Rector Major's June Message

 

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB

 

EDUCATION’S

HEART OF GOLD

Why devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

is in the DNA of the Salesian Congregation

Sacred Heart Basilica (ANS)

This June I wish to present to you the real meaning of the basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome (Sacro Cuore). It is a church with a very great history – one that has its roots in Don Bosco himself – for at the Pope’s request he spent the last years of his life, as well as his last energies and strength, on the construction of this beloved church.

Sacred Heart, and every church and devotion in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, speaks of the love of that Divine Heart, the Heart of the Son of God, for each one of his sons and daughters in the entire human race. It also speaks of suffering and of the love we receive from God, which is not always reciprocated. 

Today I wish to add one more aspect: I think it also speaks of the pain that Jesus our Lord feels in the face of the suffering of many people: rejection, emigration without a place to go, and the loneliness and violence done to many. I think it can be said that he speaks of all this, too, and without a doubt at the same time blesses everything that is done on behalf of those less fortunate, just as Jesus himself did when traveling the roads of Judea and Galilee.

Very many silver hearts

One joyful reality that undoubtedly makes the very Heart of God rejoice is what I myself saw being carried out in the Don Bosco Salesian Foundation on the islands of Tenerife and Grand Canary. I was there in these past weeks. Among the many things experienced, I was able to witness the work of 140 educators who carry forward the various projects of the Foundation, including the reception of those in need and their housing, work training, and subsequent placement in the working world. 

I also had an encounter with another group of a hundred adolescents and young adults who have been blessed to have received this service that Don Bosco gives to the least. At the end of our precious meeting, they gave me a gift. In a small, heart-shaped cardboard box, they had placed more than a hundred hearts, bearing the names of Nain, Rocío, Armiche, Mustapha, Xousef, Ainoha, Desirée, Abdjalil, Beatriz and Ibrahim, Yone, and Mohamed, and a hundred others, each with a message written on it. These messages expressed something simple, and in a simple way, but still something which sprang from the heart. These are some examples of the precious statements:

©     Thank you for making all this possible.

©     Thank you for the second chance you have given me in my life.

©     I’m still fighting. It’s easier to do so with your help.

©     Thank you because you have restored my joy.

©     Thank you for helping me believe that I can do everything I set out to do.

©     Thank you for the food and a home.

©     Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

©     Thank you for having helped me.

©     Thank you for this opportunity to grow.

©     Thank you for believing in us young people despite the situation in which we live.

There were a hundred others, just like these, addressed to Don Bosco and to the educators who are at their side every day in Don Bosco’s name.

Fr. Angel with youngsters of Tenerife (ANS)

I listened to all they shared with me. I heard some of their stories – many of them filled with pain; I saw the look in their eyes and their smiles. I was very proud to be a Salesian and to belong to a family of such splendid brothers, educators, and young people.

I thought, yet again, that Don Bosco is as timely as ever – and more necessary than ever. I also thought how great is the educational delicacy with which we accompany these young people along their path, taking each one where he or she is and not where we would like them to be. 

Together we said a prayer addressed to the God who loves us all, to the God who blesses his sons and daughters, using words that made Christians, Muslims, and Hindus feel comfortable. No doubt, the Spirit of God assisted us all.

I was happy because just as Don Bosco himself welcomed his first boys to Valdocco, the same thing is experienced today in so many “Valdoccos” around the world.

I have no doubt that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is full of the love that manifests itself in the many wounds healed in each one of these boys and girls because, we well know, love heals and cures.

Blessed Solemnity of the Sacred Heart,

Fr. Angel

Homily for the Feast of the Visitation

Homily for the Feast of the Visitation

May 31, 2023
Luke 1: 39-56
Salesian Missions, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1: 43).

The Visitation by Jacques Daret

The Archangel Gabriel has just come to Mary and asked her to cooperate with God’s plan to send a Savior for the human race.  She agreed and conceived Jesus.  The angel also told Mary of her relative Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy; for she was well beyond the age of childbearing.

At once Mary has left Nazareth and made a long journey into Judea to keep company with her elder kinswoman—her cousin, her aunt, the exact relationship isn’t specified (1:36).  Instead of focusing on her own unique situation, Mary goes to be with another woman in need.

