Hajja Salesjana May June 2017

3 1 life as she transmitted a simple yet strong faith. It was she who accompanied me to catechism classes as I prepared for my First Holy Communion when I was 8 years old. How did you come to know the Salesians? As a little boy in year 3, I frequented a Salesian School where I really felt 'at home' with a sense of belonging to the salesian family. Since my early years, God had bestowed on me the gift of a 'sense of God', thus feeling very close to Him as a friend. During catechism lessons, I was fascinated as I listened to what I was being taught about Jesus and His parables. Having arrived at the last years of school, I started to feel a strong sense of sadness which I couldn't comprehend. That 'sense of God' that was mine, helped me to understand that this sadness came from God and led me to pray to Him in these words: "Lord, I believe that what I am feeling is coming from You. I do not understand what is going on, but I know that you are responsible for it. Don't play about with me, but tell me what you are asking of me and I will say 'yes'". Having prayed thus, intensely, the troubled time seemed to be over and no longer overbearing. However, I realized that I had signed a blank cheque! Two weeks after that, the salesian Rector, invited me to participate at a retreat for vocational discernment which was organized as part of a Diocesan Vocational Congress. I refused the offer thinking that this had nothing to do with me, but the Rector did not give up, and decided to send me since I belonged to a group of catechists. At a break during one of the assemblies, from where I was far back in the hall with a group of young people from the Salesians, I noticed, standing up from the first row, the Vicar General of the diocese whom I only knew as a public figure whom I had never met. As he passed by us, he pointed at me saying jokingly: "You are going to be a priest" What surprised me was, that I clearly told myself, "Yes, that is exactly what God is asking of me, to which I say 'Yes'! My companions were making fun of me and I denied what they said, but within me, I experienced a tremendous joy. My father and mother could neither understand nor believe