We are pleased to announce that Fr. Fabius Attard is the new Rector Major, the eleventh successor of Don Bosco.

Brief information about the new Rector Major:
Born: 23.03.1959 in Gozo (Malta), diocese of Gozo.
Novitiate: 1979-1980 in Dublin.
Perpetual profession: 11.08.1985 in Malta.
Priestly ordination: 04.07.1987 in Malta.
He has held various pastoral and formative positions within his home province.
He was for 12 years the General Councillor for Youth Ministry, 2008-2020.
Since 2020 he has been the Delegate of the Rector Major for the Ongoing Formation of Salesians and laity in Europe.
Last community of belonging: Rome CNOS.
Languages ​​known: Maltese, English, Italian, French, Spanish.

We wish Fr. Fabio a fruitful apostolate and assure him of our prayers.

            The Venerable Fr Andrea Beltrami (1870-1897) is an emblematic expression of a constitutive dimension not only of the Salesian charism, but of Christianity: the self-offering and victim dimension, which in Salesian terms embodies the demands of “caetera tolle”. A testimony that stands out both for its uniqueness or for reasons partly linked to the past or handed down through popular understandings, has been far less visible in the Salesian world. The fact remains that the Christian message intrinsically presents aspects that are incompatible with the world, and if ignored they risk making the gospel message itself and, specifically, the Salesian charism, unprotected in its charismatic roots of a spirit of sacrifice, hard work, and apostolic renunciation. The testimony of Father Andrew Beltrami is paradigmatic of a whole strand of Salesian holiness that, starting with the three candidates for sainthood, Fr Andrew Beltrami, Blessed Augustus Czartoryski, Blessed Louis Variara, continues over time with other family figures such as Blessed Eusebia Palomino, Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa, Blessed Laura Vicuña, without forgetting the numerous host of martyrs.

1. Radical understanding of the gospel

1.1 Radical in vocational choice
            Andrew Beltrami was born in Omegna (Novara), on the shores of Lake Orta, on 24 June 1870. He received a profoundly Christian upbringing in his family, which was then developed at the Salesian college in Lanzo, where he entered in October 1883. Here his vocation came to maturity. At Lanzo, one day, he had the great good fortune to meet Don Bosco. Fascinated by him, a question arose within him: “Why couldn’t I be like him? Why not spend my life too for the formation and salvation of the young?” In 1885, Don Bosco told him: “Andrew, you too will become a Salesian!” In 1886 he received the clerical habit from Don Bosco at Foglizzo and on 29 October 1886 he began his novitiate year with one resolve: “I want to become a saint”. This was not formal resolution, but became a reason for his life. Especially Fr Eugenio Bianchi, his novice master, in his report to Don Bosco, described him as perfect in every virtue. Such a radical approach right from the novitiate was expressed in obedience to superiors, in the exercise of charity towards his companions, in religious observance that he was described as being the “Rule personified”.  On 2 October 1887, at Valsalice (Turin) Don Bosco received his religious vows: he had become a Salesian and immediately undertook studies to prepare for the priesthood.
            The firmness and determination in his response to the Lord’s call was very striking, a sign of the value he attributed to his vocation: “The grace of vocation was for me a unique, invincible, irresistible, efficacious grace. The Lord had put into my heart a firm persuasion, an intimate conviction that the only way that suited me was to become a Salesian; it was a voice of command that admitted no reply, that removed every obstacle that I would not have been able to resist even if I had wanted to, and therefore I would have overcome a thousand difficulties, even if it had been to pass over the body of my father and mother, as Chantal did when she passed over the body of her son.” These expressions are very strong and perhaps not very pleasing to our palate; they are like the prelude to a vocational story lived so radically that is not easy to understand, let alone accept.

1.2. Radical in his journey of formation
            An interesting and revealing aspect of prudential action is the capacity to let oneself be advised and corrected, and in turn become capable of correction and advice: “I throw myself like a child into your arms, abandoning myself entirely to your direction. May you lead me along the path of perfection, I am resolved with the grace of God, to overcome any difficulty, to make any effort to follow your advice” is what he told his spiritual director Fr Giulio Barberis. In the exercise of teaching and assistance “he always spoke calmly and serenely… first he carefully read the regulations of the same offices… the rules and regulations on assistance and on the way of teaching… he soon acquired a knowledge of each of his pupils, of their individual needs, then he became all things to all and to each of them”. In fraternal correction, he was inspired by Christian principles and intervened by weighing his words well and expressing his thoughts clearly.

            It was during this period that Andrew made the acquaintance of the Polish prince Augustus Czartoryski, who had recently entered the Congregation, and with whom he became close friends: they studied foreign languages together and helped each other climb to the summit of holiness. When Augustus fell ill, the superiors begged Andrew to stay close to him and help him. They spent their summer holidays together in the Salesian institutes in Lanzo, Penango d’Asti and Alassio. Augustus, who had meanwhile reached the priesthood, was Andrew’s guardian angel, teacher and heroic example of holiness. Fr Augustus passed away in 1893 and Fr Andrew would say of him: “I looked after a saint”. When Fr Beltrami in turn fell ill with the same disease, one of the probable causes was the time he had spent with his sick friend.

1.3. Radical in trial
            His illness began in a brutal way on 20 February 1891 when, following a very strenuous journey and during days of harsh winter weather, the first symptoms of an illness appeared that would undermine his health and lead him to his grave. If the causes include schooling and contact with Prince Czartoryski who was suffering from the same disease, both the ascetic effort and the offering of self as a victim are worth mentioning. His fellow citizen and novitiate companion Giulio Cane testifies to this struggle with the old man within him: “I was always convinced that the servant of God suffered the most serious blow to his health from the violent and constant way in which he forced himself to renounce all his own will in order to make himself, I would say, a slave to the will of the Superior, in whom he saw God’s will. Only those who were able to know the servant of God in the years of his adolescence and youth, with his impulsive, ardent spirit, when he was almost rebellious to all restraint, and who know how the Beltrami Manera people hold tenaciously to their own opinions, can form a clear idea of the effort the Servant of God had to impose on himself to master himself. From the conversations I had with the Servant of God, I came to this conviction: wary of being able to master himself by degrees in his character, from the very first months of his novitiate, he had the intention of radically renouncing his will, his tendencies, his aspirations. All this he achieved with constant vigilance over himself so as never to fail in his purpose. It is impossible that such an internal struggle did not contribute, more than the labours of study and teaching, to undermining the health of the Servant of God.” Truly the young Beltrami took the words of the Gospel literally: “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force” (Mt 11:12).

