Fr Václav Klement has held various positions in the General Council: Councillor for the East Asia-Oceania Region (2002-2008), General Councillor for the Missions (2008-2014), Councillor for the East Asia-Oceania Region (2014-2020) and Extraordinary Visitor “ad nutum et pro tempore” (2020-2022). In December 2022, the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, with the consent of the General Council, appointed him as the new Superior of the Southern Africa Vice-Province for the six-year period 2023-2029. Here is the interview granted on the occasion of his new appointment.

2. What is it about religious life, especially Salesian consecrated life that attracted you and made you choose it? Which Salesians influenced you the most?

I would say, that my aspirations, dreams and personal preparations ‘simply’ clicked with the first explicit invitation to join the first underground Salesian vocation ‘Come and See’ encounter. I was deeply touched, amazed, attracted by all those senior Salesians who were able to hand over the Salesian vocation and charism after hard years of prison, forced labour and a tough life. I can’t forget my first encounter with the ‘Salesian Bulletin’, stories of Salesian family saints and especially Salesian spirituality environment – family spirit, apostolic drive and deep faith. Since there were no ‘official formation structures’ until 1989, the Salesian charism was passed on through close personalized spiritual accompaniment. Not just one novice-master, but three Salesians who took care of me during that special year! Until now the Salesians of Don Bosco are the most numerous religious men congregation in the Czech Republic.

3. What did you do before you entered religious life?
Actually, for me ‘to enter religious life’ was not like to ‘enter a Salesian house’. During those ‘blessed’ times of the communist totalitarian regime there were 400 SDBs in my homeland but no ‘official’ Salesian house. Half of the Salesians were really living and working underground, while another half were involved in the diocesan structures of the Church. In my vibrant home parish (second Czech city of Brno) since my childhood I was involved in many services as altar server, boy scout, choir member, volunteer or youth leader. At the age of 10 I got a life of Don Bosco in my hands for the first time, but the first living Salesian I met only at the age of 22, after the end of 2 years of military service. Those years ‘before’ becoming a Salesian were a time of hard studies, hard work in the parish, as a youth leader in different ways, while living as a second class citizen being a fervent young Catholic.

4. After having lived so many years of Salesian Consecrated Life, how would you sum up your life as a Salesian priest so far?
At the age of 65 it is probably time to ‘sum up’ my life already, right? Hard to say in just a few words. My life motto has changed over the years and since 2008 I stick to the Asian version of Da mihi animas, cetera tolle: All for Jesus, Jesus for all! It means to live each task, mission in my life with enthusiasm, joy and passion. The last 20 years at the side of the Rector Major I have never ‘looked back’, always trying to contribute to the growth of the Salesian charism with the best of my strength. Well, life is starting at 65!

5. Share the most memorable event in your life as a Salesian of Don Bosco?
Well, I treasure too many rich Salesian memories. First the Czechoslovakia underground formation time, like the 24-hour walk in the mountains to reach a secret provincial day gathering or listen to sharing of confreres who spent years in prison and forced labour camps. Really, it is very difficult to mention ‘the most memorable’ event: every day during the 16 years in Korea was a special time, then as the first regional councillor for East Asia – Oceania (EAO) it was probably our first Team Visit (2005) with its Vision-Mission workshop, or the EAO Salesian Brothers Congress in Vietnam (2018). There are too many events to give thanks to God for during my whole life. It is never enough to tell and give thanks for these stories and events! If you access the EAO (East Asia-Oceania) news ‘AustraLasia’ on the www.bosco.link you may know a little bit more!

6. Have you any regrets in life?
Yes, my regrets are always of the same nature. At the end of the ‘day’ (after an event, apostolic mission, after accomplished entrusted task) I regret that I didn’t give my whole heart to this task or mission. Concretely, that I didn’t listen enough to this confrere or lay mission partner, that I didn’t give my best to the process going on (maybe a discernment, preparation of a regional event).

7. What advice would you give to a young person who is considering religious life? What message do you want to send to young people regarding the missionary vocation?
Would you like to become consecrated to God? Would you like to follow Jesus like Don Bosco and his family members? ‘Give your heart completely to Jesus!’ – I would like to share this invitation of Don Bosco in all-encompassing youthful language to be attracted to this lifestyle of ‘becoming bread for others’.
Would you like to be deeply happy? Share your faith with those who are not so privileged to encounter Jesus face-to-face! During the past 30 years I have met most of the 14,000 Salesians and found that the most happy among them are usually the missionaries who left everything behind, their own country and culture, to be the light of Jesus as missionaries! Without sharing the faith the Church would cease to breath.

