Hajja Salesjana April June 2018

7 we had the opportunity to witness a group who uses dance as a form of evangelisation. They beautifully illustrated the meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, as we were invited to pray alongside the woman: “Lord, give me to drink”. A truly exciting event was the concert organised to celebrate the 150 th Anniversary of consecration of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians. Both choir and orchestra were phenomenal. This was followed by vin brulee, a sort of mulled wine, and pannettone. This evening was also an opportunity to spend some time with our two Salesian brothers studying at the Crocetta, Bro Paul Spiteri and Bro Jake Mamo. Along with the two Maltese novices, they bantered with Fr Angel, our Rector Major, who was very happy to recall his visit to Malta and the great food offered to him! The highlight of the Salesian Family days was the final mass on Sunday, celebrated by the Rector Major at the Basilica. The choir was made up of the male and female Salesians in formation, who provided a beautiful backdrop to the celebration. In it, the Rector Major appealed to the Salesian Family to grab every opportunity to listen to the hearts of the young, as elaborated on during the previous days and in the Strenna offered for this year. His message can be summarised in the above picture, commissioned especially for these days. Here, Don Bosco responds to young people’s thirst for Love, and he quenches this thirst with water coming directly from the Source of love. The Rector Major was very insistent about the fact that we need to be companions to all those who ask. Nobody can be excluded. Sometimes, people ask in ways that might mask their deeper feelings. The Samaritan woman masked her thirst for Love through other loves, leading her to be condemned by many in society at the time. Similarly, many people might mask their thirst through what we might call rebellion and acting out. In the above picture, the need to include everybody is exemplified by the ‘rocker’ (as described by the artist himself) in blue hair and persons coming from different cultures. In the picture, water does not only flow into people’s glasses. It also nourishes plants and seeds that have not yet sprouted. Don Bosco saw potential where nobody else did, and helped people to actualise that potential by becoming a companion on their journeys, starting wherever they were at. It is interesting to note that, in the picture, Don Bosco does not hold a glass of his own. He was simply holding a recipient that would quench people’s thirst. His reputation was only important insofar as it got him what was needed for his boys. He had no home and no stability. He never sought to be loved as a person, but was only interested in being a mirror of True Love. Similarly, the Rector Major noted that members of the Salesian Family cannot be attached to their sofas. We are pilgrims. Nothing can stand in the way of us being available to the people and accompanying them towards Love. At the end of the Celebration, the Rector Major called for a promotion of a ‘culture of vocation’, whereby we help people understand that life can only have meaning when it is donated. By giving away our life, we are giving life to others. It is thus that our deepest thirst can be quenched. It is safe to say that all participants at the Salesian Family days left with a renewed desire to actualise Don Bosco’s Da Mihi Animas through listening and accompanying the lives of the young.