            He lived his suffering with inner joy: “The Lord wants me to be a priest and a victim: what could be more beautiful?” His day began with Holy Mass, in which he united his suffering to the Sacrifice of Jesus present on the altar. Meditation became contemplation. Ordained a priest by Bishop Cagliero, he gave himself entirely to contemplation and the apostolate of the pen. With an all-out tenacity of will, and a vehement desire for holiness, he consumed his life in pain and unceasing work. “The mission God entrusts to me is to pray and to suffer,” he said. “I am content and happy and I always celebrate. Neither dying nor healing, but living to suffer: in suffering I have found true contentment,” was his motto. But his truest vocation was prayer and suffering: to be a sacrificial victim with the divine Victim who is Jesus. This is revealed in his luminous and ardent writings: “It is also beautiful in the darkness, when everyone is resting, to keep company with Jesus, in the flickering light of the lamp before the Tabernacle. One knows then the infinite greatness of his love.” “I ask God for long years of life to suffer and atone, to make reparation. I am content and always rejoice because I can do it. Neither die nor heal, but live to suffer. In suffering lies my joy, suffering offered with Jesus on the cross.” “I offer myself as a victim with Him, for the sanctification of priests, for the people of the whole world.”

2. The secret
            In his fundamental text for understanding the story of Fr Andrew Beltrami, Fr Giulio Barberis aligns the holiness of the young Salesian with Don Bosco, apostle of abandoned youth. Barberis speaks of Fr Beltrami as “shining like a distinguished star… who shed so much light as good example and encouraged us to good by his virtues!” It is therefore a matter of grasping what an exemplary life this is and to what extent it is an encouragement to those who look upon it. Fr Barberis’ testimony becomes even more cogent and he states boldly: “I have been in the Pious Salesian Society for over 50 years; I have been the Direcor of Novices for over 25 years: how many holy confreres have I known, how many good young men have passed under me in that time! How many chosen flowers the Lord was pleased to transplant into the Salesian garden in Paradise! And yet, if I have to express myself fully, although I do not intend to make comparisons, my conviction is that no one has surpassed our dearest Fr Andrew in virtue and holiness.” And in the process he said. “I am convinced that it is an extraordinary grace that God wanted to bestow on the Congregation founded by the incomparable Don Bosco, so that by seeking to imitate him, we may achieve in the Church the goal that the venerable Don Bosco had in founding it.” This attestation, shared by many, is based both on an in-depth knowledge of the saints’ lives and on a familiarity with Fr Beltrami over more than ten years.
            At a superficial glance, Beltrami’s light of holiness would seem at odds with Don Bosco’s holiness of which it is supposed to be a reflection, but a careful reading allows one to grasp a secret warp upon which authentic Salesian spirituality is woven. It is that hidden invisible part which is nevertheless the backbone of the spiritual and apostolic nature of Don Bosco and his disciples. The tension of the Da mihi animas is nourished by the asceticism of the caetera tolle; the front of the mysterious character in the famous dream of the ten diamonds, with its gems of faith, hope, charity, work and temperance, demands that the back corresponds to those of obedience, poverty, reward, chastity and fasting. Fr Beltrami’s short life is packed with a message that represents the gospel leaven that ferments all pastoral and educational activity typical of the Salesian mission, and without which apostolic activity is destined to exhaust itself in sterile and inconclusive activism. “Fr Beltrami’s life, spent entirely hidden in God, entirely in prayer, in suffering, in humiliation, in sacrifice, entirely in hidden but constant work, in heroic charity, although restricted to a small circle given his circumstances, all in all seems so admirable to me as to make one say: faith has always worked wonders, it works wonders even today, as it certainly will work wonders as long as the world lasts.”
            It is a total and unconditional handing over of oneself to God’s plan that motivates the authentic radical nature of gospel discipleship, that is to say, of what lies at the basis of a life lived as a generous response to a call. The spirit with which Fr Beltrami lived his life is well expressed by this testimony reported by one of his companions who, while commiserating with him over his illness, was interrupted by Beltrami in these terms: “Leave it,” he said, “God knows what he is doing; it is up to each one to accept his place and in that to be a true Salesian. You other healthy people work, we sick people suffer and pray”, so convinced was he that he was a true imitator of Don Bosco.
            Of course it is not easy to grasp such a secret, such a precious pearl. It was not easy for Fr Barberis, who knew him seriously for ten years as spiritual director; it was not easy for the Salesian tradition, which gradually marginalised this figure; nor is it easy for us today and for an entire cultural and anthropological context that tends to marginalise the Christian message, especially in its core of redemptive work that passes through the scandal of humiliation, passion and the cross. “Describing the unique virtues of a man who always lived locked up in a religious house, and, in his most important years, in a small room, without even being able to go down the stairs because of his illness, of a man of such humility that he carefully got rid of all the documents that could have made his virtues known, and who sought to avoid any shadow of his piety from leaking out; of one who proclaimed himself a great sinner by mentioning his innumerable sins, whereas he had always been held up as the best in whatever school and college he had presented himself, is not only something difficult, but almost impossible.” The difficulty in grasping this virtuous profile depends on the fact that such virtues were neither conspicuous nor supported by particular external facts to attract attention or arouse admiration.

(continued)

The Holy See announced in a press release issued by the Press Office on 5 March 2024 that Pope Francis has decided on the episcopal ordination of Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, sdb, Rector Major of the Salesian Society of Saint John Bosco, assigning him the titular See of Ursona, with archiepiscopal dignity. It is an ancient episcopal see in Spain (4th century), which was located in the city of Ossuna, suffragan of the archdiocese of Seville, and since 1969 has been counted among the titular episcopal sees of the Catholic Church.
The episcopal ordination takes place in accordance with Pope John XXIII’s Apostolic Motu Proprio, Cum Gravissima, on the episcopal dignity to be conferred on all cardinals (15 April 1962), and is scheduled for 20 April next.

He is the first Rector Major to be appointed cardinal and also the first Rector Major to be appointed archbishop of the Catholic Church.

Following this elevation to the cardinalate, various events have taken place and others will follow:
– 9 July 2023, at the end of the Angelus, Pope Francis announced his creation as a cardinal;
– 30 September 2023, he was created a cardinal, receiving the cardinal’s biretta and ring in the Ordinary Public Consistory;
– 4 October 2023, he took office in the Roman Curia, being appointed a member of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DIVCSVA);
– 17 December 2023, he took possession of the diaconate of Mary Help of Christians in Via Tuscolana;
– 20 April 2024, he is scheduled for episcopal ordination; it will be done through the laying on of hands and the prayer of ordination by Card. Emil Paul TSCHERRIG, Apostolic Nuncio Emeritus in Italy and in the Republic of San Marino, who will be joined by His Eminence Cardinal Cristóbal LÓPEZ ROMANO. Cristóbal LÓPEZ ROMERO, sdb, Archbishop of Rabat (Morocco) and Bishop Lucas VAN LOOY, sdb, Bishop Emeritus of Ghent (Belgium). The celebration will take place in the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and will begin at 3.30 p.m;
– 16 August 2024, end of mandate as Rector Major and beginning of his service at the Holy See, according to the mission that will be entrusted to him.

