Family Resemblance
By Father Abraham Feliciano, SDB
Recently when visiting a family member in another state, I was the jacket I was wearing. A gift that I received while teaching at one of our Salesian high schools, it has the name “Don Bosco” emblazoned on the back. Immediately, a conversation began about students, teachers and Salesians (past and present) whom they knew or had known at this particular school. This was not the first, second, nor third time that this has happened to me either in that particular state, or in my Salesian life. In fact, in that very brief visit alone, three different people at different times and locations approached me in the same way. It’s also important to add that I was over two hundred miles away from the nearest Salesian school, parish or youth center, yet Don Bosco was quickly and easily recognized.
This experience is not unique in my life, and it is certainly not unique to me. How many of us have worn something that says either “Don Bosco,” “Salesian,” or “Mary Help of Christians” and had people approach us saying, “Is that Don Bosco in . . .?”, “Are you part of the Salesian Family?”, “I’m Salesian, too!”, or something along those lines? Wearing Salesian garb (or SWAG, as many youth, and young adults say) is one way to clearly identify ourselves, especially publicly, as sons or daughters of our spiritual father, St. John Bosco. It is a way that the Salesian Family can be easily recognized by others.
As we celebrate the feast of Don Bosco during this special bicentennial year, it’s important for us to reflect on how we “resemble” our father in our daily life. We know that Don Bosco, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and under the guidance of Mary, founded a beautiful family that has a unique spirit and many wonderful defining traits. At the center of our family life is a love for the God who is present to us in daily life, especially in the young, particularly those who are in greatest need. And we live this family life, guided by Mary, with great joy and optimism. In this way, we witness to what it means for us to be disciples of Jesus Christ as Salesians. Our Rector Major (the successor of St. John Bosco), Fr. Angel Fernández Artime, SDB, speaks to us about this point in the 2015 strenna (his annual message to the entire Salesian Family):
This is the key to our existence, our living and putting into practice the Salesian charism. If each one of us can come to feel in our very being, in the depth of our being, that same fire, that passion for education, that Don Bosco had, meeting each young person at a deeply personal level, believing in each individual, convinced that in each one there is always a seed of goodness and of the Kingdom in order to help him or her give his/her very best and to draw that individual to a close encounter with the Lord Jesus, then we shall certainly embody in our lives the best of the Salesian charism. (Commentary on the strenna, Fernández p. 4)
In this strenna titled “Like Don Bosco, With the Young, For the Young,” Fr. Fernández has invited all of us during this bicentennial year to give thanks to God for the gift of St. John Bosco. He has encouraged us to be renewed in our Salesian discipleship, and he has reminded us that the best way to be and live as sons or daughters of Don Bosco is to imitate him and live the beautiful gift of the Salesian spirit that the Holy Spirit gave us through him:
With this conviction, we feel more inspired not only to admire Don Bosco, not only to recognize his relevance but also to feel very deeply the essential commitment to imitate the man who from the hill of Becchi arrived in the Valdocco periphery, and the rural periphery of Mornese, in order to become fully involved himself and with others in doing everything possible to seek the welfare of the young and their happiness in this life and in the next. (Commentary on the strenna, Fernández p. 9)
As Salesian Family, we gather in numerous ways during this bicentennial year to celebrate the great gift of the life of our spiritual father, St. John Bosco. We do so as proud sons and daughters who bear a resemblance to our “dad” by following Jesus and being close to Mary in the way that he taught us. Let us hope, pray and strive to walk the Salesian road to holiness that he passed on to us, bearing an evermore-striking resemblance to “dad,” so that we can join him in the next life, where he awaits us. That is best birthday present that we can give him.
This experience is not unique in my life, and it is certainly not unique to me. How many of us have worn something that says either “Don Bosco,” “Salesian,” or “Mary Help of Christians” and had people approach us saying, “Is that Don Bosco in . . .?”, “Are you part of the Salesian Family?”, “I’m Salesian, too!”, or something along those lines? Wearing Salesian garb (or SWAG, as many youth, and young adults say) is one way to clearly identify ourselves, especially publicly, as sons or daughters of our spiritual father, St. John Bosco. It is a way that the Salesian Family can be easily recognized by others.
As we celebrate the feast of Don Bosco during this special bicentennial year, it’s important for us to reflect on how we “resemble” our father in our daily life. We know that Don Bosco, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and under the guidance of Mary, founded a beautiful family that has a unique spirit and many wonderful defining traits. At the center of our family life is a love for the God who is present to us in daily life, especially in the young, particularly those who are in greatest need. And we live this family life, guided by Mary, with great joy and optimism. In this way, we witness to what it means for us to be disciples of Jesus Christ as Salesians. Our Rector Major (the successor of St. John Bosco), Fr. Angel Fernández Artime, SDB, speaks to us about this point in the 2015 strenna (his annual message to the entire Salesian Family):
This is the key to our existence, our living and putting into practice the Salesian charism. If each one of us can come to feel in our very being, in the depth of our being, that same fire, that passion for education, that Don Bosco had, meeting each young person at a deeply personal level, believing in each individual, convinced that in each one there is always a seed of goodness and of the Kingdom in order to help him or her give his/her very best and to draw that individual to a close encounter with the Lord Jesus, then we shall certainly embody in our lives the best of the Salesian charism. (Commentary on the strenna, Fernández p. 4)
In this strenna titled “Like Don Bosco, With the Young, For the Young,” Fr. Fernández has invited all of us during this bicentennial year to give thanks to God for the gift of St. John Bosco. He has encouraged us to be renewed in our Salesian discipleship, and he has reminded us that the best way to be and live as sons or daughters of Don Bosco is to imitate him and live the beautiful gift of the Salesian spirit that the Holy Spirit gave us through him:
With this conviction, we feel more inspired not only to admire Don Bosco, not only to recognize his relevance but also to feel very deeply the essential commitment to imitate the man who from the hill of Becchi arrived in the Valdocco periphery, and the rural periphery of Mornese, in order to become fully involved himself and with others in doing everything possible to seek the welfare of the young and their happiness in this life and in the next. (Commentary on the strenna, Fernández p. 9)
As Salesian Family, we gather in numerous ways during this bicentennial year to celebrate the great gift of the life of our spiritual father, St. John Bosco. We do so as proud sons and daughters who bear a resemblance to our “dad” by following Jesus and being close to Mary in the way that he taught us. Let us hope, pray and strive to walk the Salesian road to holiness that he passed on to us, bearing an evermore-striking resemblance to “dad,” so that we can join him in the next life, where he awaits us. That is best birthday present that we can give him.
The Salesian "Good Night" is a tradition begun by St. John Bosco's mother, Margaret Occhiena Bosco during her time assisting her son in the very first Salesian Oratory. Practiced throughout the Salesian World today, the "Good Night" is a brief thought or message usually shared at the end of the day or at the conclusion of a Salesian gathering. Its purpose is to not only provide “food for thought”, but also to offer the Salesian Family a focus, a theme, or a point of reference that assists in discovering the deeper meaning of the day’s activities and events. It is a way to become more sensitized to God’s action in our daily lives. By Don Bosco's own definition, the Good Night was the "key to good moral conduct, to the good running of the house, and to success in the work of education."