Elizabeth—and the unborn child in her womb, now 6 months along—are granted a revelation by which they recognize the presence of the Son of God within Mary when she arrives.  The mother of the Lord has come to Elizabeth.  And she remains “with her about three months” (1:56), Luke writes.  We understand this to mean until Elizabeth gives birth to John the Baptist.

The mother of the Lord has come, and she remains to assist.  The mother of the Lord attends to someone in need.  This is what Mary does.  This is why we invoke her as the Help of Christians.

The mother of the Lord comes to each of us and stays with us.  She believed God’s word (1:45) and helps us to know God’s word—her Son, the Word made flesh, and the word that God speaks to us in the events of our lives.

Elizabeth recognizes Mary’s blessedness (1:45).  Mary wants to help each of us to carry Christ in our hearts by faith and to carry him to others by our actions.  By our faith and the actions that our faith inspires, we too will be blessed.  Like Mary, we are called to magnify the Lord’s greatness (Collect), the wonderful things he does for us, including giving us a mother in heaven.

Frs. Branden Gordon and Joshua Sciullo Ordained

Frs.  Branden Gordon and Joshua Sciullo Ordained

Frs. Branden Gordon, SDB, and Joshua Sciullo, SDB, were ordained priests on May 27 by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, SDB, archbishop emeritus of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  The rite of ordination was celebrated at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange, N.J.  The cardinal’s joy in being among his Salesian Family was evident throughout the day.

Both new priests completed their theological studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange, N.J., this year and resided in the Salesian formation community at Orange.  Fr.  Josh studied his first three years of theology at the Ratisbonne in Jerusalem, whereas Fr.  Branden did all his studies at Immaculate Conception. Fr. Josh earned an M.A. in systematic theology, and Fr. Branden an M.Div.

Fr. Josh, 30, is from Jacksonville, Fla. His parents are Deacon Mark and Jody Sciullo, and he has two brothers and a sister. He became a Salesian candidate in 2011 and professed vows in 2015. After earning a B.A. at Seton Hall University and before going to Jerusalem for theology, he taught religion at Abp. Shaw H.S. in Marrero, La.

Fr. Branden, 36, is from Toronto. His parents are Ronald Gordon and Rita Pipito and has one brother. He studied philosophy and education at York University in Toronto, worked part-time in recreation, and after graduation became a schoolteacher.  He entered Salesian formation in 2013 and made first profession in 2015. He did practical training at Salesian H.S. in New Rochelle, teaching theology.

More than 60 Salesians took part in the liturgy, besides numerous Salesian Sisters and other members of the Salesian Family, members of the new priests’ families, and students from several Salesian schools—from as far away as Sherbrooke, and Tampa.  The cardinal’s homily stressed that the newly ordained should become identified with Christ, to whom they belong entirely and who sends them to be influencers among the young.

Cardinal Oscar told the congregation that God, through the Holy Spirit, will enter the depths of Fr.  Branden and Fr.  Josh and transform them into images of Christ.  On the eve of Pentecost, he urged the ordinands to entrust their priesthood to the Holy Spirit.  Through these men Christ intends to transform the Church, our Congregation, and the world.

The cardinal pointed out that Christ made a gratuitous and irrevocable choice of these two men, that they should hand themselves over to him entirely and become identified with him.  They are invited to an intimate relationship with the Father and with humanity in order to give life to humanity.  The image of Christ engraved in their souls is more powerful than their human weakness, so that whoever sees them ought to be able to see Christ in them. 

The priest is an alter Christus, “another Christ,” Cardinal Oscar reminded the ordinands.  He doesn’t belong to himself or to the world but is the exclusive possession of the Lord, a minister of Christ.  Don Bosco understood this completely.  The cardinal quoted our Founder’s words to Prime Minister Ricasoli: “Don Bosco is a priest at the altar, in the confessional, and among his dear boys; and as he is a priest in Turin, so also he is a priest in Florence, in the homes of the poor, in the King’s palace.”

The preacher continued with the implications for a Salesian priest.  A Salesian dedicates himself to the education of youth.  Don Bosco wants these two new priests to be influencers through their ministry to the young.  They are to confront the challenges facing the marginalized, those who separate faith from their lives, those overcome by the world.

