Hajja Salesjana October-December 2019

33 H AJJA S ALESJANA could rejoice for peace, some mortars fell very close by. So that afternoon those wonderful young animators, with solemn faces and a faith that they really lived, gave me a wonderful stole on which was embroidered in Arabic, “Remember us whenever you celebrate the Eucharist. ” The stole of the young prisoners I received the third stole a month ago, during my visit to Mato Grosso in Brazil. At the end of a meeting with the young, one of the teachers gave me a stole bearing on its back, written with indelible ink, the first and last names of the 56 young people in our Salesian house. These aren’t young people with just any story. They’re young ones who are sentenced to what once was called juvenile detention, a reformatory; they’re young people deprived of their freedom, because of some offense, who after a hearing have been entrusted to us. They couldn’t come to our meeting, but they sent me the stole with their names, asking that I do not forget them and promising that they in turn would remember me. I can assure you that every day I remember them at the Eucharist. I believe I believe heartily in the attunement and communion of hearts. I believe strongly in prayer, especially when we pray for others. Praying for others is an expression of true love, whether we know them or not, people who come to dwell in our hearts at the moment that we remember them. In these years, I’ve come to understand ever more clearly why Pope Francis implores us with insistence to pray for him. That’s why I want to leave you this testimony of the precious value of these three stoles. I want to carve into my memory and yours the inestimable value of every human encounter, however brief or lengthy, deep or quick it might be. If it is a human encounter, it is always special and we have to make it so. We will have a much better life if we live it this way. I want to etch into our minds how faith succeeds in moving hearts and wills. I have seen this everywhere in my journeys around the Salesian world. I want to state for the record that every day I understand better what Don Bosco wrote to the boys at Valdocco when he (…) called them “thieves.” Yes, that’s what he called them: “ You’re all thieves ,” he said, “ because you’ve stolen my heart .” It’s so beautiful to feel that one’s heart can be stolen freely and in a very oblative way when it seeks only the good of other persons. I bless you all, and I promise you that the next time I put on one of these stoles I’ll also remember you, with whom I have shared the profound meaning they have for me. Photo by Ben White & Nathan Anderson