His successor at the head of the Salesian Congregation will be elected at the 29th General Chapter of the Congregation (which will take place from 16 February to 12 April 2025), which has already been convoked, according to the Salesian Constitutions.

We wish our Rector Major, Cardinal Ángel, every success in his service to the Universal Church.

(continuation from previous article)

5) Being authentic
In the digital age, authentic people are very important. They do not show off, they do not try to fit a mould, they are comfortable with who they are and are not afraid to show it. They express their thoughts and feelings with total honesty, without worrying about what others might think, creating an environment of honesty and acceptance.
In his Memoirs, this rather satisfying statement is recorded: “all of them [my companions] – including those older and bigger than I – respected my mettle and my strength.”
“It is useless”, Fr Cafasso was to say in his turn, “he wants to do it his own way; yet he must be allowed to do it; even when a project would be inadvisable, Don Bosco succeeds”; resentful at not having won him over to her cause, the Marchioness Barolo accused him of being “stubborn, obstinate, proud.”
They are good bricks. He knows how to use them well to build a masterpiece.

Simplicity
Many people need to pretend to be different, to appear stronger than they are. To want to be what they are not.
Flowers simply bloom. Silent lightness is what they are. The simple person is like the birds in the sky. Sometimes singing more often silent, always alive. Don Bosco lived as he breathed. He was always himself. Never duplicitous, never pretentious, never complex. Intelligence is not about ruffling, complication, snobbery. Reality is complex without a doubt. We could not easily describe a tree, a flower, a star, a stone… This does not prevent them from simply being what they are. The rose is without a ‘why’, it blooms because it blooms, it does not care for itself, it does not wish to be seen…
The Biographical Memoirs recount that in 1877, in Ancona, “Don Bosco went to celebrate Mass around ten o’clock in the Gesù church, run by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. He was served Mass by a young man, who never forgot that meeting for the rest of his life. He saw a short little priest enter the sacristy, modest in face and attitude, indeed unknown.” But “in that dark face” he saw something of an attractive goodness, which immediately aroused in him a mixture of curiosity and reverence. As he celebrated, he noticed that there was something special about him, something inviting him to recollection and fervour. At the end of mass, after thanksgiving, the priest placed his hand on his head, gave him ten cents, wanted to know who he was and what he did, and said a few kind words to him. Forty-eight years later, that young man, whose name was Eugenio Marconi and who was a pupil at the Good Shepherd Institute, was later to write: ‘Oh the gentleness of that voice! The warmth, the affection contained in those words! I was confused and moved.’ He discovered shortly afterwards that the “short little priest” was Don Bosco and he remained a devoted friend to him all his life.
The opposite of simple is not complicated, but false. Simplicity is nakedness, being stripped of self, poverty. With no wealth other than everything. Without other treasure than nothing. Simplicity is freedom, lightness, transparency. Simple as air, free as air. Like a window open to the great breath of the world, to the infinite and silent presence of everything.
Where the Spirit of the Gospel blows: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”  (Mt 6:26).
The Biographical Memoirs quietly state: “It was evident that he threw himself into the arms of divine Providence, like a child into those of its mother” (MB III, 36).
Everything is simple for God. Everything is divine for the simple. Even work. Even effort. 

6) Being resilient
Life is full of surprises. Things don’t always go smoothly and sometimes we face challenges that test our strength and determination. In these moments, resilience is a powerful quality. It is about having the mental and emotional strength to bounce back in the face of adversity, to keep going even when things get tough. And it is something that people admire. Having someone next to you who embodies courage can be an incredible source of inspiration. I think the best title for a life of Don Bosco is Giovannino Semprinpiedi [Young John , always on his feet]
Bishop Cagliero recalls, “I don’t remember seeing him for a single moment, in the 35 years I was at his side, discouraged, annoyed or restless because of the debts he was often burdened with. He often said,’Providence is great, and as it thinks of the birds of the air, so it will think of my boys.’
“Look, I am a poor priest, but if I had even a piece of bread left over, I would share it with you.” It was the phrase most often repeated by Don Bosco.
True friends are like the stars… you don’t always see them, but you know they are always there.

7) Be humble
Humble people do not need constant praise or recognition to feel good about themselves and do not feel the need to prove their worth to others. Furthermore, they have an open mind and are always willing to learn from others, regardless of their status or position.
Don Bosco was never ashamed to ask for alms. Humble and strong, as his teacher had asked him to be. He held his head high with everyone.

8) Spreading tenderness
Michael Rua grew fond of Don Bosco, the priest beside whom one felt cheerful and as if full of warmth. Michelino lived at the Royal Arms Factory where his father had been employed. Four of his brothers had died very young, and he was very frail. That is why his mother often did not let him go to the oratory. But he still met Don Bosco at the De La Salle school where he attended third grade. He recounted:
“When Don Bosco came to say Mass and preach to us, as soon as he entered the chapel it seemed as if an electric current was passing through all those numerous children. We would jump up, get out of our seats, huddle around him. It took a long time for him to reach the sacristy. The good Brothers could not prevent that apparent disorder. When other priests came, nothing like that happened.”
Don Bosco was as attractive as a magnet. There is a comical and tender episode, recounted in Don Bosco’s Biographical Memoirs:
“One evening Don Bosco walking along the pavement in Via Doragrossa, now called Via Garibaldi, and passed in front of the glazed door of a magnificent clothier’s shop whose window was the whole width of the door. A good young man from the Oratory, who served as an errand boy there, saw Don Bosco, and in the first impulse of his heart, without thinking the door was closed, ran to go and reverence him; but he smashed his head into the glass and smashed it to pieces. At the crashing of the glass, Don Bosco stopped and opened the door; the mortified boy came up to him; the owner came out of the shop, raised his voice and shouted at him; the clients were huddled together. “What did you do?” Don Bosco asked the young man; and he naively replied: “I saw you passing by and, out of a great desire to reverence you, I no longer paid attention to the fact that you had to open the door and I broke it” (Biographical Memoirs MB III, 169-170).
It was an explosive sense of friendship that the boys felt for Don Bosco. Along the lines of St Francis de Sales, who wrote about spiritual friendship, Don Bosco felt that friendship founded on mutual benevolence and trust seemed essential to his preventive system.
Friendship for Don Bosco was that “extra touch” that transformed an educational method similar to others into a unique and original masterpiece.
Fr Rua, Bishop Cagliero and others called him papa….
At the end of the day, kindness is what matters most. It is the way you treat others, the compassion you show and the love you spread that really defines who you are as a person. Kindness can be as simple as a smile, a word of encouragement or an outstretched hand. The idea is to make others feel valued and loved. Don Bosco’s boys would testify with an almost monotonous insistence: “He loved me” One of them, St Louis Orione, would write: “I would walk on hot coals to see him once more, and say thank you.”
One boy could not understand how Don Bosco, whom he had met by chance weeks before in the courtyard, still remembered his name. He took courage and asked him. “Don Bosco, how did you remember my name?”
“I never forget my children!” he replied.

