Hajja Salesjana April-June 2021

32 special jubilee invoking the Immaculate Virgin’s protection. This was an expression of faith coloured by not-so-subtle political overtones. In his subsequent Bull, Ineffabilis Deus , the pontiff speaks of Mary Immaculate as the One who, totally pure, crushed the serpent’s head, who destroyed all heresies, who is the sure defense of the Church, who saves the Christian people from the most deadly evils and is their sure refuge and faithful help. In other words, Mary Immaculate is presented as the symbol of the victory of good over evil. (cfr. Arthur Lenti, Vol. V, Chapter 3, Don Bosco and Mary Immaculate Help of Christians in Historical Context). In the midst of all of this, the Immaculate Conception, who was a guiding presence at the beginning and development of the Oratory, emboldened Don Bosco in his determined but non-political response. The growth of devotion to the Immaculate Conception in the broader ecclesial context, coupled with his first and subsequent dreams about his mission, provided Don Bosco with an interpretive key for his apostolate. Mindful of the political foment all around the Oratory but rising above it, Don Bosco sought the Immaculata’s intercession to save society from “the powers of evil” - not through political action but through faith in action, the raison d’être of the Oratory. First, by educating and catechizing the young to become Christian leaven for the positive transformation of society. Secondly, by presenting Mary Immaculate as a lens to interpret his educational project. In his Month of May in Honor of Mary, Don Bosco would write that “The Immaculate Virgin, the Mother most pure, hates everything that is contrary to holy purity”. An Immaculate Catechesis Don Bosco’s insistence that Rollini’s painting convey the Immaculate Conception with classical feminine bodily beauty in some way presages St. John Paul’s Theology of the Body, a catechesis in which the human body is presented as necessarily the hinge to the sacred. To be sure, “holy purity” includes bodily chastity, but it is much more. The holy purity modelled by Mary is the intentional, total self-giving to one’s God-given mission for the good of others. Mary embodies “holy purity” in mind and heart, body and spirit; she is beautiful because she is Immaculate, and she is Immaculate because in every aspect she is beautiful, this is, a clear reflection of God in whose image she is made, without any diminishment due to sin. Contemplating she who is always free of sin motivates us to accept where we are in need of conversion; while Mary is full of grace, we must make intentional choices that open us to incremental grace. The catechesis which we as Salesian educator-pastors - consecrated and lay collaborators alike - are called to be for young people in times of change and in this time of pandemic passes through our body and H AJJA S ALESJANA