Among Don Bosco's many prophetic dreams, one occurred on the feast of the Nativity of Mary and another during the novena preceding the feast. These are dreams linked to the historical moment of that time, yet their message continues to be a very current stimulus for all of us who wish to grow in our entrustment to Mary.

The first dream reminds us of Mary's love that translates into maternal, and therefore extremely concrete, help for her children. The historical context was one of persecution for all religious and ecclesiastical works. Don Bosco recounts: "I prayed, I made them pray, and behold one night sleeping I saw before me the Blessed Virgin standing on high just as Mary Help of Christians on the dome. She had a great mantle that stretched all around her and formed like an immense hall, and there below I saw all our houses of France: Our Lady was looking with a smiling eye at these houses, when there happened a storm so horrible, or rather an earthquake with lightning, hail, horrible monsters of every shape and form, gunshots, cannon shells (...) directed against our people who were under Mary's mantle; but no one did harm to those who stood under such a mighty defender: all the darts went blunted in Her mantle and fell empty. The Blessed Virgin, in a sea of light, with her radiant face and a smile of paradise said many times in the meantime: Ego diligentes me diligo [I love those who love me]. Little by little all storms ceased, and of ours none remained victim of that storm or earthquake or tempest that one wishes to call it".

The second dream invites us not to grow tepid in our love for Mary. Don Bosco tells of seeing a large lady with a notebook in her hand: "She handed it to me, saying: - Take it and read! - I took it and read on the cover: Novena of the Nativity of Mary. I opened the first sheet and saw the names of a very small number of young people written in gold font. I turned over the sheet and saw written a slightly larger number in ordinary ink. I turned it over again and the whole notebook was blank to the end. (...) - In that book are written the young people who make the novena. The very few that are written in gold are those who do it well and with fervour. The other part is of those who do it, but with less fervour. And all the others, why are they not written? Who knows from what this comes from? I believe it is the long walks that have distracted the young people so much, so that now they are no longer good at contemplation. (...) So to please Our Lady, let us do all we can with the frequency of the Holy Sacraments and the practice of the little sacrifices that Francesia or myself will give. For tomorrow, let's do this little sacrifice: - Do everything with diligence".