8. When you heard that you were appointed as provincial, what was your reaction?

Yes, it was a huge surprise and somehow a shock. Just two days before Christmas 2022, already prepared for another extraordinary visitation, this time in South Asia, I was called by the Rector Major. Fr Ángel asked me to accept this unexpected new obedience. During my whole life I have never said ‘No’ to Don Bosco. Since this new call happened at Valdocco, I had plenty of time to digest this dramatic change in my life and pray over it and for each of the AFM (Africa Meridionale, Southern Africa) confreres on the first day and then slowly start the mindset change from South Korea to Southern Africa. On January 1, 2023 I went on pilgrimage to walk from Valdocco to Becchi, to ask Don Bosco to bless all of us in the AFM!

This call was not much different from 1996, when Fr Juan E. Vecchi reached me by phone in the Philippines during an East Asia-Oceania regional congress of Salesian Cooperators. It was an overwhelming shock, not allowing me to sleep the whole night, absolutely unexpected, since I was not even a provincial council member and had just reached Korea 10 years before this new calling.

9. What would you say are the leadership qualities that you bring to your new role as provincial?
I’m happy to share with my Salesian confreres, lay mission partners, Salesian Youth and Salesian Family members my life, faith, Salesian convictions for the next 6 years. Leading is possible mainly by life witness; this is my deep personal conviction. As every disciple – missionary of Jesus, probably the first contribution is my personal life witness as a passionate Salesian, missionary, communicator, friend of the young, deeply in love with Don Bosco.
During the recent past I have assisted many provinces in their discernment process of reshaping, growing, visioning, and moving forward. After two years as a rector, six years as provincial of Korea and 20 years with the Rector Major’s council as extraordinary visitor I would like to share this experience with the dynamics of Salesian charismatic growth. As Don Bosco Salesians we are very rich in the spirit, living in the family with so many saints (living or helping from heaven). As my personal animation style, I like to bring everyone’s attention to cherishing and making these treasures fruitful in Lesotho, eSwatini and South Africa.
Animation and government in the Catholic community and in the Salesian family is rooted in deep listening. Not by accident do we ponder the 127 questions of Jesus in the Gospels. Also the current GC28 theme ends with a question mark: What kind of Salesians for the Young people of Southern Africa? I love sharing questions and ‘wasting time’ listening and walking with each confrere.
Returning after 21 years to the service of authority, after serving many years as councillor, is a challenge. However, fostering a family spirit and teamwork, investing in the lifelong formation of all the confreres, and getting closer to Don Bosco are the main qualities I’m longing for as I start my service of leadership.

Fr Sergio Dall’Antonia, Salesian missionary and founder of the Salesian presence in Romania, ended his earthly pilgrimage in Bacau, Romania, on 21.02.2023, at the age of 83.

Sergio Dall’Antonia was born in Pieve di Soligo (Treviso, Italy), on 11 April 1939. His parents were Sonia and Angelo Lombardi. The family included an older brother, Francesco, and a little sister, Mariella, who died at the age of one. He was baptised on 14 April, receiving the names Sergio and Livio. His mother died when he was seven.

He attended primary school in the village and secondary school at the Salesian school Astori, in Mogliano Veneto, where the family had moved. Thanks to contact with the Salesians, he understood the divine call and at the end of the fifth year of grammar school asked to be a Salesian. He finished his novitiate on 15 August 1954 under the guidance of Fr Vigilio Uguccioni, in Albarè di Costermano, becoming a full Salesian.

After his high school and philosophical studies at Nave (1955-1958) and at Foglizzo (1958-1959), he returned to the Province for his practical training, which he did at Tolmezzo (1959-1961) and then at Pordenone (1961-1962), making his perpetual profession on 13th August 1961.

After his theological studies at Monteortone (1962-1966), concluded with his priestly ordination (02.04.1966) in the Marian Sanctuary of Monteortone, his superiors singled him out as a possible future teacher in the studentate, and so he was sent to Rome, to the Pontifical Salesian University, to study morals (1966-1970). Due to health problems, after his moral studies, he returned to the house in Pordenone (1970-1973) as a catechist and teacher. He thus began to manifest good organisational, artistic and animation skills, which would make him famous.

The Salesian San Luigi house in Gorizia had him for about fifteen years (1973-1986): here he became the soul of the Salesian Youth Tourism Association of Isontino. He organised festivities for young people and parents, art exhibitions, but above all he became the promoter of the famous “Friendship March”, in spring, and “Pedalling in Friendship”, in autumn. They would remain in local memory as the only events that in the Iron Curtain years allowed people to cross the border into Yugoslavia by merely displaying the event’s registration card. These events ended with a hot plate of pastasciutta offered to all participants, Italians and Yugoslavs, by the Army field kitchens housed in the courtyards at San Luigi.

For another decade he returned to Pordenone (1986-1996), always working in the field of education, until the Lord – through his superiors – asked him to go to Romania to open a Salesian presence. It was not easy at 57 to move to an unknown, former Communist, Orthodox-majority country and learn a language that would serve him no other purpose than communicating God’s love to young people. However, thanks to his willingness (which characterised him throughout his life) he left and became the founder of two Salesian houses: first in Constanța (1996-2001) and then in Bacău, where he would remain until the end of his earthly pilgrimage.

