Hajja Salesjana

Photo by Sean Oulashin - Unsplash.com THE message of the rector major Don Ángel Fernández Artime His name is Alberto. She’s a young mum whose name I don’t know. He lives in Peru; she in Hyderabad, India. What unites these two life stories is that I met each of them while carrying out my mission of service – in Peru for the one, and the following week in India for the other, the young mother. What they have in common is precious: they experienced God’s caress in the welcome that Don Bosco once gave each of them in one of his houses, changing their lives, and saving them from the situation of poverty– and perhaps death –to which they were doomed. I think I can say that the fruit of the Lord’s Passover is also communicated through human gestures that heal and save. Here are the two stories. I was in Huancayo, Peru, a few weeks ago. I was about to celebrate the Eucharist with more than 680 young people, members of the province’s Salesian Youth Movement, and several hundred people from that city high in the mountains of Peru (10,400 feet above sea level) when I was told that a former student wanted to greet me and that he had traveled almost five hours to get there – and would travel another five hours back home. I replied that I would gladly greet him and thank him for his beautiful gesture. The moment came before Mass when a young man approached me and told me how happy he was to greet me. He told me his name (Alberto), and added, “I’m here because I wanted to make this trip to thank Don Bosco in the person of the Rector Major because the Salesians saved my life.” I thanked him and asked why he was telling me this. As he continued with his testimony, each word reached deeper into my heart. He told me that he had been a difficult lad, giving a lot of trouble to the Salesians who had welcomed him into one of the homes for children-at-risk. He added that they would have had dozens of reasons to get rid of him because, saying, “I was a poor devil who thought I could only expect some more evil, but they had a lot of patience with me. Thus, I was able to continue on God gave Don Bosco a large heart without limits, like the shores of the sea. I feel the beating of that heart every day. Photo by Deb Dowd - Unsplash.com 10 April-Ġunju 2023 hajja