Family.

16.  Family spirit

Don Bosco wanted everyone to feel at home in his establishments.  The Salesian house becomes  a family when affection is mutual and when all, both confreres and young people, feel welcome and responsible for the common good.

In an atmosphere of mutual trust and dally forgiveness, the need and joy of sharing everything is experienced, and relationships are governed not so much by recourse to rules as by faith and the promptings of the heart.

This is a witness that enkindles in the young the desire to get to know and to follow the Salesian vocation.

It has been the desire of Don Bosco to make his establishments a home and a family. That is to say, a place where everyone feels both welcomed and accepted, with his strength and weaknesses. Who is able and responsible to bring this vision and desire into the reality? The answer is, all. To make a community into a home, it involves all of us. No one should expect a family to exist in a vacuum. Everyone must help to make the community a home, or family.

 

 

Don Bosco was clear when he says that the Salesian House becomes a family when affection is mutual and where all, both confreres and young people, feel welcome and responsible for the common good. The words “mutual”, all, and responsible and common good are necessary. To seek the common good which makes our communities a home, a family everything must be done mutually by all; and everyone must be responsible, that is to say, that, everyone must have the ability to respond to different situations, be they good or bad.

Everyone is responsible to build a family spirit, all without exception. It is not the sole responsibility of the Rector, but of all.

Once all are responsible in their actions, love and forgiveness becomes mutual. It is not one way direction only; but  by giving and taking, the community becomes a family.

This happens when everyone acts as a responsible adult  and be where one ought to be. There should be maturity in everything. Like in our natural family, we discuss with our parents and seek their blessing before we embark on any assignment. The same is applicable in our communities. Each one has a role to play, and the role of everyone must be respected.

I will continue to stress that everyone must be responsible to build a kind of perfect community we want. No one will do it for us; there is no such thing as a readymade community, where we simply join to enjoy ourselves. Communities are made and if we do not initially find it, let us not complain but give a helping hand to build it up. Begin with prayer and next dialogue, with patience we will make it.

When all join together to make a loving and forgiving community, it becomes a true witness which triggers in the heart of the young the desire to answer the calling of God.

     Mother Mary – 

Mother us into family.

  The Family that prays together stays together.