The cardinal acknowledged that the families of Fr.  Josh and Fr.  Branden have given the best they have to the Church, namely, their sons.

Finally, our Salesian confrere invoked Mary, Mother of the Church and Help of Christians.  He prayed that Mary would obtain for them the gifts of love, purity, self-denial, a sense of service and dedication, and perseverance, so that they will become permanent offerings to God and their brothers and sisters, even when the priesthood is demanding of them.

Photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/5vTg6YCHaAb

The new priests were presented in the May 18 issue of Salesian News.  Fr. Branden has been assigned to Le Salesien in Sherbrooke as coordinator of youth ministry for the school.  Fr. Josh will have the same responsibility at Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Orange.

Homily for Solemnity of Pentecost

Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

May 28, 2023
John 20: 19-23
Villa Maria, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

Out of fear of the Jewish leaders who had executed Jesus, his disciples had locked themselves up in the upper room (cf. John 20: 19).

by Erwin Kuesthardt

Fear had moved them to flee and hide when Jesus was arrested and had moved Peter to deny knowing him.  Fear easily overrides our judgment, and our desires too.

What are we afraid of?  We fear danger.  We fear what people might think of us.  We fear the unknown.  We fear pain, suffering, and loss.  We fear death.

How many times does Jesus counsel the disciples or a divine messenger (an angel) counsel someone in the Scriptures, “Don’t be afraid”!  Those were almost the 1st words the Archangel Gabriel spoke to Mary (Luke 1:30).  In today’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t say, “Don’t be afraid.”  Rather, he wishes “shalom,” peace, to his friends, and he bestows it, emphatically, by repetition (20:19,21) and then by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In St. Luke’s version of the bestowal of the Spirit, which was our 1st reading (Acts 2:1-11), the disciples cast away all their fear and rush out to proclaim the resurrection.

When we possess the peace of Jesus, our fears abate.  Out of our human weakness, some remnant of fear may remain.  We’re not all like Don Bosco, who wasn’t afraid for his life and went out at nite on sick calls on the pitch-black streets and lanes of Turin’s outskirts long before there was street lighting—even when enemies of the Church were lying in wait to bushwhack him.  Sometimes he was rescued by the presence of his sturdy older youths; more than once he was saved by the mysterious dog Grigio.

The saints are braver than we are, more certain that they’re in God’s hands, even when in danger from the wicked, from storms, or from illness.

But Jesus has given us another reason to have courage and be at peace.  In the gospel we heard him give the Holy Spirit to the disciples.  The disciples, in turn, share the Holy Spirit with us—in the sacraments especially; also in the sacred Scriptures, which the Church composed (thru sacred writers) and which the Church recognizes as inspired by the Holy Spirit (not every writing from 1st-century Christianity has made the cut and been recognized as divinely inspired).  Thru the sacred Scriptures the Spirit continues to speak to us, inspire us, and encourage us.

In particular, the Holy Spirit empowers the Church to forgive sins, which she does thru Baptism and Reconciliation.  Don’t we fear our sins?  Don’t they weigh on us?  Indeed, many people are afraid that God won’t forgive them, or that their sins make them unlovable even to God.  Many are afraid of death because they fear God’s judgment.

Yes, our sins themselves merit divine judgment.  But Jesus has given the Holy Spirit to the Church precisely so that the Church may continue what Jesus began:  dispelling our fears and bestowing the peace of God’s mercy.

Therefore, brothers and sisters of Jesus, welcome his mercy in the sacraments.  Don’t be afraid of what people will think if they know you’re a Christian, or what they think of the Church when it teaches the truth about human dignity, human life, and human love.  And don’t be afraid of God’s wrath.  Jesus has come from God for the forgiveness of sins:  yours and mine.

Homily for Memorial of St. Rita

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Rita of Cascia

May 22, 2023
Collect
Provincial House, New Rochelle

In the collect of St. Rita, we prayed that we might more deeply participate in the paschal mystery by suffering with Christ in every tribulation.  That of course doesn’t mean that we desire tribulations; but desire them or not, we’ll have them.  We desire to be united with Christ in them.

