Christmas with Don Bosco and his boys
Redaktor strony At the beginning of the Christmas novena in December 1859, Don Bosco offered the young...
councils
Educating for rest and leisure with Saint Francis de Sales
P. Wirth MORAND Life is not only made up of work and serious occupations; it is also punctuated...
Don Bosco and the good press: a rediscovered letter
Fr Francesco MOTTO The discovery of an unpublished letter from Don Bosco always offers an opportunity to shed...
The influence of social media on young people
On 10 December 2025, Australia became the first country in the world to ban social...
Why don’t you speak? (1868)
St John Bosco In the following recounted speech, delivered by Don Bosco between 30 April and 1 May...
Why are you shouting?
Fr Bruno FERRERO One day the master asked his disciples the following question: “Why do people shout when...
The Christmas Grotto, where Heaven meets Earth
P. Fabio ATTARD The mystery of Christmas begins with a scandal of love: the Great becoming small. It...
It’s your turn! said the gravedigger (1868)
In the dream that Don Giovanni Bosco recounted to his young people on the evening...
The Salesian Bulletin. It is not just another magazine
It is distributed all over the world in dozens of different languages. Certainly it has...
Educating for work and solidarity with Saint Francis de Sales
The child, once grown, is destined to integrate more or less quickly into the social...
Letter from Nizza Monferrato
An apparently simple letter, yet rich in spiritual and educational meaning: this is what Don...
Rector Major’s missionary appeal 2025
“An Appeal for Renewed Charismatic Fidelity and Missionary Generosity” Dear Confreres, A fraternal and heartfelt...
A grace obtained, a missed votive offering, an indelible memory
Every unpublished document generally contains something new. Well, the documents we are presenting here not...
Pains of Hell (1887)
In this passage, taken from his 1887 memoirs, Don Giovanni Bosco recounts the most disturbing...
Nostalgia
I am a medical oncologist with long years of professional work. I started attending the...
Let me be alone; I suffer too much (1867)
The following dream, recounted by Don Bosco to his young people in 1867, begins with...
From the Pharisee’s Table to the Heart of Ministry
Humility and Charity in the Education and Evangelisation of Young People In chapter 14 of...
Discourse of the Rector Major in Catania. Called to be signs of hope
On 27 September 2025, Father Fabio Attard, Rector Major of the Salesians, received honorary citizenship...
Educating the will with Saint Francis de Sales
With the faculties of the spirit, such as intellect and memory, one remains within the...
At Don Bosco’s school. Offering little sacrifices to Our Lady
For Saint John Bosco, devotion to Our Lady was not a mere accessory religious sentiment,...
On 20th October, the Novena of Blessed Michele Rua begins
Fr Pierluigi CAMERONI Blessed Michele Rua (1837-1910) represents an extraordinary figure in the history of Salesian spirituality. As...
A Raging Bull; Humility, Work and Temperance (1876)
This vivid dream narrative, recounted by Don Bosco at the end of the 1876 spiritual...
The jar
A professor arrived in class with a glass jar, the kind usually used to preserve...
The Divine Folly of the Sower who “sows in the dark”
The parable of the sower, narrated in the Synoptic Gospels, is a powerful and foundational...
Monsters that Hurt Young People (1865)
In this lively account, dated 24 February 1865, Don Bosco speaks to his pupils about...
Family Education
Alongside the “sentiment for the child”, the 15th century saw the development of a sentiment...
The shepherdess, the sheep and lambs (1867)
In the following passage, Don Bosco, founder of the Valdocco Oratory, recounts a dream he...
The Little Lambs and the Summer Storm (1878)
The dreamlike tale that follows, recounted by Don Bosco on the evening of 24 October...
Visiting Rome with Don Bosco. Chronicle of his first trip to Rome
The first time Don Bosco went to Rome was in 1858, from February 18 to...
The cricket and the Coin
A wise man from India had a close friend who lived in Milan. They had...
Educating Beyond Weaknesses
The encounter between Jesus and Peter sheds a special light on our mission as evangelizers...
