Don Bosco Our Model

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”.

Holiness & Community

Our constitutions affirms that: To live and work together is for us Salesians a fundamental requirement and a sure way of fulfilling our vocation… c49

Indeed community life is one of our richest dimensions which Don Bosco cherished so much and yet one of the most challenging aspects of our vocation to live out. Very often basic skills of interaction, together with a nourishment from our rich Christian and Salesian traditions  can be a source of transformation of our life together.

Here we offer some reflections and quotes on community life and prayer which hopefully will be helpful to trigger off a process of dialogue and reflection.

“Dear Salesians, …be saints!
As you well know, holiness is your principal task.” JP II

Holiness is the demanding way that together we want to follow in our communities; 

it is “the most precious gift we can offer to the young” (C 25);

 it is the highest goal that, with courage, we can set for all. 

Pascual Chaves

The community expresses in a visible manner
the mystery of the Church…  

In praying, the Salesian community responds to this call… 

making its own Don Bosco’s prayer:  

“Da mihi animas, cetera tolle”.   C85

Prayer as the Language of the Community

Prayer is the language of the Christian community. By prayer, community is created as well as expressed. Prayer is first of all the realization of God's presence in the midst of God's people and, therefore, the realization of the community itself. Most clear and most noticeable are the words, the gestures, and the silence through which the community is formed. When we listen to the word, we not only receive insight into God's saving work, but we also experience a new mutual bond. When we stand around the altar, eat bread and drink wine, kneel in meditation, or walk in procession, we not only remember God's work in human history, but we also become aware of God's creative presence here and now. When we sit together in silent prayer, we create a space where we sense that the One we are waiting for is already touching us, as that One touched Elijah standing in front of the cave (1 Kings 19:13).