Tribulations filled the life of Rita of Cascia (1381-1457), starting from her being compelled to marry in spite of her desire to become a nun.  Her 18-year marriage was miserable, her husband being violent and unfaithful, and their sons were like him.  The marriage ended with her husband’s murder in a vendetta; before her sons could avenge him, both died of natural causes.  Widowed, Rita still was denied entrance to a convent for several years, but finally was admitted and became a model of humility, obedience, and care for the sick in the convent.  Not for nothing is her patronage invoked in desperate cases.

Rita knew more tribulation than most people; certainly more than you and I, whose tribulations come up at dinner in the form of medical travails or job-related problems.  Rita’s tribulations, not to mention ours, pale when we think of the tens of thousands afflicted by war, narco-violence, sexual trafficking, or unrelenting discrimination.  Just read the multi-page spread in yesterday’s NYT about Afghan refugees.

St. Rita was closely united with the passion of Christ, even to experiencing the wounds of the crown of thorns (but not other stigmata).  We can unite our tribulations to that same passion—“suffering in every tribulation with Christ,” sharing in one phase of the paschal mystery while looking toward that mystery’s fulfillment in us.  We attend to Jesus’ words:  “Take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).  And we pray that suffering, desperate people today—migrants, victims of persecution, violence, and discrimination, people in unhappy relationships—also might take courage and find the assistance and comfort they need in Christ and Christ’s people.

Photo by Rita Mendl: from a church in Budapest

Homily for 7th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
7th Sunday of Easter

May 21, 2023
John 17: 1-11
Christian Brothers, Iona University, N.R.
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“Father, the hour has come” (John 17: 1).

The Last Sermon of Our Lord (James Tissot)

When Jesus’ mother pointed out to him that the wine had run out at the wedding banquet in Cana, he responded that his hour hadn’t come yet (John 2:3-4).  But the sign that he worked anyway began to reveal his glory, according to St. John, and “his disciples began to believe in him” (2:11).  The sign at Cana initiated Jesus’ hour.

Jesus, of course, doesn’t use hour to mark time.  The hour is an event, and more than an event, a sign, a promise of great things to come.  When Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States in 1861, one rabid secessionist politician declared, “The man and the hour have met.”  As we view it now, that was an infamous hour, an hour that promised to maintain an infamous, immoral practice.

Jesus refers to another infamous hour at the time of his arrest.  He tells “the chief priests and temple guards and elders who had come for him” in the Garden of Gethsemane, “This is your hour, the time for the power of darkness” (Luke 22:52-53).  The Prince of Darkness, whose ambition is to thwart God and God’s plan for humanity, had his hour and his momentary triumph.

Jesus’ hour is the hour of God’s working in the world to accomplish his plan to undo the power of darkness and to bring us all into divine light.  So Jesus prays amid his apostles near the end of the Last Supper, “Father, the hour has come.”  It’s the brief hour of Satan’s triumph, the everlasting hour of God’s victory, thru which the Son will “give eternal life to all [the Father] gave him” (17:2).  Jesus’ hour is the hour of the paschal mystery:  his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.  Thru his hour he receives glory from his Father and he glorifies the Father “by accomplishing on earth the work that [God] gave him to do” (17:4).  Therefore God will glorify him, the man Jesus of Nazareth, “with the glory that [he, the eternal Son] had with [the Father] before the world began” (17:5).        

Two weeks ago we saw a magnificent spectacle of glory.  More than anyone else, the Brits know how to do glory, whether it’s a royal wedding, a royal funeral, or as we witnessed on May 6, a royal coronation.

From the late 15th century until 1963, our Church also had a splendid coronation ritual.  (Paul VI was the last Pope to be crowned rather than inaugurated.)  Part of the ritual involved the papal master of ceremonies preceding the new Pope on his way from St. Peter’s sacristy into the church, carrying a smoldering wick of flax.  3 times the procession would halt, and the MC would announce, “Holy Father, sic transit gloria mundi” – “thus passes away worldly glory.”

Papal splendor passes away; Pope Francis has done a lot to remove any earthly appearance of it.  Royal splendor in Britain and anywhere else will pass away.  Only the glory of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, risen and ascended to heaven, will remain.  It’s not a worldly glory but glory emanating from God, glory originating in eternity.