From CGS20 to GC29. The “interior” journey of the Salesians: between fidelity to God and response to the young
At the conclusion of the 29th General Chapter of the Salesians, we invited Don Pascual...
Educating the Faculties of Our Spirit with Saint Francis de Sales
St. Francis de Sales presents the spirit as the highest part of the soul, governed...
Is Confession Still Necessary?
The Sacrament of Confession, often overlooked in today’s hectic world, remains for the Catholic Church...
Young people’s gifts to Mary (1865)
In a dream recounted by Don Bosco in the Chronicle of the Oratory, dated May...
Election of the 266th Successor of Saint Peter
Every death or resignation of a Pontiff opens one of the most delicate phases in...
When the Lord Knocks
A confrere told me, “Father, we only need your closeness, your listening, your prayer. This...
The way to hell paved with feeble resolutions (1873)
San Giovanni Bosco recounts in a “good night” the result of a long plea to...
Educating our emotions with Saint Francis de Sales
Modern psychology has demonstrated the importance and influence of emotions in the life of the...
Purity and ways it can be safeguarded (1884)
In this dream of Don Bosco, a heavenly garden appears: a green slope, festooned trees,...
Final Address of the Rector Major at the conclusion of the General Chapter 29
Dear confreres, We have come to the end of this experience of the 29th General...
If Patagonia must wait… let’s go to Asia
The expansion of Salesian missionaries in Argentina during the second half of the 19th century...
With Don Bosco. Always
P. Stefano MARTOGLIO It makes a difference whether or not a General Chapter is held in one place...
The dream of the 22 moons (1854)
In March 1854 on a feast day, after evening prayer Don Bosco gathered all the...
Educating the body and its 5 senses with Saint Francis de Sales
A good number of ancient Christian ascetics often considered the body as an enemy,...
Election of the first Rector Major
During the eleventh General Chapter of the Salesian Congregation, the first Rector Major, Fr. Paolo...
The name
In the Faculty of Medicine at a major university, the professor of anatomy distributed a...
Leaving for the missions… trusting in dreams
Don Bosco’s missionary dreams, without anticipating the course of future events, had the flavour of...
A Mysterious and Prophetic Wheel (1861)
The wise man’s heart,” we read in Holy Scripture, “knows times and judgments; for there...
“The Roman Stations”. A millenary tradition
The “Roman Stations” are an ancient liturgical tradition that, during Lent and the first week...
Education according to st. Francis de Sales
Education according to St. Francis de Sales is a path of love and care toward...
The Jubilee and devout practises for visiting churches. Dialogue
Saint John Bosco fully understood the importance of Jubilees in the life of the Church....
The handkerchief of purity (1861)
On June 16, Don Bosco gave the boys the spiritual nosegay to pray for...
Hiking to Heaven (1861)
We shall now narrate another inspiring dream of Don Bosco which occurred on the nights...
Good, trustworthy and courageous slaves
In this Jubilee year, in this difficult world, we are invited to stand up, restart,...
Faith, our shield and our victory (1876)
“When I devoted myself to this part of the sacred ministry, I intended to consecrate...
Salesian Holiness 2024
Every year, the postulator for the causes of saints of the Salesian Congregation, Don Pierluigi...
The Jubilee of 2025 and the Jubilee Basilicas
On December 24, 2024, on Christmas Eve, the Pope opened the Bronze Door in St....
Saint Francis de Sales, founder of a new school of perfection
For Francis de Sales, religious life is “a school of perfection”, in which one...
The “Good Night”
P. Natale CERRATO One evening, saddened by a certain general indiscipline noticed at the Valdocco Oratory among...
What a gift, time!
The start of a new year in our liturgy, is enlightened by the ancient blessing...
Profiles of families wounded in the history of Salesian holiness
Prof. Lodovica Maria ZANET 1. Stories of wounded families We are used to imagining the family as a harmonious...
Blessed Maria Troncatti, a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, will be canonised
On November 25th, 2024, Pope Francis authorised the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to...
St Francis de Sales, personal companion
‘My spirit always accompanies yours,’ wrote Francis de Sales one day to Jeanne de...