To a boy who was leaving the Oratory of his own free will, Don Bosco, meeting him, asked:
“What do you have in your hand?”
“Five lira that my mum gave me to buy a train ticket.”
“Your mum paid your ticket for the journey from the Oratory to your house, and that’s fine. Now take these other five lira. They are for your return ticket. Any time you need it, come and see me!”
Attention is a form of kindness, just as inattention is the greatest rudeness one can do. Sometimes it is implicit violence, especially when it comes to children: neglect is rightly considered abuse when it reaches an unbearable threshold, but in small doses it is part of the ordinary ignominies that many children are forced to endure. Inattention is frostbite: and it is difficult to grow up in frostbite, where the only consolation is perhaps a television full of violent or consumerist dreams. Attention is warmth and affection, which allows the best potential to develop and flourish.
“I also need people to know the importance of the Salesian Cooperators. So far it seems a small thing; but I hope that by this means a good part of the Italian population will become Salesian and open the way for many things. The Work of the Salesian Cooperators…will spread throughout all countries, will spread throughout Christendom, a time will come when the name Cooperator will mean true Christian…already I can see not only families, but whole towns and villages becoming Salesian Cooperators.”
Since Don Bosco’s predictions have come true, get ready to see some good things this century!

9) This is how Don Bosco preached about God
Those who write about him are blatantly wrong when they try to turn him into a pedagogue or even a brilliant social innovator. Certainly Don Bosco was concerned with charitable works like many others, and again with social justice. His exceptional strength lies, however, in the fact that in everything he did he relied solely and completely on God.
“It is truly admirable” exclaimed one of those present, “the way things proceed. Don Bosco starts, and never gives up.”
 “That is why”, Don Bosco resumed, “we never give back, because we always go ahead on the safe side. Before undertaking something we make sure that it is God’s will that things be done. We begin our works with the certainty that it is God who wills them. Having this certainty, we go forward. It may seem that a thousand difficulties are encountered along the way; it does not matter; God wills it, and we remain intrepid in the face of any obstacle. I trust in Divine Providence without limit; but Providence also wants to be helped by our immense efforts.”
His efforts always have the colour of infinity.
Even Nietzsche states that the perception of people’s inner life is instinctive. Young people then have a natural aptitude for observing what lies behind a person’s exterior.  They have special antennae to pick up signals that cannot be observed by ordinary means. They are able to perceive what is hidden to others. 
Our spiritual antenna makes us sensitive to the moral beauty in people, instinctively makes us notice the moral and spiritual dimension of their lives. 
In 1864 Don Bosco arrived in Mornese with his boys, on their autumn walks. It was already night time. People came to meet him preceded by the parish priest Fr Valle and Fr Pestarino. The band played, many knelt as Don Bosco passed by asking him to bless them. The young people and the people entered the church, then Benediction, then everyone went to dinner.
Afterwards, encouraged by applause, the Don Bosco boys gave a short concert of marches and happy music. In the front row was 27-year-old Mary Mazzarello. At the end, Don Bosco said a few words: “We are all tired, and my boys want to have a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow, however, we will speak at greater length”.
Don Bosco stayed five days at Mornese. Every evening Mary Mazzarello was able to listen to the “good night” he gave his youngsters. She climbed over the benches to get closer to the man. Someone reproached her for this as an improper gesture. She replied: “Don Bosco is a saint, I feel it.”

It is much more than just a feeling. How many women’s lives would he change? All it takes is a movement, a simple movement of the kind that children make when they rush forward with all their strength, without fear of falling or dying, oblivious to the weight of the world.
It is again the case of a mirror: no one turned his face towards women more than Jesus Christ, as one turns one’s gaze towards the foliage of trees, as one bends over the water flowing down river to draw strength and the will to continue on one’s way. Women in the Bible are numerous. They are there at the beginning and they are there at the end. They give birth to God, watch him grow, play and die, then resurrect him with the simple gestures of foolish love.

There are still those who fret about demonstrations of God’s existence. The most perfect demonstration of God is not difficult.
The child asked his mother: “In your opinion, does God exist?”
“Yes.”
 “How come?”
The woman drew her son to her.
She hugged him tightly and said, “God is like this.”
“I have understood.”
Fr Paul Albera said: “Don Bosco educated by loving, attracting, conquering and transforming. […] He enveloped us all and entirely almost in an atmosphere of contentment and happiness, from which sorrow, sadness, melancholy were banished…. Everything about him had a powerful attraction for us: his penetrating gaze, at times more effective than a sermon; the simple movement of his head; the smile that bloomed perpetually on his lips, always new and varied, and yet always calm; the flexion of his mouth, as when one wants to speak without pronouncing the words; the very words cadenced in one way rather than another; the bearing of his person and his slender, easy gait: all these things acted on our youthful hearts like a magnet from which it was impossible to escape; and even if we could have, we would not have done so for all the gold in the world, so happy was we with this unique ascendancy he had over us, which in him was the most natural thing, without study or effort.”

Always present and alive. God as company, air that one breathes. God as water for fish. God as the warm nest of a loving heart. God as the scent of life. God is what children know, not adults.

Now let’s go change the world (Willy Wonka)

Being lovable is a human quality that is cultivated, accepting the effort that it so often entails. For Don Bosco it was not an end in itself, but a way to lead souls to God.
An address given at the 42nd Salesian Spirituality Days in Valdocco, Turin.

All good things in this world began with a dream (Willy Wonka).
Don’t give up yours (Willy Wonka’s mother).

A sculptor was busily working with his hammer and chisel on a large block of marble. A little boy, who was walking around licking ice cream, stopped in front of the wide-open workshop door.
The little boy stared in fascination at the shower of white dust, of small and large stone chips falling left and right.
He had no idea what was happening; the man who was pounding the large stone like a madman seemed a little strange to him.
A few weeks later, the little boy walked past the studio and to his surprise saw a large and mighty lion in the place where the marble block used to be.
All excited, the boy ran to the sculptor and said to him: “Sir, tell me, how you knew there was a lion in the stone?”

