WE ARE THE SALESIAN FAMILY!
The third point of the formation proposed to aspirants by the Primary ADMA in Turin Valdocco refers to Article 3 of the Association’s Regulations, which deals with ADMA’s membership in the Salesian Family.
Joining the Association means becoming part of the great tree of the Salesian Family, a movement of people promoted by Don Bosco, under the guidance of Mary Help of Christians, for the mission of youth and the people:
“We must unite,” he wrote in 1878, “among ourselves and with the Congregation... by aiming at the same goal and using the same means... as in one family with the bonds of fraternal charity that spurs us to help and support one another on behalf of our neighbor.”
The Family of Don Bosco is Salesian because it refers to St. Francis de Sales, chosen by Don Bosco as our inspiration and patron. Salesian Humanism is based on unshakeable trust in the goodness of the person and values everything positive rooted in created realities and the events of history, stimulating the good and refusing to mourn over evils. It leads to seeking cooperation wisely, as each person has gifts that must be discovered, recognized and valued. It helps to believe in the power of education that sustains the young person’s growth and encourages him to become an upright citizen and good Christian. It leads one to rely always and everywhere on God’s providence, with the help of Mary.
The Salesian Family is charismatic because it has its deepest roots in the Trinitarian Mystery, the source, model and goal of every human family. It places God at the center of its life, in union with Jesus, recognized present in the Eucharist, in docility to the action of the Holy Spirit, to live the spirituality of daily life in concrete dedication to the good of people. In Don Bosco, this spirituality becomes Apostolic Charity, with the motto ‘Da mihi animas, cetera tolle.’ It is the spirituality of Union with God in daily life, whereby the needs of the brethren invite prayer and constant prayer and one that nourishes generous work for the good and salvation of the brethren. Prayer, in Salesian spirituality, is a movement that starts from action to reach God, and from God leads back to action by bringing Him, because mind and heart are filled with Him. Action and prayer, in Don Bosco, became one: the extraordinary work that engaged him from morning to night did not disturb his prayer. Rather it aroused it and directed it. Don Bosco’s vertical dimension – prayer to God – inspired him towards horizontal dimension – his service to youth and people.
Distinctive traits of this spirituality that we have inherited from Don Bosco are:
- Salesian loving-kindness, that is, the ability to love and to be loved;
- tireless work and temperance, in spending oneself for the good of the young;
- Salesian optimism: confidence in the victory of the good, appreciation of human values and education in daily joys.
The Salesian Family is apostolic because in it, the Holy Spirit creates an inner dynamism that impels one to gift and service for the good of souls. Members of the Salesian Family live a ‘missionary communion’ that promotes the Preventive System, a condensation of Don Bosco’s pedagogical wisdom:
Reason, which emphasizes the values of Christian humanism (search for meaning, work, study, friendship, cheerfulness, piety, freedom not away from responsibility, harmony between human wisdom and Christian wisdom);
Religion, which means making room for saving Grace, cultivating a desire for God, fostering an encounter with Christ the Lord;
Lovingkindness, which expresses the need for young people not only to be loved, but to know that they are loved, in order to initiate an effective educational relationship; it is a particular style of relationships and it is a loving-kindness that awakens the energies of the youthful heart and matures them to the point of self-sacrifice.
Privileged recipients of this apostolic commitment are young people, God’s gift to the Salesian Family and the field indicated by the Lord and Mary to Don Bosco, the working class and the family. In this perspective, we recall the words of St. Paul VI in the Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi:
“Popular religiosity (...) if it is well oriented, especially through a pedagogy of evangelization, is rich in values. (...) this popular religiosity can be more and more (...) a true encounter with God in Jesus Christ.”
The Salesian Family is Marian because all its spirituality and solicitude finds in Mary the shining example of self-giving. Love for Mary was - along with love for Jesus in the Eucharist and for the Pope - one of the three loves that marked Don Bosco’s spiritual and apostolic life. The whole Salesian Family is and feels like a Marian Family, born through the maternal solicitude of the Immaculate Help of Christians. The ADMA in the Salesian Family has the task of emphasizing the special Eucharistic and Marian devotion lived and spread by St. John Bosco, which expresses the founding element of the Salesian charism. In this perspective, ADMA participates in the youth and popular mission proper to the Salesian charism, in the commitment to safeguard, increase and defend the faith among the people of God and sees, in the present times, the family as the privileged recipient.
As St. John Paul II reminds us,
“Today, when the faith is being severely tested, and various sons and daughters of the People of God are exposed to tribulations because of their fidelity to the Lord Jesus, when humanity ... shows a serious crisis of spiritual values, the Church feels the need for Mary’s maternal intervention: to restore its adherence to the one Lord and Savior, to carry forward with the freshness and courage of Christian origins the evangelization of the world, to enlighten and guide the faith of communities and individuals, especially to educate the young, to whom Don Bosco gave his whole self, to the Christian meaning of life.”
The common father and center of unity of the entire Salesian Family is the Rector Major, Don Bosco’s successor. Don Bosco indicated to his spiritual children, “Your Rector will take care of you and your eternal salvation.”
Gian Luca e Mariangela Spesso
