Hajja Salesjana July-September 2020

This is the message of the Rector Major following his re-election in March 2020 at Valdocco Turin during the 28th General Chapter: Balm and Fire 32 H AJJA S ALESJANA «The grace that comes from the Lord and to which I abandon myself, your help, the help of all the Salesians in the very diverse places of the world, and the love that all of us have for our young people - especially the poorest - give me the peace and courage that I need». Volume XVII, p. 232.) The words of our beloved father, Don Bosco, resound in my mind and heart as both balm and fire simultaneously. His figure is so great that I inevitably feel small and unworthy. Only the grace that comes from the Lord and to which I abandon myself, your help, the help of all the Salesians in the very diverse places of the world, and the love that all of us have for our young people - especially the poorest - give me the peace and courage that I need. Many confreres have asked me how I feel. My answer has always been the same: very peaceful and very free. This is what I have felt the entire time, during the Chapter and during discernment. This is what I felt both before and after the elections: peace and freedom because I was not and am not looking for this task of service. I was spiritually ready to continue because I feel that the six previous years have been years of grace; albeit, not without difficulties - but ones that neither snatched hope from me nor took away my desire for personal fidelity to the Congregation. However, I was also ready to end my service, if that had been the sentiment of the Assembly gathered in the Name of the Lord. Dear Salesian Family and friends, At the beginning my new sessennium, I wish to share with you what I feel in my heart. First of all, I thank God - in whose loving hands we all find ourselves and in whom we all move and have our being. God has guided us right up to this moment. The “yes” I once again pronounce stems from trust in God and in all of you who form the great soul and the great heart of this our beloved Family. My emotions are running high. I still feel overwhelmed at being a successor of Don Bosco and the “father and center of unity” of the entire Salesian Family. I am left speechless yet again when I read in Don Bosco’s Spiritual Testament what our father left us in writing about this: «Before leaving for my eternity, I have some duties to fulfill toward you and, thus, fulfill a wish most dear to my heart. I am leaving you here on this earth, but only for a little while…Your rector is dead, but another will be elected who will take care of you and your eternal salvation. Listen to him, obey him, and pray for him as you have done for me» ( The Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco.