Salesian Family Spirituality Days 2021

Salesian Family Spirituality Days 2021

In the face of the challenges of the present time, “God accompanies us”

(ANS – Rome – January 18, 2021) – “Technical means will facilitate our meeting, but what unites us strongly is the great spiritual network of the Salesian spirit living among us all. And we are united by the message of hope that today’s Don Bosco, Fr. Angel, addresses to us with this year’s strenna.” With these words, the central delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family, Fr. Joan Lluis Playà, introduced the activities of the 39th Annual Salesian Family Spirituality Days.

Subsequently the Rector Major spoke. In his greeting to the thousands of people connected from home, he did not fail to convey his enthusiasm: “I must tell you that I am overwhelmed by a great emotion. It’s a unique, special, new, different moment. It’s the first time in our history that the Salesian Spirituality Days have been held for the whole world together, from Asia to the Far West,” he said.

The strenna video developed in collaboration by ANS and IME Comunicazione was then broadcast.

The Rector Major again took the floor to offer his comment. He recalled the extraordinary prayer moment presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on March 27, and then illustrated the different ways in which the world is looking at the pandemic crisis. He stressed the need to give an appropriate response on the part of the Salesian Family that has to do “with our charism and our faith, and with a certain vision of life and of human beings.”

Thus faced with all the problems of the pandemic-generated crisis, he indicated examples of holiness in the Salesian Family, and summarized: “God accompanies us.”

Bishop Derio Olivero of Pinerolo spoke on the theme “Hope in Action.” In his remarks he produced a careful analysis on the “reduction of hope” in contemporary society, but he indicated the way out via faith in God and in the relationships that form the identity of each person.

The joint session on Saturday, January 16, was opened by a retrospective on the message of hope, still relevant today, which comes from the figure of Fr. Paul Albera, the 100th anniversary of his death being celebrated this year. Then, as part of the review, “The Voice of the Groups of the Salesian Family in the World,” various testimonies were heard from all continents and the Salesian regions, and from numerous groups of the Salesian Family: a lively and faithful representation of how, united by their roots in Don Bosco, despite the diversity of their specific charisms, the different groups keep hope alive with solidarity with others and fidelity to God.

On January 17 the Rector Major presided over the concluding Eucharist of the 39th SFSD. Referring to the liturgy of the day, Fr. Angel stressed that it is Jesus who satisfies “the thirst for meaning,” the search yesterday of the first disciples, today of every Christian or person who approaches the faith, because it is He who “gives fullness to what gives meaning to our life.”

Then he concluded: “Today we, the Salesian Family of Don Bosco, want to be those disciples who hear You say: ‘Come and see.’ And that it can be said of us continuously that ‘we went, we saw, and we stayed with Jesus.’”

Photos of the Salesian Family Spirituality Days are available on ANSFlickr.

The videos of the common sessions remain available on the ANS Facebook page.