MO AS A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
Guides to reading; levels of experience
Like any author, Don Bosco writes to be read and to communicate a message. The fact that he selects his readers should alert us to certain things. Above all the ‘beloved Salesian sons’ to whom the author addresses himself are people who not only share his values at the time but have language, mentality and culture in common with him. The ideal readers that Don Bosco had in mind when he was writing were mainly the Salesians of the 1870’s, with well defined mental traits, equipped with interpretative means similar to his own. So, when he uses terms like ‘confidence’ in God, ‘aloofness from the world’,’climate of recollection’ (ritiratezza), and ‘will’ of God, or expressions like ‘giving everything to the Lord’ and ‘exact fulfilment of our duty’, all still to be found today in our dictionaries or in common linguistic usage, we can assume a well-founded well-known form of spirituality drawn from a theological-anthropological framework, with ascetical features typical of the environment in which he and his interlocutors were formed. Today’s readers almost certainly have a different framework and formation.
We could reflect similarly on other religious viewpoints that more or less clash with our own theology of reference (for example the expression in his very first chapter: ‘The merciful God hit us with a serious bereavement’ [intro] where we find it a bit hard to hold a merciful God ‘striking/hitting’ people with serious bereavements, or pedagogical terms like ‘educate’, ‘look to\\after’, instruct, ‘assist’ and ‘loving-kindness, whose meanings have drifted in important ways over a period of social-cultural change and evolution in educational thinking.
So then, the reading of the text, that at first sight seems easy enough to interpret, could instead require some preparation, awareness of the historical framework as well as a lexicon and perhaps even an encyclopedia of background knowledge adapted to a complete understanding of the author’s intentions.
We are well aware of the problems associated with writings like this. But I intend to suggest some simple ways of reading this text beginning with the belief that the text itself provides enough indication to understand the overall message it wants to convey. We can begin by going along with Don Bosco’s narrative strategy which aims to accompany us along well-defined paths.
It is possible in fact to select from MO both a general interpretative key of a story which is providentially directly led by God himself, and a series of other more particular directions, left us by the author, indicating ways forward and interpretations. Semiology uses the term ‘topic’ to indicate the subject spoken about: a ‘topic’ in this sense is a hypothesis which you yourself set up to read the text, drawn from the general cohesion of the text or from key-words or guiding expressions contained explicitly in it. For example. If I run a small programme called a Concordance on the entire text, it will give me a list of all the words DB uses, how often they appear and what company they keep. With this information I could set up a hypothesis based on word frequency. What are the five most frequent nouns used by Don Bosco? But of course frequency is not necessarily the best criteria. I can tell you that in the case of MO it isn’t. The words or concepts which give us the best clue to MO might well be and in fact are, related more to the overall cohesion of the etext, i.e what makes its hidden agenda hold together – and the hidden agenda is to do with the way he is narrating a spiritual-educational experience. Once we have selected these key ideas and interpretative tools, we can begin to draw some conclusions about the text’s topic and find the hidden structure as well as the surface meaning…begin to know something that is of Don Bosco’s most dearly-held beliefs.
The literal meaning of the text is of first importance in discovering our topics, because it’s only on the basis of this that we can discover other possible readings. I need to add that to be complete about the task it’s not just a question of textual method but especially a good knowledge of social-cultural environment that we need.
At this point, amongst many possible readings, we can start with the spiritual dynamics that the narrative text displays in outlining the formative journey of its main character.
A spiritual journey
The explicit keys to reading offered by Don Bosco in his introduction to MO seem to invite a spiritual interpretation in the first place. Let me take three interpretative threads that constantly interweave: confidence in God, giving of oneself completely to God (flight from ‘dissipation’, and ‘withdrawal’ or recollectedness), and conversion.
The interpretative thread of confidence in God
We can see what results from his father Francis’ death, an event told in all its dramatic impact on the spirit of his youngest son. The family provider is about to die, but the dying father refers to the providence of our Heavenly Father by recommending ‘confidence in God to his wife and the mother of his children. The meaning of the expression is made explicit by the author in a perspective of faith and abandonment in trust, but one also of courageous initiative. The episode which then concerns the mother, confronting this absence without anxiety, recalling her husband’s recommendation and translating it into a practical attitude, resolves the problem and opens up to the future.
A series of successive events serve to outline the complex of attitudes which, in the author’s mind, make up ‘confidence, beginning with the representative and exemplary figure of Margaret, a synthesis of trust in providence, hard work, and a spirit of sacrifice and frugality.
