Our
Salesian call
When we think of our call to the Salesian
life, how many of us can say: “I decided
to be a Salesian after going through a deep study of the Preventive System and
the Salesian Spirituality”? How many
of us can rather say: “If I am a Salesian
it is because of father or brother so and so … My vocational journey started
when I met him and I said to myself: “I would like to be like him!”.
Since this second alternative has been my
experience I tend to think that the majority of the Salesians could say the
same.
Models play an important role in the life
of a person, especially at the early stages.
From the Constitutions
“The
Salesian spirit finds its model and
source in the very heart of Christ, apostle of the Father”. (C11)
“We study and imitate
him (Don Bosco)”. (C21)
“Our living rule is Jesus Christ… whom we find present in Don
Bosco who devoted his life to the young”. (C196)
“The first Salesians found their sure guide in Don Bosco. Living
at the very heart of his community in action, they learned to model their own lives on his. We too find in him our model”. (C97)
1. Looking at the model “The Lord has given us Don Bosco as Father and Teacher”. Before being
Father and Teacher of the youth, Don Bosco is OUR Father and Teacher!
As a father Don Bosco reflects in a
special way the “fatherhood’ of God. All his life he displayed a father’s
heart. He said to his Salesians: ”No
matter in what remote part of the world you may be, never forget that here in
Italy you have a father who loves you in the Lord”.
As a teacher Don Bosco reproduces some features of the Divine
Master, Jesus Christ, who has been his guide from the first dream at the age of
nine. Of Jesus Don Bosco incarnated certain aspects: gratitude for the gift of
vocation, predilection for the little ones, zeal in preaching and saving, the
gentleness and self-giving attitude of the Good shepherd. (C11)
Before being a teacher,
Don Bosco is a good disciple! He reflects Jesus in his life and points to Jesus
as the perfect model: “He will always be
our Master, our Guide , our Model”. Don Bosco is there with all his “splendid blending of nature and grace …
deeply human and deeply the man of God … with a closely-knit life project, the
service of the young”.