That glory isn’t the glory of Jesus alone.  He’s promised us a share of his divine glory.  He prays to his Father, “Everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them” (17:10), in those whom the Father has given to Jesus to lead from this world’s transient pleasures and sufferings to eternal glory, eternal light, eternal life.  St. Peter reminds us that when Christ’s glory is fully revealed on the Last Day, we’ll rejoice exultantly (1 Pet 4:13); his glory will be ours too because we belong to him.

The Resilience of Fr. Attilio Stra

The Resilience of Fr. Attilio Stra

(ANS – Port-au-Prince, Haiti – May 17, 2023) – Fr. Attilio Stra, a Piedmontese Salesian missionary in Haiti, is among those who have been resisting every deterioration of the country for more than 4 decades. Earthquakes and typhoons have been devastating; the responses to the resulting health crises have been consistently inadequate for the affected population.

The cause and effect of each of these extreme moments lie in the absence of a government authority capable of organizing relief, as well as ensuring normal administration. Dependence on distant powers over the country’s history and extreme local corruption makes it seem that no further descent is possible.

“It would take a miracle to come out of this web of poverty, violence, crime, and external conditioning,” confides Fr. Stra. And he knows about miracles: during the magnitude 7 earthquake of January 12, 2010 – which severely affected Salesian structures, causing more than 300 victims among children, youths, and teachers – he survived the collapse of the National School of Arts and Crafts (ENAM - Ecole Nationale des Arts et Metiers), the first Salesian house in Haiti (1935). Even at that time in an email sent to ANS, he wrote: “I am alive by a miracle.”

Despite that terrible experience and all the difficulties that still plague the country today, Fr. Stra never considered leaving what has become his 2d homeland. Instead, together with his confreres and their collaborators, he strives to replicate in the 13 Salesian works in Haiti small daily “miracles.”

The efforts made by the Salesians in the 2010 emergency were renewed 2 years ago following a new seismic disaster; sandwiched in between was Hurricane Mathew in 2016, bringing further death and destruction.

It is a true miracle that 70 Salesians are still in Haiti. The houses with the Don Bosco insignia are a refuge for thousands of teenagers who, on the streets or in bars, come into contact with drug recruiters and extortionists. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, the Salesians themselves are not exempt from the attention of thugs: criminal gangs infest the streets, no government is able to counter them, and political power, under constant threat from crime lords, fails to evolve in a positive direction and ensure either order, security, or peaceful coexistence.

All analyses lead to the view that there is no way out except for a “miracle,” precisely. Yet, among small daily “miracles,” the resilience of Fr. Stra and other missionaries is the only certain fact.

For more information, visit: www.missionidonbosco.org 

Homily for Tuesday, 6th Week of Easter

Homily for Tuesday
6th Week of Easter

May 6, 2023
Acts 16: 22-34
John 16: 5-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, New Rochelle

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved” (Acts 16: 31).

In yesterday’s passage from Acts, Paul and Silas began freely teaching the Gospel at Philippi and won converts.  The lectionary skips over the next episode, in which Paul exorcises a slave girl and then her owners instigate public opposition, which in turn leads to the attack and imprisonment we just read of.  So the 2 apostles have an opportunity to preach the Gospel in circumstances less free.  But their preaching is still effective.

It’s effective because Jesus has sent the Advocate to be with them (cf. John 16:7) and with the whole Church.  The Advocate convicts the world of sin (16:8)—which in our hearts we’re all aware of—but also makes known the remedy:  belief in the redemption offered to us in Christ.

The Advocate remains with us, brothers, regardless of our circumstances, to heal us of our sins, to master the power of the Evil One—“the ruler of this world has been condemned” (16:11)—and to make us preachers of the Gospel to one another, to the staff of our house, to anyone with whom we converse or to whom we write.

The Lord has “built up strength within” us, and he “will complete what he has done for” us (Ps 138:3,8), and for all whom Christ calls to salvation.

