Don Bosco hearing confessions of young boys

 

We live as disciples of the Lord by the grace of the Father, who consecrates us through the gift of his Spirit and sends us out to be apostles of the young.

Through our religious profession, we offer ourselves to God in order to follow Christ and work with him in building up the Kingdom. Our apostolic mission, our fraternal community and the practice of the evangelical counsels are the inseparable elements of our consecration which we live in a single movement of love towards God and towards our brothers.

Our mission sets the tenor of our whole life; it specifies the task we have in the Church and our place among other religious families.

(SDB Constitutions, Art. 2)

Our motto, Da Mihi Animas, Cetera Tolle, translates to: Give me souls and take everything else. What may appear as a peculiar saying reveals the salvation of the young as the ultimate purpose of our life and the ascetical programme that Don Bosco wanted us to live. The simple words remind us of Don Bosco’s profound humanity and spirituality, the “splendid blending of nature and grace” to which we are drawn and by which we are inspired to mould the plan of our lives.

Carl Bloch – Denmark

“Let the little children alone, and do not stop them coming to me; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs”

Matthew 19: 14