The memories of those who knew him describe him as a person who spoke little but did a lot, being a great and tireless worker. Always in the midst of the children, he entertained them with intelligent imagination and creativity. In the proclamation of the Christian message, he also entered the world of the Internet with a youthful spirit, running no less than four blogs, pulling from his repertoire for the young “things old and new”.

A man of faithful prayer, he prayed the Liturgy of the Hours entirely in front of the tabernacle and loved to meditate on the rosary with his confreres every evening after dinner. He was a great devotee not only of the Holy Eucharist, but also of Our Lady. He gave proof of his faith in visits to nearby Marian shrines and did not miss the feasts of the Blessed Virgin. He was faithful in his fortnightly confession and available as a confessor, appreciated by his confreres, the religious of the area and the faithful.
He leaves a memory as a patriarch, as the “Don Bosco of Romania”.

His steadfast faith is also reflected in his spiritual testament, which we reproduce below.

My Jesus, forgive me! May I love you forever!
In the event of my death, I consent to some organs useful for the life of another person being taken from my body, with the consent of my Superior of the Salesian house to which I belong. I willingly give them up as a humble sign of the Charity of Christ who made himself all things to all people to lead them back to the Father.
I ask forgiveness of my loved ones, my confreres and the young people for the evil done, the bad example set and the good not done or neglected. May the Church accept me in her forgiveness and in her prayer of suffrage. If anyone feels they have offended me in any way, let them know that I forgive them wholeheartedly and for ever.
May Jesus and Mary be my gentle friends for ever. May they accompany me by the hand to the Father in the Holy Spirit, obtaining mercy and forgiveness for me. From Heaven, where I hope to reach by the Infinite Mercy of God, I will love you forever, pray for you and ask every blessing for you from Heaven.
Fr Sergio Dall’Antonia

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him. Rest in peace!

We report below his last published video.

…without boundaries, like the shores of the sea. I feel that heart beating every day

His name is Alberto. I do not know his young mother’s name.

He lives in Peru. She lives in Hyderabad (India).

What unites these two stories, two lives, is that I met them during my time of service, Alberto in Peru and the young mother in India the following week.

What they have in common is the precious golden thread of God’s caress through the welcome that Don Bosco gave them in one of his houses. The heart of the Salesians changed their lives, saving them from the situation of poverty and perhaps death to which they were condemned. And I believe I can say that the fruit of the Lord’s Passover also passes through human gestures that heal and save.

These are the two stories.

A grateful young man

A few weeks ago I was in Huancayo (Peru). I was about to celebrate the Eucharist with more than 680 young people from the Salesian youth movement of the Province, together with several hundred people from that city, 3200 metres above sea level in the high mountains of Peru, and I was told that a former student wanted to greet me. It had taken him almost five hours to get there and would take another five hours to return.

“I will be very happy to meet him and thank him for his nice gesture,” I replied.

Just before the Eucharist began, the young man approached me and said he was very happy to greet me. “My name is Alberto and I wanted to make this journey to thank Don Bosco in person because the Salesians saved my life.”

I thanked him and asked him why he was telling me this. He continued with his testimony, and each word touched my heart more and more. He told me that he was a difficult boy; that he had given a lot of trouble to the Salesians who had taken him into one of the homes for troubled boys. He added that they would have had dozens of reasons to get rid of him because “I was a poor devil, and I could only expect something bad from the world and from life, but they were very patient with me.”

He continued: “I managed to make my way, I continued to study and, despite my rebellion, time after time they gave me new opportunities, and today I am a family man, I have a beautiful little girl and I am a social educator. If it had not been for what the Salesians did for me, my life would be very different, perhaps it would even already be over.”

I was speechless and very moved. I told him that I was very grateful for his gesture, his words and his path, and that his testimony of life was the greatest satisfaction for a Salesian heart.

He made a simple gesture and pointed me to a Salesian who was there at the time, who had been one of his teachers and one of those who had been very patient with him. The Salesian came up smiling and, I think with great joy in his heart, confirmed to me that this was indeed the case. We shared lunch together and then Alberto returned to his family.

A happy mother

Five days after this encounter, I was in southern India, in the state of Hyderabad. In the midst of many greetings and activities, one afternoon I was told I had a visitor. It was a young mother with her six-month-old daughter waiting for me at the reception desk of the Salesian house. She wanted to greet me.

The baby was beautiful and, as she was not frightened. I could not resist taking her in my arms and blessing her too. We took some souvenir photos, as the young mother had wished. That was all in this meeting.

There were no more words, but the story was painful and beautiful at the same time. That young mother was once a “throwaway” child, living on the streets with no one. It is easy to imagine her fate.

But one day, in the providence of the good Lord, she was found by a Salesian who had started taking in street children in the state of Hyderabad. She was one of the girls who managed to find home with other girls. Together with her educators, my Salesian confreres made sure that all her basic needs were met and taken care of.