The complex narrative construction of the dream at nine years of age implicitly recalls confidence in that God who tells the main character his mission and ways to make himself suitable to tackle it.
However, the narrative situation which is most meaningful from the point of view of our interpretative hypothesis – one where confidence in God is opposed to trust in human resources – is that of his special relationship with Don Calosso. Here Don Bosco experiences the serenity and security which comes from a re-assuring fatherly presence, which he gives himself to completely; ‘I idolised Fr. Cafasso’ [42]. This error of perception emerges through the ‘irreparable disaster’ of the death of his second father, which creates something of a strong affective imbalance, but is finally understood: ‘At that time I had another dream in which I was sorely reproached for having put my faith in men and not in the good Heavenly Father.’ [48]
The story thread finally outlines the totalness of trust in God lived in its mature and complete form. The dialogue with the Marchioness Barolo, concerned about Don Bosco’s health, is constructed around the evident purpose of presenting the renunciation of employment and stipend as an act of total abandonment to God in the now unchangeable decision to follow his own vocation: ‘But how will you live? – God has always helped me and he will help me in the future […] My life is consecrated to the good of young people. Thank you for the offers you have made but I can’t turn back from the path that Divine Providence has traced out for me […] I accepted the dismissal, abandoning myself to whatever God’s plan for me might be’.[51] A description follows of a situation of isolation (the misunderstanding of parish clergy, civil authorities and friends, even close ones), of being completely worn out, uncertain about the future, given his hard-headed faithfulness to his vocation. Note the dramatic tension where his prayer is narratively placed in the Flippi field – it seems adequate to a spiritual situation of total abandonment and heroic confidence: ‘In that evening as I ran my eyes over the crowd of children playing, I thought of the rich harvest awaiting my priestly ministry. With no one to help me, my energy gone, my health undermined, with no idea where I could gather my boys in the future, I was very disturbed. […] as I walked, I looked up to heaven and cried out ‘why don’t you show me where you want me to gather these children. Oh let me know. Show me what I must do’ [255].
Just at this moment of strong tension Pancrazio Soave comes on the scene with his offer of a ‘place for a laboratory’. The play on words has the effect of highlighting the intervention of Providence that resolves any problem as the result of an act of unconditional trust on Don Bosco’s part.
This confidence in God, we can see from Don Bosco’s telling, is joined to a confidence in persons around him. His relationship with Mamma Margaret and Don Calosso, with Luci Matta, the theologian Maloria, Luigi Comollo, and his spiritual director don Cafasso, are all presented as aspects of complete, transparent and above all obedient trust. It is a movement of docility that reaches its peak in the dialogue with don Cafasso: ‘ I want to see the will of God in your choice and I don’t want my designs in it at all’ [203]’.
The Oratory takes on its final shape only when Don Bosco takes up residence in Valdocco, with no other security than confidence in God. He did not immediately live at Valdocco which not everybody realises. It was really only after his illness, some time back at The Becchi and upon the invitation to his mother to come with him that he decided to live at Valdocco permanently. The situation of such economic precariousness, supported by his mother who not only abandons her own peace to follow her son and his mission, but is also deprived of her wedding trousseau that till now she had jealously preserved intact [297] ‘to make chasubles, from the linen we made amices, purificators, surplices, albs and towels’. [297]. This renunciation and detachment from things so dear to her, things that recall her affective links with her dead husband, in order to set up the little chapel at the Oratory, takes on an intense symbolic meaning. In Margaret’s joyful generosity the story highlights the complete fulfilment of her husband’s recommendation. Confidence in God is now absolute, beyond all affect and human resources.. The ‘loud cry’ and ‘consternation’ of the time of sorrow has been transformed into a smile and a song: ‘Woe to the world if it should learn we’re just penniless strangers’ [297].
The interpretative thread of giving oneself to God
This thread includes an attitude of ‘withdrawal’ and flight from every form of dissipation. We should take as a starting point the event of the first communion, the meaning of which is provided by Mamma Margaret: ‘ I am certain that God has truly taken possession of your heart. Now promise him to do everything you can to remain good till the end of your life’. The interpretation here aims at tracing the shape and form of a spiritual beginning that is given shape as ongoing ‘conversion’, brought about by trust in and giving of self to God, by detachment from self, one’s own likes and from a worldly mentality. This is an element which, according to MO, is at the centre of the spirituality of the pastor-educator of the Oratory. We can justify this hypothesis also by considering the choice of readers and the effort that unfolds during these same years on Don Bosco’s part for the ascetic and religious formation of his Salesians.