Don Bosco’s dream is God’s chisel.
Our Lady’s simple and unique advice in the dream at nine years of age, “Make yourself humble, strong and energetic” became the scaffolding for a unique and fascinating personality. And above all a “style” that we can define as “Salesian”.

Everyone loved Don Bosco. Why? He was attractive, a born leader, a real human magnet. Throughout his life he would always be a “conqueror” of affectionate friends.
John Giacomelli, who remained his friend for life, recalls, “I entered the seminary a month after the others. I knew almost no one, and in the early days I seemed to be lost in my loneliness. It was the cleric Bosco who came up to me the first time he saw me alone, after lunch, and kept me company all the time at recreation, telling me various nice things to distract me from any thoughts I might have of home or relatives left behind. Discussing with him, I learned that he had been quite ill during the holidays. He was then very kind to me. Among other things, I remember that since I had a much over-sized cap, which several of my companions made fun of me for, and which displeased me and Bosco, who often came with me, fixed it for me himself, since he had the necessary material with him and was very good at sewing. From then on I began to admire the goodness of his heart. His company was edifying.
Can we borrow some of his qualities to become “lovable” too?

1) Being a positive force
Someone who constantly maintains a positive attitude helps us see the bright side and pushes us forward.
“When Don Bosco first visited the miserable shed which was to be used for his oratory, he had to be careful not to bump his head, because on one side it was only a metre high; for a floor it had the bare ground, and when it rained the water penetrated from all sides. Don Bosco felt big rats running between his feet, and bats fluttering overhead.” But for Don Bosco it was the most beautiful place in the world. And he set off at a run: “I ran right back to my boys. I gathered them around me and began to shout in a loud voice, ‘Great news, my sons, we’ve got a place for our Oratory, a more reliable one than we’ve had till now. We’ll have a church, a sacristy, classrooms and a place to play. Sunday, next Sunday, we’ll go to our new Oratory which is over there in Pinardi’s house. And I pointed the place out to them.”.

Joy
Joy, a positive and happy state of mind, was the norm in Don Bosco’s life.
More true than ever for him is the expression “My vocation is something else. My vocation is to be happy when others are happy.”
Where love is concerned there is no adult, just children, this childlike spirit that is abandonment, carefreeness, inner freedom.

“ Don Bosco [thus] covered the whole playground, and he was always considered a good player to have, although it entailed a great deal of exertion and sacrifice on his part. ‘It was heartwarming just to see him in our midst’, said one of the pupils, now already at an advanced age. ‘Some of us had no coats or they were in bad shape; others had trousers that were more rags than anything else; others, too, had no hat or their shoes were so worn that the toes stuck out. We were a disheveled and, occasionally, quite grubby, ill-mannered, importunate and capricious lot, but he was happy to be with the poorest of us.  With the smaller boys he was as gentle as a mother. If two of them started calling each other names and broke into a
fight, Don Bosco would quickly run up to them and tell them to behave. But the two boys, blind with anger, would pay him no attention. He would then raise his hand as if to strike them, but would suddenly check himself and just separate them. Soon peace would be restored as if by magic.
He often divided the boys into two teams for a game, leading one himself. Both sides played so hard that players and spectators got very excited. One team wanted the honor of beating Don Bosco and his team, while the other was sure of undisputed victory.
Often he would mark a finish line and challenge all the boys to a race with, of course, a prize for the victor. After they were all lined up, Don Bosco would hitch his cassock to his knees. “Ready?” he would cry. “Get set! Go!” And the race was on, as a swarm of boys raised a cloud of dust and trailed Don Bosco. He always won. The last of these contests took place in 1868, when Don Bosco, in spite of his swollen legs, still ran so swiftly that he left eight hundred boys behind him, including some top racers. We were there ourselves and could hardly believe our own eyes. (BM III (English edition), 85).

2) Sincerely caring for others
One of the characteristics of “attractive” people is genuine and sincere care and concern for others. It is not just a matter of asking someone how their day went and listening to their answer. It is about really listening, empathising and showing genuine interest in the lives of others. Don Bosco wept with a broken heart at the death of Fr Calosso, of Luigi Comollo, at the sight of the first boys behind prison bars.

An anticlerical young man
We make mention of this young man because he can represent a hundred and one others of his kind. In the autumn of 1860 Don Bosco went into the coffee shop known as the Consolata, because it was near the famous Shrine of that name, and took a seat in a secluded room to quietly read the correspondence he used to bring with him. A casual and courteous waiter served the patrons there. His name was Giovanni Paolo Cotella, a native of Cavour (Turin), aged 13. He had run away from home in the summer of that year, because he was intolerant of his parents’ reproaches and severity. We leave the description of his meeting with Don Bosco, as he narrated it to Fr Francesco Cerruti.
“One evening”, he recounted, the boss said “Bring a cup of coffee to a priest who is in the room over there.” “Me bring coffee to a priest?” I said as if startled. Priests were then as unpopular as they are now, even more so than now. I had heard and read all kinds of things and had therefore formed a very bad opinion of priests.
I went over ready to mock him: “What do you want from me, priest?” I asked Don Bosco rudely. And he looked at me steadily, “I would like a cup of coffee from you, my good young man” he replied with great kindness, “but on one condition.” “What’s that?” “That you bring it to me yourself.”
Those words and that look won me over and I said to myself “This is not a priest like the others.”
I brought him his coffee; some mysterious force kept me close to him, and he  began to question me, still in the most loving way, about where I was born, my age, my work and above all why I had run away from home. Then he said “Do you want to come with me?” “Where?” “To Don Bosco’s Oratory. This place and this kind of work are not for you.” “And when I am there?” “If you like, you can study.” “But will you look after me properly?” “Oh, just think about it! You can play have fun, be happy there.” “Well, well” I replied, “I’’l come. But when? Immediately? Tomorrow?” “This evening” Don Bosco said.
I handed in my resignation to my boss who would have liked me to stay a few more days, and I took my few rags and went to the Oratory that same evening. On the morrow Don Bosco wrote to my parents to reassure them about me, and inviting them to come to him for a necessary understanding regarding help with food and related expenses. In fact my mother came and, after listening to what she said about the family’s circumstances, Don Bosco concluded by saying “Well,  let’s do this; you pay 12 lire a month, Don Bosco will find the rest.”
I admired not only the exquisite charity, Don Bosco showed in this but his prudence. My family was not rich, but they enjoyed sufficient wealth. If, therefore, he had accepted me completely free of charge, it would not have been a good decision, for this would have been detrimental to others more needy than me.”
For two years his parents had kept their agreement with Don Bosco regarding the boarding fee, but at the beginning of the third year they stopped paying and no longer wanted to hear of it. The youngster, though extremely lively, was open, frank, good-hearted, of exemplary conduct, and benefited much from his studies. Now in this school year (1862–1863), as he was about to enter fourth class, and afraid of having to cut short his studies, he opened up to Don Bosco, who replied: “And what does it matter if your parents no longer want to pay? Aren’t I here? Rest assured that Don Bosco will not abandon you.” And indeed, as long as he stayed at the Oratory, Don Bosco provided him with everything he needed.
When he had finished his fourth year of secondary school and had passed his exams successfully, he began work; and the first money he was able to put together with his work, he sent to Don Bosco at some cost to himself and in small instalments to make up the balance of the small fee that his parents had neglected to pay in his last year at the Oratory. He lived as a good Christian, he zealously disseminated the Catholic Readings, was among the first to join the past pupils union and always kept in affectionate communication with his former superiors.