The Letter from Rome of May 10, 1884

The Letter from Rome of May 10, 1884

The most significant elements

(ANS – Rome – May 10, 2023) – May 10 marks 139 years since the famous letter from Rome that Don Bosco wrote to his Salesians to warn them of the risk of losing the truly “Salesian” nature of being among young people, of educating and evangelizing them. A way of being present among young people that implies loving, requires the visibility of this love, knows how to raise questions, provide models, gives birth to dreams, projects, and prospects, and finally generates mature men and women capable of building the Kingdom of God in service to their brothers and sisters. In recent times, Rector Major emeritus Fr. Pascual Chavez Villanueva proposed an updated reading of this letter, which is and remains a charismatic cornerstone for the whole Congregation and for the Salesian Family.

Don Bosco’s dream-letter written from Rome in May 1884 makes clear the dialectic between “presence of the charism” and “work of educational or social services.” For there may very well be a presence of the charism without a work – as it was in Turin with Don Bosco, before the reality of Valdocco was structured, or as it is in those realities where, for various reasons, works are impossible; just as there may be a work without the presence of the charism any longer: a work that proceeds by inertia, that has lost its propositional capacity and meaning, that perhaps has a glorious past to tell, but no longer has anything to say in today’s social and ecclesial scenario.

Faced with this risk, Fr. Chavez proposes a rereading, contextualized to today’s reality and its challenges, of the letter from Rome, which he calls “the Gospel of Don Bosco.” Salesians are therefore called to welcome young people for who they are, “in the state in which they are,” and to articulate proposals and interventions to the measure of boys and girls, and of particular situations. “It is a matter of seeking that rare equilibrium between radical proposals of meaning and respect for the personal and collective dynamic that it takes for each person to achieve them,” he further explains.

Father Chavez’s reading identifies the 6 most significant elements in the Letter from Rome:

* Knowing how to use the language of love – that is, the great principle of the “visibility of love.”

* Understanding young people – the rational element that makes it possible to cancel the generational distance;

* Having happiness at heart – as the goal of each person’s vocation and the privileged way for evangelization;

* Being present – physically and in dialog and sincere confrontation;

* Overcoming formalisms – accepting the educational effort to give young people models of comparison for growth;

* Sharing action – accompanying and fostering youth leadership.

These six elements are available – in Italian, English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

Download attachments: 

• Gli_elementi_piu_significativi_della_lettera_IT.pdf 
• Gli_elementi_piu_significativi_della_lettera_EN.pdf 
• Gli_elementi_piu_significativi_della_lettera_ES.pdf
• Gli_elementi_piu_significativi_della_lettera_FR.pdf
• Gli_elementi_piu_significativi_della_lettera_PT.pdf

 

Homily for 6th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
6th Sunday of Easter

May 14, 2023
John 14: 15-21
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’” (John 14: 15).

Jesus is speaking to his apostles at the Last Supper.  His address to them is his final words before his passion and death.  In this excerpt, twice he urges them to keep his commandments, for such fidelity demonstrates that they love him (cf. 14:21).  If they love him, their faith must be translated into deeds.  As the saying goes, they have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

What does Jesus command?  What are his commandments?  Also in this farewell address, he commands his followers to love one another (13:34-35).  We can’t love Jesus if at the same time we treat our fellow disciples badly, or anyone in our lives, e.g., by gossiping and tearing them down, ignoring their needs, or lying to them.

Before addressing the apostles at length—this farewell discourse takes up 4½ chapters of John’s Gospel—Jesus set an example for them, and for us, by washing their feet, doing the unpleasant work of a slave.  Then he told them—commanded them—to follow his example by serving one another (13:14-15).  This is one of those commandments that are indicative of our love for Jesus:  that we serve one another, help one another, consider others’ needs and do what we can to meet those needs.

At the Last Supper, Jesus also took bread and consecrated it as his body, given for us; took wine and consecrated it as his blood, shed for us.  Then he commanded, “Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19).  He’s commanded us to celebrate the Eucharist as a memorial of himself, of his sacrificing himself for our redemption.

If we love him, we’ll keep his commandment and faithfully celebrate the Holy Eucharist every week, if not more often.  St. Paul writes that as often as we eat this bread which is his body and drink this cup of his blood, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again (1 Cor 11:26)—and not his death only, but his resurrection too, and his promise to share his risen life with us when he returns in his glory as Son of God and judge of the world.

St. Peter tells us in today’s 2d reading, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” (1 Pet 3:15).  Receiving his body and blood brings him into ourselves physically and spiritually.  It sanctifies us and empowers us to keep his words in our hearts, on our lips, and in our deeds.  He sanctifies us so that we may sanctify him in our hearts and in our lives.