The perfume
One cold March morning, in a hospital, due to serious complications, a baby girl was...
The Cardinal Protectors of the Salesian Society of St John Bosco
From the very beginning, the Salesian Society had, like many other religious orders, a cardinal...
Life according to the Spirit in Mamma Margaret (2/2)
(continuation from previous article) 4. Exodus to her son’s priesthood From the dream at the...
Blessed Michael Rua.The Consecration of our Pious Society to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
On 24 October last, the Holy Father wished to renew devotion to the Sacred Heart...
Life according to the Spirit in Mamma Margaret (1/2)
Fr Lemoyne leaves us a truly outstanding portrait in his preface to the life...
Great saint, great manager
It is not easy to choose, from the hundreds of unpublished letters of Don...
I killed her for a piece of bread
A man who had not entered a church for twenty years hesitantly approached a confessional....
Third missionary dream: air travel (1885)
Don Bosco’s dream on the eve of the missionaries’ departure for America is an event...
The path of roses
“‘Oh, how Don Bosco always walks on roses! He goes forward calmly; all things go...
Halloween: a holiday to celebrate?
Wise men tell us that to understand an event, one must know what its origin...
St Francis de Sales at the service of education
Francis de Sales was convinced that ‘on the good or bad education of the...
Remember the sermon
One Sunday, around noon, a young woman was washing salad in the kitchen, when she...
What is the ordinary activity of the devil and how to counter it
The devil’s temptation does not produce its devastating consequences if our human will, with God’s...
One million children pray the Rosary
‘If one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change’ (St Pio of Pietrelcina...
The Snake nd the Rosary (1862)
Part I At the “Good Night” on August 20, 1862, Don Bosco, after giving some...
Our annual gift
Traditionally, as Salesian Family we receive the Strenna every year; a gift at the beginning...
St Francis de Sales catechises the children
Formed in Christian doctrine from childhood, in his family environment, then in schools, and...
First missionary dream: Patagonia (1872)
Here is the dream that saw Don Bosco decide to start the missionary apostolate...
A truly blind man
An ancient Persian fable tells of a man who had only one thought: to possess...
An interesting court case at Valdocco
A letter to the magistrate of the City of Turin dated 18 April 1865 opens...
Spreading Don Bosco’s missionary spirit
We are approaching the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the First Salesian Missionary Expedition...
Young people making the novena to the Nativity of Mary well (1868)
Don Bosco’s dream of 2 September 1868 This is how Don Bosco spoke in...
A smile at dawn
A touching testimony by Raoul Follereau. He was in a leper colony on a Pacific...
St Francis de Sales forms his collaborators
Francis de Sales did not wish to become a bishop. “I was not born...
The Flood and the Life-saving Raft (1886)
No one can save themselves from the fury of the waters in great floods. Everyone...
Correcting “rebellious children” with St Francis de Sales
In September 1594, Francis de Sales, provost of the cathedral, arrived, accompanied by his...
How to find the resources to build a church
A secret to be foundIt is well known that Don Bosco’s reputation for getting things...
The rose
The German poet Rilke lived for a time in Paris. To go to university, he...
The letter from Rome (1884)
In 1884, while in Rome, a few days before returning to Turin, Don Bosco had...
Salesian holiness
The Holy Spirit unceasingly continues the hidden work in souls, leading them to holiness. Not...
The hands of God
A master was travelling with a disciple in charge of looking after the camel. One...
The dream of the two columns
Among Don Bosco’s dreams, one of the best known is the one known as the...
When an educator touches the hearts of his children
Ángel Card. FERNÁNDEZ ARTIME The art of being like Don Bosco: “Remember that education is a matter of the...
St Francis de Sales university student in Padua (2/2)
(continuation from previous article) Francis went to Padua, a city belonging to the Venetian...
St Francis de Sales university student in Padua (1/2)
Francis went to Padua, a city belonging to the Venetian Republic, in October 1588,...
Dream of the Ten Diamonds
One of Don Bosco’s most famous dreams was the one called the “Dream of the...