3) Being a good listener
In a world where everyone seems to be talking all the time, a good listener stands out. Listening to what someone says is one thing, but really listening – absorbing and understanding – is something else. Being a good listener is not just about remaining silent while the other person speaks. It is about participating in the conversation, asking probing questions and showing genuine interest.

Contact as an exchange of energy
He had one of the rarest qualities: the “grace of existence”. A life overflowing, like good wine from the vat. For which thousands of people said “Thank you for being there!” and “I am someone else when I am with you!”
“He listened to the boys with the greatest attention as if the things they were saying were all very important. Sometimes he would get up, or walk with them around the room. When the conversation was over, he would accompany them to the threshold, open the door himself, and bid them farewell by saying: “We will always be friends, right?” (Memorie Biografiche VI, 439).

4) The beauty of the good man
This is why Don Bosco is attractive. Cardinal John Cagliero reported the following fact noted personally when accompanying Don Bosco. After a conference held in Nice, Don Bosco had just finished a sermon and was leaving the sanctuary to walk to the door, his passage blocked by people crowding about
him. A dangerous-looking man stood stock-still, staring at him as though deliberating a violent move. Somewhat concerned, Father Cagliero kept an eye on him as Don Bosco slowly drew nearer to him. Finally they stood face to face. On seeing him, Don Bosco asked, “What do you want?”
“I? Nothing!”
“You look as though you have something to tell me.”
“No, not at all!”
“Would you perhaps like to make your confession?”
“I? How silly!”
“Why are you here then?”
“Because . . . well, because I cannot walk away …. ”
“I understand. Friends, leave us alone for a while” Don Bosco said to those about him. When they pulled back, Don Bosco whispered briefly into the man’s ear. He fell to his knees and made his confession then and there in the middle of the church.” (cf. BM XIV, 22).

Pope Pius XI, the Pontiff who canonised Don Bosco and who had been Don Bosco’s guest at the Pinardi House in the autumn of 1883, remembers, “Here he was answering everyone: and he had the right word for everything, so right that it was amazing: at first surprising then so amazing.”
Two things make us understand eternity: love and wonder. Don Bosco summed them up in his person. Outward beauty is the visible component of inner beauty. And it manifests itself through the light that shines from the eyes of each individual. It does not matter if they are badly dressed or does not conform to our canons of elegance, or if they do not try to impose thesmevles on the attention of the people around them. The eyes are the mirror of the soul and, to some extent, reveal what seems hidden.
But, in addition to their ability to shine, they possess another quality: they act as a mirror both for the gifts held within the soul and for the men and women who are the object of their gaze.
Indeed, they reflect who is looking at them. Like any mirror, the eyes return the innermost reflection of the face before them.

An elderly priest, a former pupil at Valdocco, wrote in 1889, “Don Bosco’s most striking trait was his glance – kindly, yet penetrating the heart’s inmost recesses; a glance which charmed, frightened, or crushed, as the case might be. In my life I never saw the like of it. Generally his portraits, even his photographs, do not bring this out; they simply make him a good-natured man. (BM VI, 2).
Another former pupil, from the 1870s, Pons Pietro, reveals in his recollections: “Don Bosco had two eyes that pierced and penetrated the mind…. He used to walk around talking and looking at everyone with two eyes that turned every which way, electrifying hearts with joy” (MB XVII, 863).
You know you are a good person when people always come to you for advice and encouragement. Don Bosco’s door was always open for young and old. The beauty of the good man is a difficult quality to define, but when it is there, you notice it: like perfume. We all know what the scent of roses is, but no one can stand up and explain it.
Sometimes this phenomenon happened, that a young man heard Don Bosco’s word and could not tear himself away from his side, absorbed almost in a luminous idea… Others kept vigil at his door at night, tapping lightly every so often, until it was opened for them, because they did not want to go to sleep with sin in their souls.

(continued)

The annual All Souls Day commemoration presents us with reality that no one can deny: the end of our earthly life. For many, talking about death seems a macabre thing, to be avoided at all costs. But this was not so for St John Bosco; throughout his life he had cultivated the exercise for a happy death, setting the last day of the month for this purpose. Who knows if this is not the reason why the Lord took him to be with him on the last day of January 1888, finding him prepared…

            Jean Delumeau, in the introduction to his work on LaPaura in Occidente (Fear in the West), recounts the anguish he felt at the age of twelve when, as a new pupil at a Salesian boarding school, he first heard the “disquieting sequences” of the litany for a happy death, followed by an Our Father and Hail Mary “for the one among us who will be the first to die”. Starting from that experience, from his early fears, his difficult efforts to become accustomed to this fear, his teenage reflections on the last things, his personal patient search for serenity and joy in acceptance, the French historian drew up a project of historical investigation focused on the role of “guilt” and the “pastoral use of fear” in the history of the West and came to an interpretation “of a very broad historical panorama: for the Church, suffering and the (temporary) annihilation of the body are less to be feared than sin and hell. Man can do nothing against death, but – with God’s help – it is possible for him to avoid eternal punishment. From that moment on, a new type of fear – a theological one – replaced what came before and was visceral and spontaneous: it was an heroic remedy, but still a remedy since it introduced an exit where there was nothing but emptiness; this was the kind of lesson that the religious responsible for my education tried to teach me.”[1]
            Even Umberto Eco recalled with ironic sympathy the exercise for a happy death that he was presented with at the Nizza Monferrato Oratory:

             Ancient religions, myths, rituals made death, though always fearful, familiar to us. We were accustomed to accepting it by the great funeral celebrations, the wailing women, the great Requiem Masses. We were prepared for death by sermons on hell, and even during my childhood I was invited to read the pages on death by Don Bosco’s Companion of Youth. Hewas not just the cheerful priest who made children play, but had a visionary and flamboyant imagination. He reminded us that we don’t know where death will surprise us – whether in our bed, at work, or in the street, from the bursting of a vein, a bad cold, a haemorrhage, a fever, a plague, an earthquake, a lightning strike, ‘perhaps as soon as we have finished reading these thoughts.’ At that moment we will feel our head grow dull, our eyes hurt, our tongue parched, our jaw closed, our chest heavy, our blood frozen, our flesh consumed, our heart pierced. Hence the need to practise the Exercise for a Happy Death […]. Pure sadism, one might say. But what do we teach our contemporaries today? That death takes place far from us in hospital, that we no longer usually follow the coffin to the cemetery, that we no longer see the dead. […] Thus, the disappearance of death from our immediate horizon of experience will make us much more terrified when the moment approaches, when faced with this event that also belongs to us from birth – and with which the wise man comes to terms throughout life.”[2]

            In Salesian houses the monthly practice of the exercise for a happy death, with the recitation of the litany included by Don Bosco in the Companion of Youth remained in use from 1847 until the threshold of the Council.[3] Delumeau recounts that every time he happened to read the litany to his students at the Collège de France he noticed how astonished they were: “It is proof” he writes, “of a rapid and profound change in mentality from one generation to the next. Having rapidly become out of date after being relevant for so long, this prayer for a happy death has become a document of history insofar as it reflects a long tradition of religious pedagogy.”[4] The scholar of mentalities, in fact, teaches us how historical phenomena, in order to avoid misleading anachronisms, must always be approached in relation to their internal coherence and with respect for cultural otherness, to which every collective mental representation, every belief and cultural or cultic practice of ancient societies must be traced. Outside those anthropological frameworks, that set of knowledge and values, ways of thinking and feeling, habits and models of behaviour prevalent in a given cultural context, which shape the collective mindset, it is impossible to adopt a correct critical approach.
            As far as we are concerned, Delumeau’s account is a document of how anachronism not only undermines the historian. Even the pastor and educator run the risk of perpetuating practices and formulas outside the cultural and spiritual worlds that generated them: thus, at the very least, besides appearing strange to the younger generations, they may even be counterproductive, having lost the overall horizon of meaning and the “mental and spiritual tools” that made them meaningful. This was the fate of the prayer for a happy death that was used for over a century, for students in Salesian works all over the world, then – around 1965 – completely abandoned, without any replacement that would safeguard its positive aspects. The abandonment was not only due to its obsolescence. It was also a symptom of the ongoing process of the eclipse of death in Western culture, a sort of “interdiction” and “prohibition” now strongly denounced by scholars and pastors.[5]
            Our contribution aims at investigating the meaning and educational value of the exercise for a happy death in Don Bosco’s and the first Salesian generations’ practice, relating it to a fruitful secular tradition, and then identifying its spiritual features through the narrative testimonies left by the Saint.

(continued)

[1] Jean Delumeau, La Paura in Occidente (14th-18th centuries). La città assediata, Turin, SEI, 1979, 42-44.

[2] Umberto Eco, “La bustina di Minerva: Dov’è andata la morte?”, in L’Espresso, 29 November 2012.

[3] The “Prayers for a Happy Death” are still to be found, with a few substantial variations, in the revised Manual of Prayer for Salesian Educational Institutions in Italy, which ultimately replaced The Companion of Youth, used until then: Centro Compagnie Gioventù Salesiana, In preghiera. Manuale di pietà ispirato al Giovane Provveduto di san Giovanni Bosco, Torino, Opere Don Bosco, 1959, 360-362.

[4] Delumeau, La Paura in Occidente, 43.

[5] Cf. Philippe Ariés, Storia della morte in Occidente Milan, BUR, 2009; Jean-Marie R. Tillard, La morte: Enigma o Mysterio? Magnano (BI), Edizioni Qiqajon, 1998.

To be a missionary in Amazonia is to allow oneself to be evangelised by the forest

The beauty of the indigenous people of Rio Negro conquers hearts and causes our own heart to change, to expand, to be surprised and to identify with this land, to the point of it being impossible to forget “dear Amazonia”! This is the experience of Leonardo, a young Salesian in the heart of Amazonia.

How did the idea of being a missionary arise in your heart?
This desire matured within me over many years of listening to the stories of Salesian missionaries, their witness as bearers of the love of God to the world. I have always admired these confreres who experienced divine love in their lives and could not remain silent; rather they felt compelled to announce it to others so that they too could prove how much they were loved by God. So it was that I asked to have an experience in the Salesian missions in Amazonia among the indigenous peoples. In 2021 I began to live and work as a “practical traineee” in the São Gabriel da Cachoeira missionary community, in the state of Amazonia. It was a real “missionary school”, full of new discoveries and experiences, of unimagined challenges, facing realities totally unknown to me until then.

What were your first impressions on arriving in an unknown land?
From the first moment that I looked out the window of the plane and saw the vastness of the forest and the many rivers, my mind “clicked”: I really am in Amazonia! Just as I have always seen on TV, the Amazon region is of exuberant beauty, with beautiful natural landscapes, true masterpieces of God the Creator. Another very beautiful first impression was seeing so many indigenous brothers and sisters, with such striking physical characteristics, such as the colour of their skin, their bright eyes and their black hair. To see the diversity and cultural richness of Amazonia is to remember our history, to remember our origin as Brazil and to understand better who we are as a people.

And why the choice of the Amazon? What is special about it for you?
The Church, including our Salesian Congregation, is essentially missionary. However, in the Northern region this is even more so because the territories are immense; access, generally by river, is difficult and costly; the cultural and linguistic diversity is vast and there is an enormous lack of priests, religious and other leaders who can carry out evangelization and the presence of the Church in these lands. Therefore, there is a lot of work and “heavy”, demanding work. It is not only the service of visits, preaching, celebrating the sacraments, as one might think of missionary life, but it means sharing the life and work of the people, carrying heavy burdens, feeling the need, exclusion, and abandonment of the people by the politicians; spending hours on the road or on the river; feeling the stings of insects; eating the food of the simple people “seasoned” with the spices of love, sharing and of welcome; listening to the stories of the elderly, often with words and expressions that we do not understand well; getting muddy feet and clothes, unheated cars; being without internet and, sometimes, even without electricity… All of this is involved in Salesian missionary life in Amazonia!

