Hajja Salesjana April June 2018

32 that I receive each day? The person who wrote to me is up in years – 92 years old – an Italian emigrant, a wife and mother, and today a widow. She wrote it in her own hand on her simple paper and sent with it an offering for the poorest wherever they might be in the Salesian missionary world. There was nothing very special about that, however, given the fact that many people send their humble donations for the poorest and do much good in this way. What made it so special is that this friend sent something very personal and of profound sentimental value: she sent her wedding ring and that of her deceased husband and also a pyx with Today I wish to tell you that I have experienced this myself many times. In fact, the latest occasion took place just yesterday. I had returned to Rome after having celebrated the intense, beautiful days of the Salesian Family Spirituality Days in Valdocco (Turin), in which 367 persons from 22 of the 31 official groups comprising the Salesian Family took part. This Salesian Family of Don Bosco is a huge tree with many branches! Upon returning, I found a letter on my desk. It came from a small town in France. I am confident that my friend will allow me to speak about this openly, while safeguarding her anonymity, because things that are good and beautiful need to be made known. You might ask yourself what made this letter so special in comparison with the many THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR DON ÁNGEL FERNÁNDEZ ARTIME THE WIDOW’S MITE I found a handwritten letter on my desk containing an offering for the poorest of the poor. Dear Readers, Certainly, most of us can call to mind that in one passage of the Gospel, Jesus speaks to us of how great was the value of the little offering that the widow placed in the treasury of the Temple of Jerusalem. This donation – poor by human standards – was all that she had, however, and so it was very great in God’s eyes.