SALESIAN SPIRITUALITY
Don Bosco considered this earthly
life as a road to happiness: and along this road the highest possible degree of
holiness leads to personal happiness. Man finds himself on his way with all his
natural and supernatural resources. In following this road, man finds joy and
peace as directions given by the Church. His world includes God, Christ, and
the Immaculate Virgin Mary who is the Helper of Christian, the angels, the
saints, the Pope and his brothers in the faith.
In his spiritual journey, the
Christian is guided and sustained by God. The word of the Lord which he finds
in the Church shows him the goals which he has to seek, puts before him the
essential truths he is to believe and gives him a moral code he is to practice.
The Sacrament of Penance rises up those who fall and the Sacrament of the
Eucharist pillars of the religious life, which is enriched equally by good
“examples” and by pious practices which should, as far as possible, be very
simple and available to all Christians.
But this is not enough. The
Christian life consists in practicing virtue, and its development is quite
difficult. God is the author of life and all living things have to turn to him.
There is no holiness except in carrying out his will-often a difficult thing.
Prayer, simple and continuous, to which he is devoted, keeps him in contact
with God.
Characteristics of the Spiritual
Thought of Don Bosco
Every spiritual thought which claims
kinship with Christ supposes a certain understanding of man, a method of
asceticism and of prayer and some preference for one of the two types of
Christian life which are represented traditionally by Martha and Mary.
Don Bosco was an optimist. Let us
recall one of his favorite expressions, transcribed on a bookmark for his
breviary: “I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice and to
do well in this life”.
His asceticism was demanding,
although it has escaped the attention of more than one of his superficial
observers. The motto “work and temperance,” which he gave to his followers,
obligated the followers to a constant surveillance over themselves.
His style of devotion which he
favored was sacramental-I would not dare call it liturgical. He certainly
recommended and promoted the pious devotions which were in use in his
environment and no others, with the exception of the Exercise for a Happy
Death, but he never allowed them to impede the sacramental life.
Exercise for a
Happy Death.
He gave great importance to this
exercise. It taught him to direct all his life towards its final purpose.
At the time of
Exercise for a Happy Death. We do everything that will have to do on the last
days of our lives. Examination of conscience, Fervent Communion with the acts
of devotion which are customary during the reception of Holy Viaticum. Reading
the prayers for Extreme Unction. Finally we would imagine ourselves before the
tribunal of God.
He recommended with insistence the
practice of going to confession and Communion.
Those who
practice this devotion will attain salvation and will adjust their consciences.
Do the Exercise
for Happy Death so that you might be a good soldier of Christ.
Religious
Concepts.
Don Bosco based his spirituality on
the religious concepts available for in his time. We have to study them because
the contemporary Christians may find difficulties in accepting them.
Don Bosco’s idea
of God.
In his infancy Don Bosco believed in
a severe God. His mother ha d inculcated in him the universal presence of God
and of his rigorous justice, tempered somewhat by his benevolent Providence. The seminary
of Chieri strengthened these ideas. The God of Comollo was a judge. Don Joseph
Cafasso gave him the idea of God as love. The God of the Liguorian School.
God’s fatherliness and his goodness were keys of Don Cafasso. Don Bosco
understood this idea and wrote on of his first booklet “devotion to the Mercy
of God.”
Don Bosco’s
trust in Divine Providence.
According to Don Bosco the two
attributes of justice and goodness were united in the Person of a provident God
in whom he saw both father and judge. Through his providence God rewards the
good and punishes the bad. Providence
watches over us. Often it allows the same evil which men do or wish to do
others to fall upon their own heads.
The role of
Mother Mary in his life.
Mary was around him everywhere. He
discovered her name on the lips of his mother. She made him recite the Angelus
and the Rosary. In his hamlet there was atmosphere of Marian devotion. Whenever
he spoke about Madona he appeared to be overcome with tenderness. Before
Communion and on Saturdays of each week he would fast in honor of Mary. For Don
Bosco Mary was always a most holy mother, very loving and powerful he promoted
her devotion.
The unrivaled Beauty of the
Immaculate Conception.
The definition of the dogma of the
Immaculate Conception of Mary by Pius XI in 1854 encouraged him to consider her
as the symbol of purity and of holiness. On December 8, 1854 Dominic Savio gave
his heart to Mary and begged her to allow him to die rather than commit a
venial sin against modesty.
Don Bosco’s veneration of the
Immaculate Conception rendered him and his imitators uncompromising with their
won weaknesses and eager for heroic holiness. This demanding spirit is found in
the last article of the regulations of the Sodality of the Immaculate
Conception.
Mary, Mother and
Helper.
Mary is the Mother of God and
therefore our mother. Even up to about 1862 Don Bosco did not speak about Mary
Help of Christians.