There are other indications outside this text of the importance given by Don Bosco to this spiritual attitude. The appeal to ‘give oneself’ to a virtuous life, spelt out from 1847 in the Giovane Provveduto, over the years develops into a more complete expression ‘giving oneself totally to God’, especially as expressed in the lives of Dominic Savio, Michael Magone and Francis Besucco. The MO introduces the theme explicitly in the dialogue with Don Calosso: ‘The first sermon was about the necessity of giving oneself to God and not putting off one’s conversion’. [35]
Here we find the narrative beginning of the inner journey with a description of its first step, trusting in a spiritual guide: ‘ I put myself completely in don Calosso’s hands […] I let him know everything about me, every word, every thought every action was promptly explained to him […] I knew then what it means to have a stable guide, a faithful friend of the soul […]. From that time I began to savour what the spiritual life was.’ Successive stages are described with the same spirit of docility, whether in the ‘happy event’ of choice of a stable confessor during his studies at Chieri, or in the ‘complete confidence’ placed in his exemplary friend Luigi Comollo.: ‘I let him guide me wherever he wanted to’,
An important spiritual passage, indicating a turning point in his gift of self to God, can be found in the description of the not-so-easy vocational discernment at the end of his studies in Chieri. The idea of entering the Franciscans, based on personal considerations, is shown not to work. Only trust in Comollo and in his Uncle the priest, with a view to discerning God’s will, gets rid of the uncertainty and clears the way forward.
The occasion of his clerical clothing, prepared for seriously and also by a change in lifestyle (‘I stopped being the acrobat dedicated myself to reading good books’) is construed as a grand gesture and a decisive handing over:
‘Oh how much old clothing there is to cast off. My God, destroy all my bad habits […]. Yes, my God, grant that at this moment I may put on a new nature. May I henceforth lead a new life in complete conformity with your holy will so that justice and holiness are the constant objects of my thoughts, words and deeds. Amen. O Mary, be my salvation.’ [121]
The symbolic relevance and self-offering intentions of the gesture are remarked on by the narrator with a reflection in reference to the patronal feast of Bardella, celebrated by the parish priest: ‘could such people, such society even identify with one who that very morning had put on the robe of holiness to give himself completely to the Lord’. [122]
Giving oneself to God becomes a change of life, and withdrawal or reserve and the austerity of a radical life reform are tied into resolutions formulated on that occasion and proclaimed before the image of the Virgin Mary as a ‘formal promise […] to observe them at all costs’.
The formative journey at the seminary follows along these lines, with a commitment to ‘exact’ fulfilment of duty and also ‘with all my soul’, by mortification and an ascetic lifestyle (renouncing Bararotta and playing with Tarot cards) with vigilance over his tendency to vainglory, and with his confirmation of his proposal to ‘withdraw’ after the events of the holidays.
The theme of ‘withdrawal’ or aloofness from the world., often mentioned in MO, takes on a special meaning as the necessary consequence of complete self- gift to God. In the story of his first communion, there is indirect allusion to this by reconstructing the air of spiritual recollection required by his mother in order to avoid ‘dissipation’. The attitude and words of the cleric Cafasso also implicitly recall it by describing an exterior feature as well as an interior one which defines the good ecclesiastic (I saw one standing aside from all the entertainment…whoever takes on the ecclesiastical state sells himself to the Lord… The advice given by Fr. Comollo presents it as a condition for vocational perseverance [He must not fear to lose his vocation because aloofness from the world and earnest piety will help him overcome all obstacles’ [111]…Finally the explicit and central words put on the lips of Borel – ‘a vocation is perfected and preserved and a real priestly spirit is formed by a climate of recollection and by frequent communion’. [157] This is taken up as a programme for the beginning of the theology year and clearly directs it along ascetical lines.
His self-giving is finally illustrated in the role played by Cafasso as spiritual director, both at the beginning of his stay at the Convitto (‘If I did anything good I owe it to this worthy ecclesiastic in whose hands I placed all my decisions, my work, all my life’s actions’; ‘I communicated this thought to d. Cafasso, and with his advice and insight began to study ways to bring it about giving over its success to the grace of the Lord’), or at the end of this formative journey.
Here too, the journey of detachment from self and self-giving to God reaches its peak in the prayer formulated in that difficult moment in March 1846, and it expresses the growth of complete confidence: ‘Why don’t you make it clear to me where you want me together these youngsters? Let me know or tell me what you want me to do.’ In the general context of the story so far it seems as if the chief character, having struggled not to give in in the face of difficulties, reaches such a degree of interior detachment and self-giving that he is even ready to give up the Oratory to be able to fully carry out God’s will.
