Hajja Salesjana January-March 2021

15 H AJJA S ALESJANA 3. In which way are you part of the Salesian Family? Being a Salesian of Don Bosco has been all along a great source of happiness. I feel I am where God wants me to be. Surely, all these years I have been in various places, firstly because of my formation process, but lately, being member of the General Council, due to the animation processes I was responsible for. photographer to take a picture where the main object was not his face, but rather his action of ‘hearing’. Don Bosco wanted to communicate in that photo the importance of ‘listening’. His ability to listen, to be present to and for the young, that for me is a constant challenge. What message would you like to pass on to the readers of Óajja Salesjana? I tell you a little story. Sometime around 2012 I was visiting a particular province and they asked me to have a meeting with members of the Salesian Family of that metropolis. Quite a big crowd was present made up of various members from the different groups of the Salesian Family. At one point I said to them “I am going to put 2 questions”. And the first one was: “Do you love Don Bosco?” You can imagine, what a huge uproar I received, which was quite predictable. We all love Don Bosco. Then I continued: “I am going to put a second question: Do you really know Don Bosco?” and this time, no uproar, no ‘yeses’, nothing. I must admit there was an embarrassing silence and I tried not to look anybody in the face for more than one second. After some deeply felt silence, I said to them: “Now you see, that is our biggest challenge. If we love him whom we do not know, who exactly do we love? Let us take up the courage to know as best as we can the man, the man for others, but above all the man of God. Because the greatness of Don Bosco lies here: his response to God to be a servant of God, a servant to the young. And he gave us Mary, our Help, Mother and Teacher!” 6. 4. Is there a phrase or a sentence from Don Bosco that inspires you in your life? Yes there is one: a phrase that Don Bosco wrote to the Salesians in South America, 10th August 1885, when news reached him that some of them were not living the Salesian spirit. With great tenderness, and I am sure with deep and hidden pain and sadness, he wrote to them: “I myself would like to give a sermon, or better a talk, on the Salesian Spirit which ought to inspire and guide our actions, and every word we say. The Preventive System should be truly ours.” I frequently return to this phrase and this letter. It is also for me and for us today. That is where we have the centre of our charism. It is there that we find the strength to respond to God’s call to be servants of the young. 5. Who is Don Bosco for you and what strikes you most about him? Don Bosco for me is “Father and Teacher”. He remains a model of how I can be open to God’s call and let God guideme for the benefit of the young. What strikes me about him is a particular photo that he took of himself listening to the confession of one of his boys who later succeeded him as his second successor, Paolo Albera. Don Bosco asked the