So this little girl, picked up from the street, was able to flourish again, to embark on a life journey that has led her today to being a wife and mother and, so incredibly important to me, a teacher in the big Salesian school where we were at the time.

I could not help but think how many other such lives, saved from despair and anguish, there are in the Salesian world, how many of my good Salesian confreres and sisters kneel down every day to “wash the feet” of the little and big Jesuses on our streets.

This is the key to how many lives can be transformed for the better.

How can we not see in these two facts the “hand of God” reaching out to us through the good we can do? And that it is all of us who, in any part of the world, in any situation of life and profession, believe in humanity and believe in the dignity of every person, and believe that we must continue to build a better world.

I write this because good news must also be made known. Bad news spreads itself or finds people interested in it. These two real-life stories, so close in time for me, confirm once and a thousand times more how valuable is the good we all try to do together.

And also what a Salesian song poetically expressed: “I say that John Bosco is alive, don’t ever think that such a Father can abandon us. He is not dead, the Father lives, he has always been there and remains, he who took care of abandoned and orphaned youngsters, of street children, alone, whom he helped to change… I say that John Bosco is alive and has undertaken a thousand initiatives. Can’t you see his solicitude as a father now working all over the world? Do you not hear him intoning his hymn to so many daughters, so many sons, who bear these reflections of the Father we love? He lives when his Salesians are like this.” I wish you all a Happy Easter; and to those who feel distant from this certainty of faith, I wish you all well, with much warmth.

The Italian Lira, with its subdivisions into 100 centimes, was the official currency of Italy from 1861 to 2002 when it was ultimately replaced by the European currency, the Euro. It was the currency in Don Bosco’s time and in the early history of the Salesian Congregation.

The Italian Lira (abbreviated as £ or Lit.) was first minted by the Republic of Venice in 1472. In 1806, it was adopted by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, also known as Regno Italico, founded in 1805 by Napoleon Bonaparte, when he had himself crowned as ruler of the northern and central-eastern part of what is now Italy. Ten years later, in 1814, following the dissolution of the Napoleonic state, the currency of the Kingdom was maintained only in the Duchy of Parma and the Kingdom of Sardinia. After another two years, in 1816, King Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy introduced the Savoy lira, which remained in circulation until the birth of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, when it became the Italian lira. This currency remained in circulation until 2002, when it was replaced by the Euro.

When we follow the history of Don Bosco and the Salesian Congregation, we always comes across the difficulty of correctly quantifying the financial efforts that were made to support and educate thousands, indeed tens of thousands of boys, as the Italian currency has undergone great variations over the years. The difficulty increased even more with the adoption of the European currency, when in 2002 the exchange rate was set at 1936.27 Italian lira for one Euro. And there have been further significant variations due to inflation.
We propose below a calculation table of the revaluation of the Lira from 1861 to 2002 with the possibility of an update to 2022.

The calculations were made on the basis of the revaluation coefficients provided by the Central Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and were determined according to the trend of the cost-of-living indices, which since 1968 have taken the name of consumer price indices for blue- and white-collar households. For the period after the year 2002, the inflation index was added, which comes to 38.70% in 2022 compared to the time of the launch of the single currency (Euro), based on data provided by ISTAT itself (1 Euro in 2002 = 1.39 Euro in 2022).

In order to make it easier for readers to access the new features of this publication, as to the static part of the site, every now and then – when we accumulate some changes worth mentioning – we will do an update via an article.

For now, we would like to point out the opening of the social media channels Facebook and Twitter, which allow you to stay up-to-date on new articles via these services, in addition to the FEED-RSS and Newsletter, already present since the launch. You will find the links at the bottom of the page (in the footer).

The Salesian Bulletin Archive has been enriched with issues of the printed Italian Salesian Bulletin up to the year 1901. This is a new scanning in high definition and character recognition (OCR) to allow a more accurate search. The intention is to offer the complete collection of this Bulletin, including supplementary issues, which have never been presented.
The indexes are available for now from the beginning, from August 1877, until May 1883; later they will also be completed.
We have thought of offering quick access to the issues of this publication, creating a page especially for this purpose, which can be accessed via the link indicated in the initial text of the Salesian Bulletin Archive page, and also found HERE.
Please note that the page is only available in Italian because the Bulletin is in Italian. However, as the PDFs are searchable, the texts can be selected, copied and have them translated using Google ® Translate or other similar services.

We thank you for your attention and wish you fruitful reading.

The Salesian mission in Uruguay, as shared by a Vietnamese priest, Father Domenico Tran Duc Thanh: Christian love through life lived with the local people.

The Salesians were officially founded as a Congregation in 1859, but the dream had been in the pipeline for a long time. Already at the beginning of his work, Don Bosco realised that the work had to be shared, as he had sensed in many of his dreams. So he involved people from all walks of life to collaborate in various ways in the youth mission that God had entrusted to him. In 1875, with the start of the missions, an important stage in the history of the Congregation began. The first destination would be Argentina.

On 13 December 1875, the first Salesian missionary expedition, led by Fr John Cagliero, bound for Buenos Aires, passed through Montevideo. Thus Uruguay became the third country outside Italy reached by the Salesians of Don Bosco. The Salesians settled in the Villa Colón neighbourhood, amidst enormous difficulties, starting their work at the Colegio Pío, which was inaugurated on 2 February 1877. In the same year, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians arrived in Uruguay and also settled in this neighbourhood: in this way, Villa Colón became the cradle from which the charism spread not only in Uruguay, but also in Brazil, Paraguay and other lands of the Latin American continent.

Over time, that Salesian presence became a Province and today has a variety of Salesian works in different parts of the country: schools, social services, parishes, basilicas, shrines, rural and urban chapels, health centres, student and university residences, Salesian Youth Movement and more. The breadth of the work shows the response to the needs of the area and the flexibility of the Salesians in adapting to the local situation. By visiting people in the neighbourhood, trying to understand what the people are experiencing through dialogue and daily life, adaptation to new situations is carried out in order to better respond to the mission entrusted. This going out to meet young people, especially those most in need, makes the Salesians happy, allowing them to continue to discover the beauty of the Salesian vocation day by day.
The efforts in these works has been shared with the lay faithful, and having taken care of their formation, today we find a good number of them working in these activities, sharing their lives with the Salesians and strengthening their mission. Openness to others has also allowed Salesians who are not native to the area to be welcomed here. This is the case of Fr Dominic, who carries out his Salesian mission there.

The response to the missionary vocation is one that has left a strong mark on his life. He tells us that he found himself almost suddenly in an unfamiliar country, with a different language and culture, having had to separate himself from all the people he knew, who had remained far away. He had to start from scratch, with a different openness, with a new sensitivity. If before he thought that being a missionary meant taking Jesus to another place, once he arrived in Uruguay he discovered that Jesus was already there, waiting for him in other people. “Here in Uruguay, through others, I was able to encounter a totally different Jesus: closer, more human, simpler.”
What he was not lacking was the maternal presence of Mary, who accompanies him in the daily routine of missionary life and gives him a profound strength, which drives him to love Christ in others. “When I was a child, my grandmother took me to a church every day to pray the rosary. From those days at her feet until today, I still feel protected under the mantle of Mary.” Marian worship bears fruit; love is paid with love.

He confesses to us that: “In Uruguay I am a young man who has nothing; I only have faith, the faith of knowing that Christ and Mary are always present in my life; the hope of an ever closer Church, full of holiness and joy.” But it is perhaps this poverty that helps him prepare his heart to follow Christ, educate his heart to be with the brothers and sisters he meets along the way. This leads him to see the Church as a place of joyful encounter, a celebration that manifests the faith of the other, an encounter that implies unity and holiness.
And this also leads him to realise that his place is right where he is, in his community with his brothers, with the people of the neighbourhood, with the animators, with the children, with the laity, with the educators.
This is how the beauty of the missionary vocation is manifested: by letting Providence act, through humility and docility to the Holy Spirit, one transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Article edited by
Marco Fulgaro

Don Bosco in Uruguay. The missionary dream has become a reality

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(continuation from previous article)

FOLLOWING AND SEEKING GOD’S WILL, IN SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (5/8)

This is the most popular theme in the writings of St Francis de Sales, the theme he returns to most often.

The discovery of God as a Provident Father and love for his will go hand in hand in Francis’ life: he reminds us that “every day we ask him: Thy will be done, but when we actually have to do it, how difficult it is! We offer ourselves to God so often and say to Him each time: ‘I am yours; here is my heart!’ But, when He wants to make use of us, we are so neglectful! How can we say that we are His, if we do not want to conform to His holy will?”

“God’s will must become the only thing to be sought and willed, never departing from it for any reason! Walk under the guidance of God’s Providence, thinking only of the present day and leaving to Our Lord the heart you have given Him, never wanting to take it back for anything.”

Francis de Sales teaches that following God’s will is the best way to become a saint and this way is open to everyone. He writes:
“I intend to offer my teachings to those who live in the cities, in the family, at court, and who, by virtue of their status, are forced by social conveniences to live among others… A different exercise of devotion is required of each — the noble, the artisan, the servant, the prince, the maiden and the wife; and furthermore such practice must be modified according to the strength, the calling, and the duties of each individual.”

What Francis of Sales calls devotion, Pope Francis calls holiness and writes words that seem to come straight from the pen of Francis of Sales:
“To be holy does not require being a bishop, a priest or a religious. We are frequently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer. That is not the case. We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves.”

In a letter, Francis de Sales wrote:
“For the love of God, abandon yourself entirely to His will and do not believe that you can serve Him in any other way, because we never serve Him well except when we serve Him as He wishes.”

