Hajja Salesjana

My dear friends and readers of the Salesian Bulletin, We have begun a new year. We find ourselves in 2023. At least to me that sounds like an unimaginable number, perhaps “galactic time.” I don’t know if it is, but certainly we are living in the 21st century. Nowadays many ways of living, of expressing oneself, of communicating have changed greatly. But we can still be surprised by something we experience, something we see, something we hear. What I want to share with you now is something that I believe to be very opportune for this greeting for the Salesian Bulletin for the month of January, “Don Bosco’s Month” – as we are used to saying in Salesian colloquial language. A few weeks ago I visited the Salesian works in the United States of America. Very early on, I visited St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California, and spent several hours with hundreds of students – middle school children from St. Dominic Savio Grammar School and the high school students. Following that, there was a roundtable with 45 young people from the high school. We talked about their personal plans and dreams. They were very pleasant and enriching hours. At the end of the morning, the young people and I ate lunch on the patio. I was sitting at a wooden picnic table with four other Salesians, in the open air, on the patio, with my sandwich and a bottle of water. I greeted many young people, some sitting at tables, others standing, during this lunch period. At my table there were two open seats. At one point two young men came up and sat with us. Naturally, I spoke to them and struck up a conversation. Not even two minutes had elapsed when one of the young people said to me: “I want to ask you a question.” I replied, “Ask.” 22 hajja THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR Don Ángel Fernández Artime Photo by Jeremy McKnight on Unsplash.com Photo by Davron Bowman on Unsplash.com Jannar-Marzu 2023