St. Mary Mazzarello, Attentive and Caring Mother

St. Mary Mazzarello, Attentive and Caring Mother

(ANS – Rome – May 12, 2023) – On May 13, the Salesian Family celebrates the memory of St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello, cofounder with Don Bosco of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. Between her and Don Bosco, there was a profound charismatic harmony. Mother Mazzarello had a marked educational capacity, the gift of a serene and reassuring joy, and the art of involving other young women in the commitment to devote themselves to the promotion of women so that they might be good Christians and upright citizens in the family, the Church, and society.

From a young age, she was hardworking and attentive to the needs of her neighbor; accompanied by the spiritual guidance of Fr. Dominic Pestarino, she devoted herself to the sick during the typhus epidemic that struck Mornese in 1860 and later to the education of the girls of her village. She opened a sewing workshop, a youth center, and then a home for children without families. In a mysterious vision, she saw a large building with many little girls running in the courtyard and heard a voice saying, “To you, I entrust them.”

Toward her girls, she manifested a maternal tenderness from the very beginning. And the awareness of being a “mother,” assumed gradually, became sharper and sharper over time, until it became clearly visible in her letters to her fellow sisters of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians once the institute was founded: in her letters Mother Mazzarello presents herself as “the one who loves you so much in the Lord” (L 66:6) and is “willing to do everything for your good” (L 52:5), like a mother who “takes care” (L 10:2; 12:3).

In her, we can also recognize the traits of a woman who, like the Virgin Mary, expressed her feminine identity in her active solicitude toward her sisters and young people; she was, moreover, a down-to-earth woman of profound and attentive listening, who welcomed the cries of the suffering, and for this she was committed to providing.

Also, part of her motherly way of doing things was her concern for harmony and peace in communities, as precisely a mother who takes care that there be no dissension among her children. “With a little humility, everything can be mended. Give me this consolation soon, my dear daughters, love one another with true charity, love your mother [superior], regard her as if she were our Lady, and treat her with all respect (L 49:2).”

St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello handed over to her daughters and to those who share the educational mission with them a precious legacy, permeated with Gospel values: the search for God known in the family and forged through enlightened catechesis, ardent love for Jesus in the Eucharist, filial trust in Mary Help of Christians, responsibility in work, openness, humility, joy, sobriety of life, and total gift of self in the search for the true good of girls, especially the poorest and neediest, both at home and in the various mission countries.

Sources: CGFMA.net, Salesian Bulletin of Brazil 

Salesians Continue to Support Displaced People in Goma

Salesians Continue to Support Displaced People at Don Bosco Ngangi

(ANS – Goma, DRC – May 9, 2023) – On Thursday, May 4, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Salesians of the East Delegation of the Central Africa Province in collaboration with the Italian NGO International Volunteers for Development (VIS) distributed food rations to over 300 families of elderly, disabled, pregnant women and lactating mothers who had been received at the site for displaced people set up at the Salesian Don Bosco Ngangi center, north of Goma. The superior of the Central Africa Province (AFC), Fr. Guillermo Basañes, also took part in the distribution of the rations, which included bags of cornmeal, beans, vegetable oil, cooking salt, and soap for each family.

The distribution took place in the multi-purpose hall of the AMANI center, a Swahili word meaning “peace.” As part of the food distribution, the provincial superior addressed the evacuees, recommending prayer, trust, and hope in God and the Virgin Mary.

During the visit to the camp, Fr. Basañes was accompanied by Fr. Jean-Pierre Muhima and Bro. Augustin Mupoyi, director and treasurer, respectively, of the Salesian work in Ngangi. The two Salesians are also members of the Emergency Coordination Team, chaired by Fr. Carlos Balezi, SDB, treasurer and director of the AFC-East project office.

During his visit, the AFC provincial expressed his gratitude to all benefactors who, in one way or another, support the Salesians in this intervention on behalf of the displaced, and also urged “other people of good will to join this initiative that saves lives,” he said. He then also encouraged the young staff members of the emergency management team in the camp to work in synergy with VIS on behalf of the displaced people. And he reminded them of the elements that will make their interventions successful: humility, simplicity, responsibility, and prayer.