2.3 Conversion
A third key concept for interpreting MO is that of conversion. It appears early as a word explicitly chosen in the scene where DB meets Don Calosso and repeats the sermon he has heard. ‘Whoever puts off conversion runs a great risk of not having the time, or the grace or the will’. But the concept is also suggested at strategic points throughout the text of MO. One of the key notions in the concept is the movement from one situation to another – a movement of improvement, of course. We could take the dream at 9 years of age as an important clue to how to keep reading MO throughout. “Precisely because it seems impossible to you, you must make it possible through obedience and acquiring knowledge’. DB then tells us that the things that he will seen tell us will make all this much clearer. In other words, he is conscious that he is going to tell us about his growth in obedience and knowledge (and other characteristic like being humble, robust and strong). But given the fact that this is not so much a story about himself but of the Oratory and of the Congregation, it follows that there are clues here for all of us about spiritual growth through conversion.
Note for example the different times when DB makes resolutions. He doesn’t always act on these immediately but returns to them in his discourse and makes them firm and decisive. His language is often that of conversion. Reflecting on his first communion he says: ‘It seems to me that from that day there was some improvement in my life….’. When he meets Don Calosso he comments that he ‘begun to savour the spiritual life, something that before I had considered rather mechanically…’. His friendship with Comollo signalled another change: ‘From him I began to learn to live as a Christian’. As he was discerning his vocation with the possibility of being a seminarian he said: ‘Going home for holidays I ceased to be the entertainer and gave myself to good reading….something that until then I had overlooked’. When he took the cassock he indicated that ‘after that day I needed to do something about myself. The life I was living up to this point needed to be radically reformed’. The reform was guided by ‘ritiratezza’ about which I have already spoken.
It’s interesting to note the language even of the incident where in 1846 he falls gravely ill and needs to recover at home at The Becchi. Both Cafasso and the Archbishop advised a two year break with no preaching or confessions! “ I disobeyed. ‘Returning to the Oratory. I continued to work as before and for 27 years have had no need of either doctor or medicine. Which makes me think that it’s not work which does damage to one’s physical health’. This is an unexpected conclusion but the language is still that of conversion, the clue being ‘I disobeyed.’ Who did he disobey? This time it was human advice, well meant and from those he loved and trusted, but DB shows us here that it is not obedience for the sake of formality. The ultimate obedience is to the highest authority – God himself. DB had discerned what God’s will was and was absolute in his determination to follow it.
We are left in little doubt as we read MO. The passages I have referred to are not so much those adventures which will entertain us but those things from the past which will help readers face the problems of the future, or which will show how God is guide and author of all that occurs. There is much we can learn about the spiritual life from MO.
A SPRITUAL READING OF MO: the ‘spiritual journey’ of its chief character.
Prelude
Father’ s death and his recommendation.
First memory and cry – Mamma Margaret
Effectiveness of ‘confidence in God’
The dream.
First steps
First Communion: mother’s talk and John’s reaction
Don Calosso: trust and ‘taste’ for spiritual life
Error of perspective: too much trust in human beings
Interlude
The Chieri environment: obedience, companions, teachers, friends, confessor, Comollo
1.4 Choice of state of life
Personal and critical situation
First idea of a solution ‘my plan’
Trust
Obedience ‘I ceased to do…and gave myself over to…’
1.5 Radical decision at time of clerical clothing
Preparation
‘Oh how much old stuff…’
‘A new man…a new life’
Resolutions for a settled life
Consolidation
happy, exact fulfilment of duty
detachment
Comollo: affective a fervent piety
The ‘terrible lessons’ of the holidays; ‘withdrawal’ and complete abandonment of worldly amusements. Borel’s advice.
Intellectual conversion: from worldly readings to a ‘taste for ascetical things’.
‘For the greater glory of God…’
Trust in don Cafasso, his guide in spiritual things.
Guala, Cafasso, Golzio ‘three models that Divine Providence gave me’; the strange spiritual direction of Cafasso who took him to the prisons
Definitive choices
Blind and total obedience against personal inclinations
The choice given by Barolo and Don Bosco’s response
Isaac’s sacrifice – ‘tell me what I should do’
‘Prepared to die’
‘I have disobeyed’
‘If such seems to please the Lord I am ready to leave immediately’
Poverty of total detachment…and Mama Margaret’s laughter and song.
This was the context for the development of the Oratory as God’s work and not something of human design
