dimension of life; this enables one to hand over things to God

a third direction is the meeting with Jesus as Lord of life. This

becomes an openness to the Gospel, the building up of the

Kingdometc.

a fourth direction is to allow oneself to be transformed by this,

by taking on Jesus’ own attitudes and ways of being and doing as

revealed in the Gospel.

a fifth firection is to consider life as a "call" to work for the

Kingdom.

1.2 THE MAIN THEMES OF SALESIAN YOUTH SPIRITUALITY

On the basis of this "yes" to life, Salesian youth spirituality can be

presented as follows:

a) Life as a place for meeting God.

Daily life for the young is a mix of duty, socializing, games,

the tension that comes from growth, family life, development of

personal abilities, future perspectives, cries for help, hopes.

This is the material on which God’s light can be shed. To

discover God as Father in all this is the very first proposal of

Salesian spirituality. Holiness belongs to these situations.

According to Don Bosco, it is enough to do well what one must do

to become a saint. He considered diligence and devotion to duty

as the measure of virtue and a sign of spiritual maturity.

Behind this understanding of daily life and the positive

evaluation of life in general lies faith and the Incarnation. In

Jesus, God became man. The human condition is able to reveal

God’s presence. Jesus, man, is the sacrament of the Father. Jesus

has taught us that the place to meet God is in our humanity.

All this implies the taking up of daily life, accepting its

challenges and questions, its growth difficulties. Life becomes a

sacrament in which the young person can meet God. It means an openness

to the ‘beyond’ contained in life. Don Bosco taught that one does not

have to detach oneself from life to find the Lord. He demonstrated this

with a welcome for all young people

with his passion for the total salvation of the person

with his conviction that God was present in every young person’s

heart, even those that seemed to be in the grip of evil

with his capacity to unite himself with God joyfully and in the

midst of work

with that ascesis of duty which is prayer and penitence

with his genuine humanity

b) A life that conforms itself progressively to Christ

Spirituality means to live under the action and inspiration of

the Spirit. Christ is the man of the Spirit. There is no

Christian spirituality without the person and the mystery of

Christ. We are all equal when we come to Christ, but all

different when we grow in Him. His person is inexhaustible.

Jesus is also the revelation of God. To know and reveal the

riches of Christ is not only an end, but a daily journey to the

point where we are part of His paschal mystery. Word, sacrament,

prayer, liturgy are all in function of this knowledge.

Jesus is presented by Don Bosco

as the friend of young people

as master of life and wisdom

as the model for every Christian

as redeemer who hands his life over to the point of death

as present in the small and the needy.

Don Bosco’s constant preoccupation was to educate to the faith,

to walk with the young so as to lead them to the person of the

risen Christ. He wanted them to discover in Jesus and in his

gospel the supreme meaning of their own life.

Life in Christ for Don Bosco develops especially through growth in love,

but its privileged moment of grace is in the sacraments:

the eucharist is the grand memorial of God’s love for

mankind in Christ, in His joining our history so we

could enter into communion with him.

Reconciliation is the sign that celebrates the mercy of

God and, through conversion, that transforms us in Him.

Both are a sure foundation for Christian growth

c) Life of Jesus Christ: joy and commitment

The basic desire of human beings is the desire for happiness. Joy

is its most noble expression.

In the history of education, of spirituality, there are those who

have tied our spiritual maturity only to commitment, task,

responsibility. But God loves us and has said in Christ: "Happy

are you!" The discovery of the Kingdom and the encounter with

Christ are man’s happiness. Life is best understood as developing

from a sense of fullness.

The Gospel is permeated with the fullness of joy, and expresses

this especially through the beatitudes. Don Bosco understood this

intuitively and helped his boys understand it. He linked joy and

commitment, holiness and happiness.

As a boy at the Becchi he spontaneously linked the proclamation

of God’s Word to the vital experience of games; as a seminarist

at Chieri, in the "Happy Company", he put forward a unique

programme of piety, devotion to duty, study and joyful outings.

In his proposal for Christian life to the youngsters of the

Oratory he joined in a unique experience of life the courtyard,

the study, the chapel, commitmnet and, through it all, joy.

d) An experience of Church: communion and service

Each group cultivates in its members an image of the Church and

an attitude towards it. The Church could be seen as a collection

of religious services, or as a closed group of believers, as an

agency for good initiatives etc.

The Salesian group helps its members to see in it the visible Body of

Christ, His continuing Incarnation. Don Bosco taught his boys to know the

Church’s mystery through its visible components: the building, the

community, the Bishops, the Pope, the history of the People of God, the

apostolate.

A spirituality that wants to call itself Salesian will want to ensure that

from our love for God arises necessarily our love for his church, the

people of God, the centre of unity and communion of all the forces working

for the Kingdom. It will educate young Christians to an authentic

understanding of the Church and to work assiduously for its growth.

e) A journey towards vocational choice.

Life seen as an encounter with God, a journey of identification

with Christ, commitment to the Kingdom, the Church as communion

and service where each has a place and a role - all this says

that life carries on through a calling; it is a project to be

discovered and realized.

Vocation is God’s initiative. The reading of reality that is done

through eyes of faith helps us to see that at the origins of life

as it is there lies God’s call.

To understand life’s meaning is not enough. God’s call demands to

be heard and responded to. It becomes dialogue, communion with

the Lord, conscious participation in His work.

Finding ones direction in life is partly an inner process, but it

is also the combination of other factors of environment and by

other people that help a young person to choose and respond

generously. Don Bosco understood and lived out his own existence

as a call which began from the dream at nine years of age.

As a priest he became the guide for many a young person’s choice

of life; in particular he nurtured vocations to priesthood,

religious and lay life, and left a legacy of such nurturing with

his Congregation.

f) A life inspired by Mary, mother of Jesus.

Mary is the first and most perfect disciple of Christ. She gave

him his humanity. All that happened then and subsequently

happened in her daily life. The Lord chose her to collaborate as

woman in the salvation of mankind, but this did not change her

style of life.

For Don Bosco the presence and intervention of Mary in his

life and work was extraordinary. She was a lively presence, mother,

immaculate and Help of Christians