Hajja Salesjana

On 23 July 2021, the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, announced the theme of the Strenna for the year 2022, “Do everything for love, nothing by force” (St. Francis de Sales). The theme is linked to the Spirituality of Saint Francis de Sales – in 2022 is the fourth centenary of the anniversary of his death – “source of the Salesian spirit of Don Bosco, from which our Father and Founder drank and which he contemplated at every moment and inspirer of the incipient Salesian Congregation for the educational and evangelizing style: ‘We will call ourselves Salesians’”. Don Bosco declares: “[The oratory] began to be called St. Francis de Sales […] because [for] the part of that ministry of ours, demanding great calm and meekness, we placed ourselves under the protection of this saint, so that he could obtain us from God the grace to be able to imitate him in his extraordinary meekness and in winning souls.” Strenna 2022 will provide an opportunity for the Groups of the Salesian Family , to “recognize and find ourselves in the spirituality of Saint Francis de Sales” and appreciate the characteristics of the Salesian spirit of Don Bosco, as well as the values of Salesian youth spirituality, “Without a doubt we will see ourselves reflected in them and we will feel called to be today ‘more Salesians’ in our Salesian Family” . Being completely of God, fully living his presence in the world Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime defines this proposal as “the most ‘revolutionary’ of St. Francis de Sales” , an appeal to the sanctification of daily life that Pope Benedict XVI, in the General Audience on St. Francis de Sales on 2 March 2011, expressed as the an invitation to Christians to “be completely of God, living fully their presence in the world and the tasks of their own state” . Centrality of the heart The in-depth reading of the Song of Songs during his formation in Paris, leads Francis de Sales to conversion and to the vision of Photo by Faye Cornish - www.unsplash.com 7 Jannar-Marzu 2022 hajja