This requires
“that we should not sow in our neighbour’s field, however beautiful it may be, until our own has been fully sown. Distraction of the heart which leads to having the heart in one place and duty in another is always very harmful.”

From time to time I hear this question asked:
“How do I understand what God’s will for me is?”

I found an answer in the life of the saint.
For more than six years Jane de Chantal waited before she could consecrate herself entirely to the Lord and found with Francis what would become the Order of the Visitation. Throughout this period, the Saint sought to understand what God’s will was in this regard. He himself tells us about it in a letter to Jane Frances:
“That great movement of spirit that led you as if by force and with great consolation; the long reflection that I imposed on myself before giving you my assent; the fact that neither you nor I trusted only in ourselves; the fact that we gave the first stirrings of your conscience all the time to calm down; the prayers, not of a day or two, but of several months, that preceded your choice, are infallible signs that allow us to affirm without a shadow of doubt that such was the will of God.”

This is a valuable testimony that highlights Francis’ prudence. He knew how to wait calmly, without renouncing all the means at his disposal to decipher God’s will for him and the Baroness. These also apply to us today: reflect long before the Lord, seek advice from wise people, do not make hasty decisions, pray a lot.
He gives Jane Frances her motivation:
“As long as God wants you to remain in the world out of love for Him, stay there willingly and joyfully. Many leave the world without leaving themselves and in this way seek what they like, their peace of mind and their satisfaction. We leave the world to serve God, to follow God and to love God. Since we aspire to nothing but his holy service, wherever we serve him we will always find ourselves content.”

Once God’s will is understood clearly enough, obedience is required, that is, putting it into practice, living it!
He wrote in capital letters to the Baroness de Chantal: words that would be his entire life’s programme and, I would say, sum up Francis’ spirituality:

DO EVERYTHING OUT OF LOVE AND NOTHING OUT OF FEAR; LOVE OBEDIENCE MORE THAN FEARING DISOBEDIENCE

To obey is to speak lovingly to God who calls me to live his will in the concrete circumstances of my life.

Obedience is the form that love takes
Here are the consequences of this surrender to God’s will that Francis reminds so many people of with splendid images. To Madame Brûlart, a mother of a family, he writes:
“Everything we do receives its value from our conformity to God’s will. We must love what God loves. Now he loves our vocation. So let us also love it and not waste time thinking about the vocation of others.”

Progress is to be stressed and encouraged:
“You have said a wonderful word to me: let God place me where he wants; I don’t care, as long as I can serve him. We must love this will of God and the obligation it presupposes in us, even if it is keeping pigs or doing the humblest acts throughout our lives, because, wherever the good God places us, we must not care. This is the goal of perfection.”

And now some images: the garden.
“Do not sow your desires in someone else’s garden, but just look after your own properly. Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly. This is the great secret and the least understood secret of the spiritual life. What is the use of building castles in Spain if we have to live in France? This is an old lesson of mine, and you understand it well.”

The image of the boat.
“It seems to us that by changing boat we will be better off. Yes, we will be better off if we change ourselves! I am the sworn enemy of all those useless, dangerous and evil desires. For although what we desire is good, our desiring is bad, for God is not asking us for that thing, but for something else which he wants us to apply ourselves to.”

The image of the child.
We need to entrust “our general purpose to divine Providence, abandoning ourselves in his arms, like the little child, who eats what his father gives him every day in order to grow, certain that he will always provide him with food in proportion to his appetite and needs.”

Francis insists on this point, which is fundamental:
“What does it matter to a soul that is truly in love, whether the heavenly Bridegroom is served in one way or another? He who seeks only the satisfaction of his Beloved is happy with whatever makes him happy!”

The following excerpt, written following one of Jane de Chantal’s serious illnesses, is a moving one:
“You are more precious to me than myself; but this does not prevent me from conforming fully to the divine will. We intend to serve God in this world with our whole being: whether he consider it better that we are one in this world and one in the other or both in the other, may his most holy will be done.”

To conclude, a few more lines from his letters:
“We want to serve God, but by following our will and not his. God declared that He does not like any sacrifice contrary to obedience. God commands me to serve souls and I want to remain in contemplation: the contemplative life is good, but not when it is in opposition to obedience. We cannot choose our duties ourselves: we must see what God wants; and if God wants me to serve him by doing one thing, I must not want to serve him by doing another.”
“If we are holy according to our own will, we will never be holy properly: we must be holy according to God’s will!”

(continued)

            On the centenary of the birth of the Servant of God Vera Grita, a laywoman and Salesian Cooperator (Rome 28 January 1923 – Pietra Ligure 22 December 1969) we offer a biographical and spiritual profile of her testimony.

Rome, Modica, Savona
            Vera Grita was born in Rome on 28 January 1923, the second child of Amleto, a photographer by profession for generations, and Maria Anna Zacco della Pirrera, of noble origins. The close-knit family also included her elder sister Giuseppa (called Pina) and younger sisters Liliana and Santa Rosa (called Rosa). On 14 December of the same year Vera was baptised in the parish of San Gioacchino in Prati, also in Rome.

            Even as a child Vera showed a good and mild character that would not be shaken by the negative events that befell her: at the age of eleven she had to leave her family and detach herself from her closest affections together with her younger sister Liliana, to join her paternal aunts in Modica, Sicily, who were willing to help Vera’s parents who were hit by financial difficulties due to the economic crisis of 1929-1930. During this period, Vera showed her tenderness towards her younger sister by being close to her when the latter cried in the evenings for her mother. Vera was attracted by a large painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus hanging in the room where she said morning prayers and the Rosary every day with her aunts. She often remained in silence before that painting and frequently said she wanted to become a nun when she grew up. On the day of her First Communion (24 May 1934) she did not want to take off her white dress because she feared she would not sufficiently show Jesus the joy of having Him in her heart. At school she achieved good results and got on well with her classmates.
            At the age of seventeen, in 1940, she returned to her family. The family moved to Savona and Vera graduated from Teachers College the following year. Vera was twenty years old when she had to face a new and painful separation due to the premature death of her father Amleto (1943) and renounced pursuing the university studies to which she aspired, in order to help the family financially.

The drama of war
            But it was the Second World War with the bombing of Savona in 1944 that would cause Vera irreparable harm: it would determine the subsequent course of her life. Vera was trampled by the fleeing crowd seeking shelter in a tunnel.

Her condition was known in medical terms as crush syndrome, the physical consequences that follow bombings, earthquakes, structural collapses, as a result of which a limb or the whole body is crushed. What then occurs is muscle damage that affects the whole body, especially the kidneys. As a result of being crushed, Vera wuld suffer lumbar and back injuries that would cause irreparable damage to her health with fevers, headaches and pleurisy. This dramatic event was the beginning of Vera’s ‘Way of the Corss’ that would last 25 years, during which she would alternate long hospital stays with her work. At the age of 32, she was diagnosed with Addison’s disease, which would consume her,making her body weak: Vera would only weigh 40 kilos. At the age of 36, Vera underwent a total hysterectomy (1959), which caused her premature menopause and exacerbated the asthenia she was already suffering from as a result of Addison’s disease.
            Despite her precarious physical condition, Vera took and won a competition as a primary school teacher. She devoted herself to teaching during the last ten years of her earthly life, serving in schools in the Ligurian hinterland that were difficult to reach (Rialto, Erli, Alpicella, Deserto di Varazze), arousing esteem and affection among her colleagues, parents and pupils.

Salesian Cooperator
            In Savona, in the Salesian parish of Mary Help of Christians, she attended Mass and regularly frequented the sacrament of Penance. Since 1963 her confessor was the Salesian Fr Giovanni Bocchi. A Salesian Cooperator since 1967, she realised her call in the total gift of self to the Lord, who in an extraordinary way gave himself to her, in the depths of her heart, with the “Voice”, a “Word” telling her about the Work of the Living Tabernacles. She submitted all her writings to her spiritual director, Fr Gabriello Zucconi, also a Salesian, and guarded the secret of her call in the silence of her heart, led by the divine Master and the Virgin Mary who would accompany her along the path of her hidden life, a life stripped of everything, a life of self-emptying.

            Under the impulse of divine grace and accepting the mediation of her spiritual guides, Vera Grita responded to God’s gift by witnessing through her life marked by the fatigue of illness to the encounter with the Risen One, and by dedicating herself with heroic generosity to teaching and educating her pupils, contributing to the needs of her family and bearing witness to a life of evangelical poverty. Centred and steadfast in the God she loved and who supported her, she showed great inner firmness in bearing the trials and sufferings of life. On the basis of this inner firmness, she bore witness to a Christian life of patience and constancy in goodness.
            She died on 22 December 1969 in Pietra Ligure at Santa Corona hospital in a small room where she had spent the last six months of her life, in a crescendo of sufferings accepted and lived in union with the Crucified Jesus. “Vera’s soul,” wrote Fr Giuseppe Borra, a Salesian, her first biographer, “with her messages and letters, enters the ranks of charismatic souls called to enrich the Church with flames of love for God and for Jesus in the Eucharist for the expansion of the Kingdom. She is one of those grains of wheat that Heaven has let fall to Earth to bear fruit, in her own time, in silence and concealment.”

Vera of Jesus
            Vera Grita’s life unfolded over the short span of 46 years marked by dramatic historical events such as the great economic crisis of 1929-1930 and the Second World War, and then ended on the threshold of another significant historical event: the 1968 protests, which would have profound repercussions at a cultural, social, political, religious and ecclesial level.

