Hajja Salesjana

countercultural. At 9 years of age, he made his first confession, a day he describes as “one of the happiest” of his life. At 11 years of age, he received his first holy communion. At 12 years of age, he left home to escape his step-bother Antonio’s violence. Hired as a farmhand at the Moglia farm, he meets Fr. Cottino, parish priest in Moncucco. This meeting was intentionally pursued by young John, at some cost. As an adolescent in a new town where no one knew him, he could easily have enjoyed his anonymity and neglected his faith formation. John actively chose to deepen it. Every Sunday, instead of sleeping in, he made a 40 minute trek to St. John the Baptist Church in Moncucco to go to confession to Fr. Cottino and to attend the early mass. At 15 years of age, John returns to Becchi (Castelnuovo) and forms a rich paternal bond with Fr. Calosso, chaplain at St. Peter’s Chapel in Morialdo. Don Bosco remembers become “humble, robust and strong”. This was a lifelong, demanding task for young John with his fiery, proud disposition which had to be tamed. Man’s word, God’s presence So what was the power behind Don Bosco’s words in the Good Night? John learned to be humble and strong over time, even through his reception of the sacraments. The words he spoke from the pulpit as a man flowed from the abundance of his heart. John became strong by interiorizing the Word of God made flesh, celebrated at mass as the Bread of life. In the confessional, John experienced God’s Word as divine mercy which allowed him to move into greater freedom of the heart. A personal choice to seek humility and strength John’s commitment to the sacramental life was intentional, constant and 23 Lulju-Settembru 2024 hajja