Tell us something more about the Salesian work where you have lived? What do the Salesians do for the young people of the region?
One of the purposes of our Salesian community in Sao Gabriel is the Oratory and Social Work: it is the Salesian playground, our direct work with the young people of “Gabriel” who frequent our Oratory every day and find in our house a place to play, have fun and live in a healthy way with their friends and colleagues. The young people here love sports, especially the national passion that is football. As the city does not offer many options for leisure and sport, the kids are present at our work all the time we are in operation and they complain a lot when it’s time to end the day’s activities. An average of 150 to 200 young people pass through our work every day. Besides this, the Salesian Missionary Centre offers courses for teenagers and older youth, such as computer and bakery courses.

And if a young person, knowing you and liking the charism, expresses the desire to become a Salesian, is there a way to be formed as such?
Yes, for some years now our community has also been running the Centro de Formaçao Indígena (CFI), which aims at accompanying and welcoming young indigenous people from all our missionary communities who want to follow vocational accompaniment and be helped in drawing up a Life Project. This accompaniment is what the Indigenous Aspirantate of the Salesian Missionary Province of Amazonia (ISMA) is all about. Besides offering this formation process, CFI offers classes in Portuguese, Salesianity, computer and bakery courses, spiritual and psychological accompaniment and gradual insertion within Salesian life. It is really an experience that is highly valued by them, since they are the first steps on the formation journey and it is done in their environment, with their people, with the affection and closeness of the Salesians and lay leaders.

You said that there are other missionary communities besides San Gabriel? How is this? How does the missionary work in Rio Negro function?
Because it has more connections and services, our Sao Gabriel community is the base seeing to links and logistics with our missions in the interior, especially Maturacá (with the Yanomami people) and Iauaretê (in the “tukano triangle”). In these missionary situations there is no formal commerce, and when there is, the prices are extremely high. Therefore, all purchases of food, hygiene products, materials for repairs and fuel for the boats used in the itinerance (pastoral visits to the riverside communities) and the production of electricity by generator, are done in São Gabriel and then sent by us, via river transport, to these locations. It is a very intense manual work, because we have to buy and then carry a lot of heavy materials to the boats that will take these products to our people who live and work in the other missions. We carry food bags, Styrofoam boxes with meat and several “carotes” (plastic containers for carrying liquids) of 50 litres of fuel each. Besides this, our house has several rooms, always available and prepared to host the missionary confreres who are passing through São Gabriel, either going to or returning from the other missions. It is a real work of assistance and networking.

And do you remember any powerful experiences from these “itinerance” on the rivers?
Yes, of course, in relation to these “itinerance”, one experience that impressed me deeply was the one at Maturacá. We had days of profound experience of the encounter with God through the encounter with others, with those who are different from us, with our neighbour, because we made a pastoral visit to the Yanomami people’s communities.

In addition to the headquarters of the Salesian Mission at Maturacá, we visited six other communities (Nazaré, Cachoeirinha, Aiari, Maiá, Marvim and Inambú). These were intense and challenging days. Firstly, because each community is very distant from one another and access is only possible by means of the tributaries of our beloved Amazon, travelling in a motorised boat (called a voadeira), under strong sun or heavy rain. Secondly, they are traditional Yanomami communities, so culture shock is inevitable, as they have habits, customs and ways of life that are completely different to us non-indigenous people. Thirdly, there are the practical challenges, such as the lack of electricity 24 hours a day, no telephone signal, little choice and variety of food, bathing and washing clothes in the river, living with insects and other animals of the forest… A real anthropological and spiritual “dive”. We celebrated the Eucharist in all the communities and several baptisms in some of them, we visited the families and prayed with the children. It was a fantastic experience of encounter, special days, days of gratitude, days of returning to the most essential aspects of our faith and Salesian Youth Spirituality: love for Jesus, fruit of our personal encounter with Him, and the love for our neighbour that is manifested in the desire to be with him and to become his friend.

This remarkable “itinerance” undoubtedly left you with much to learn in your life, true?
These pastoral visits are a real “school” and give us life lessons: detachment, because the more “things” we accumulate, the “heavier” the journey becomes; living in the present, because in the middle of Amazonia, without access to the means of information, the only contact is with present reality, whatever is around us, the forest, the river, the sky, the boat; gratuitousness, because we face difficulties and weariness without expecting gestures of human gratitude. Finally, geographical itinerance leads us to an “inner itinerance”, conversion, a return to the essentials of life and faith. To sail the rivers of Amazonia is to sail to interior rivers.  To be in the missions is to be constantly provoked to free oneself from preconceived and rigid ideas in order to be freer to love and welcome the other and to announce the joy of the Gospel to them.

A very special lesson that I learn every day in the missions is that to be a good missionary I must be someone deeply marked and touched by the merciful love of God, and only from this experience can I be ready to “take” and “show” everywhere how God loves us and can transform our whole life. I also learn that, being a missionary, I take and show this love, first of all with my own life given to the mission. Without saying a word, by the simple fact of leaving my origins and embracing new cultures, I can reveal that the love of God is worth much more than all the things we consider valuable in our lives. Therefore, the missionary’s life is his first and greatest witness and proclamation!

You have had this missionary experience, but can it be said that you too have been evangelised? What has given you satisfaction in your heart?
Finally, being in São Gabriel, the most indigenous municipality in Brazil, “home” to 23 multicultural and multilingual ethnic groups, I realize every day that, in calling us to be missionaries, God calls us to be capable of being enchanted by the beauty and mystery which is each person and each culture of our world. Therefore, following the example of the Master, Jesus, missionary of the Father, we are called to “empty ourselves” of everything in order to “fill ourselves” with the beauties and marvels present in every corner of the earth and to associate them with the preciousness of the Gospel. This was one of the most profound experiences for me.

At the end of all this, I believe that satisfaction comes from the smiles and cries of our boys and girls playing, running, jumping, throwing a ball, telling their jokes; it comes from the curious and brilliant glances of the men and women of the forest; joy comes from contemplating the beauty of nature, the generosity of the people and the perseverance of the Christians who remain, at times, for months without the presence of a priest, but who look at and touch with love and devotion the little feet of the small image of Our Lady or the cross on the altar. In the Salesian missions of Rio Negro one learns to live without excesses, to value simplicity and to rejoice in the little things of life. Here all becomes a feast, dance, music, celebration, faith. Here one lives in the same poverty and simplicity as at the beginning of Valdocco, where Don Bosco, Mamma Margaret, Dominic Savio, Fr Rua and so many others lived and were sanctified. Being in Amazonia certainly enriches us as people, Christians and Salesians of Don Bosco!

Interview of Don Gabriel ROMERO with the young Salesian Leonardo Tadeu DA SILVA OLIVEIRA, from the Province of São João Bosco based in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Amazonia Photo Gallery

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