Vera’s life began, developed and ended in the midst of these historical events and she suffered their dramatic consequences at a family, emotional and physical level. At the same time, her story shows how she went through these events, facing them with the strength of her faith in Jesus Christ, thus bearing witness to heroic faithfulness to crucified and risen Love. Fidelity that, at the end of her earthly life, the Lord would repay by giving her a new name: Vera of Jesus. “I have given you my Holy Name, and from now on you shall be called and be ‘Vera of Jesus’” (Message of 3 December 1968).
            Tried by various illnesses that, over time, describe a situation of generalised and irrecoverable physical wear and tear, Vera lived in the world without being of the world, maintaining inner stability and equilibrium due to her union with Jesus in the Eucharist received daily, and to the awareness of the Eucharistic remaining permanently present in her soul. It was therefore the Holy Mass that was the centre of Vera’s daily and spiritual life, where, as a small “drop of water”, she joined the wine to be inseparably united to the infinite Love that continually gives itself, saves and sustains the world.
            A few months before her death, Vera wrote to her spiritual father, Fr Gabriello Zucconi: “The illnesses I have carried inside me for more than twenty years have degenerated. Devoured by fever and pain in all my bones, I am alive in the Holy Mass.” And on another occasion: “The flame of the Holy Mass remains, the divine spark that animates me, gives me life, then work, the children, the family, the impossibility of finding a quiet place where I can isolate myself to pray, or the physical tiredness after school.”

The Work of the Living Tabernacles
            During the long years of suffering, aware of her frailty and human limitations, Vera learnt to entrust herself to God and to abandon herself totally to his will. She maintained this docile obedience even when the Lord communicated the Work of theLiving Tabernacles to her in the last 2 years and 4 months of her earthly life. Her love for God’s will led Vera to the total gift of herself: first with private vows and the vow of being a “little victim” for priests (2 February 1965); later with the offering of her life (5 November 1968) for the birth and development of the Work of Living Tabernacles, always in full obedience to her spiritual director.
            On 19 September 1967, she began the mystical experience that invited her to live fully the joy and dignity of being a child of God, in communion with the Trinity and in Eucharistic intimacy with Jesus received in Holy Communion and present in the Tabernacle. “The wine and the water are us: you and I, I and you. We are one: I am digging in you, digging, digging to build me a temple: let me work, do not put obstacles in my way […] the will of my Father is this: that I remain in you, and you in me. Together we shall bear great fruit.” There are 186 messages that make up the Work of the Living Tabernacles that Vera, struggling with the fear of being a victim of deception, wrote in obedience to Fr Zucconi.
            “Take me with you” expresses in a simple way Jesus’ invitation to Vera. Take me with you where? Where you live: Vera was educated and prepared by Jesus to live in union with Him. Jesus wanted to enter Vera’s life, her family, the school where she taught. An invitation addressed to all Christians. Jesus wants to come out of the Church of stone and wants to live in our hearts with the Eucharist, with the grace of Eucharistic permanence in our souls. He wants to come with us where we go, to live our family life, and he wants to reach out to those who live far from him by living in us.

Following the Salesian charism
            In the Work of the Living Tabernacles there are explicit references to Don Bosco and his “da mihi animas cetera tolle”, to live in union with God and trust in Mary Help of Christians, to give God through tireless apostolate that cooperates in the salvation of humanity. The Work, by the Lord’s will, is entrusted in the first instance to the sons of Don Bosco for its realisation and diffusion in parishes, religious institutes and the Church: “I have chosen the Salesians because they live with the young, but their life of apostolate must be more intense, more active, more heartfelt.”

            The Cause for the Beatification of the Servant of God Vera Grita was launched on 22 December 2019, the 50th anniversary of her death, in Savona with the presentation of the Supplex libello to diocesan Bishop Calogero Marino by the Postulator for the Salesian Congregation, Fr Pierluigi Cameroni. The Diocesan Inquest was held from 10 April to 15 May 2022 at the Curia in Savona. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints gave juridical validity to this Inquest on 16 December 2022.
            As the Rector Major wrote in this year’s Strenna: “Vera Grita attests first of all to an all-embracing Eucharistic orientation, which became explicit especially in her final years of life. She did not think in terms of programmes, apostolic initiatives, projects: she accepted the fundamental “project” that is Jesus himself, until he made her life his own. Today’s world attests to a great need for the Eucharist. Her journey through the strenuous labour of her days also offers a new lay perspective on holiness: becoming an example of conversion, acceptance and sanctification for the “poor”, the “frail” and the “sick” who can recognise themselves and find hope in her. As a Salesian Cooperator, Vera Grita lived and worked, taught and encountered people with her strong Salesian sensitivity: from the loving-kindness of her discreet but effective presence, to her ability to be loved by children and families; from the pedagogy of kindness that she carried out with her constant smile, to her generous readiness with which, regardless of the inconvenience, she turned in preference to the least, to the little ones, to the distant, the forgotten; from her generous passion for God and His Glory to the way of the cross, letting everything be taken from her in her illness.”

Christ is RISEN!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading”. (1Pe. 1,3-4)

Holy Easter to all our readers!