Earlier in the day, Fr. Basañes had addressed a “good morning” thought to 60 lay collaborators active in the administration of the work. He wished them a good Marian month and reminded them of the traits pointed out by Pope Francis to young people during his visit to Kinshasa earlier this year, using the five fingers of the hand as a reference: prayer, community, honesty, forgiveness, and service.

Salesians Will Use Summer Camps to Counter Earthquake Trauma

Salesians Will Use Summer Camps to Counter Earthquake Trauma

Photo ©: Misiones Salesianas

(ANS – Damascus – May 9, 2023) – More than three months after the Feb. 6 earthquake and the countless aftershocks that followed, the situation for the people of Syria hasn’t improved significantly. The civil war’s aftermath, the economic and social crisis the country is experiencing, rising prices, lack of food, lack of work, etc., have thrown the population into a widespread depressive mood, to which even children are no strangers. Like every year, the Salesians in Syria are now preparing summer activities for children, which this year have a stated purpose: to help nearly 2,000 children, teenagers, and young adults overcome the trauma caused by the earthquake.

The earthquake confirmed that Syria is indeed experiencing an emergency within an emergency – one that already existed because of the war. Salesians have opened their doors to the population and are still helping with food vouchers for those who haven’t yet been able to return to their homes.

With the first phase of the emergency almost over, that of basic aid, for the past few weeks the Salesians have been starting a 2d phase, focused on resuming sports and recreational activities for minors and caring for people so that they can overcome stress and trauma. Salesian Solidarity Worldwide has already raised more than 2 million euros for the emergency in Syria. All the projects for which these funds were raised are currently running successfully and benefiting hundreds of young people and their families.

A 3d phase will be the traditional summer camps and activities in which hundreds of children always participate. On this occasion, Salesian houses in Damascus and Kafroun will welcome nearly 2,000 children between the ages of 8 and 18, to alleviate the post-traumatic stress disorder from which most of them suffer.

A study by Mariam Ghosn, a psychologist working with the Salesians in Aleppo, shows that 85% of the children need psychological support and that by participating in group activities and therapy for a period of time, they can heal the trauma caused by the earthquake.

A guiding theme has already been found for the summer program: “Bosco Space.” For 6 weeks, through the stories of 6 children who are sent to 6 planets in “Don Bosco Space,” minors received in summer camps will learn 6 different virtues – one for each planet – that will be useful to them “when they return to Earth.”

Traveling by imagination, more than 2,000 needy minors will discover the planet of Good Deeds, where they learn to share and communicate; the planet of Dreams, to pay attention to God’s signs in life; the planet of Life, to learn to take responsibility; the planet of Fateful Decisions, to learn to trust and not give up; the planet of Principles, to be ethical and distinguish right from wrong; and the planet of Fulfilled Dreams, to learn by observing the beauty around us.

As part of the summer camp program, the Salesians include transportation, food, snacks, and all materials for the boys and girls.

The minors’ summer experience will end with 5 days of co-habitation at the Salesian work in Kafroun in a serene environment in the foothills of the mountains to allow the participants to assimilate and share their experiences with other minors.

Homily for 5th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
5th Sunday of Easter

May 7, 2023
John 14: 1-12
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do” (John 14: 12).

As we read or hear the Gospels, we observe the works that Jesus did.  He preached.  He prayed.  He showed compassion for the sick, the hungry, those afflicted by sin.

Evening Prayer, by Pierre Edouard Frere

These are works of Jesus that we can do.  We can’t heal people miraculously or raise the dead.  But we can preach the Gospel.  We might do that by instructing our children or grandchildren, teaching catechism, or answering someone’s question about what we believe or why we act the way we do.  And the way we act:  that’s the most fundamental form of preaching the Gospel, our day-to-day actions, our ordinary conversation.  If these are exemplary, if these are Christ-based, we’re preaching the Gospel.

We can show compassion for people in need:  the sick, the hungry, the homeless, the refugee.  We can do so with financial generosity if our means allow, with patience, with kindness, with attention to public policies, with personal service, e.g. by visiting someone who’s sick, someone who’s grieving, or by helping at a soup kitchen.

Jesus prayed.  He was always attentive to what his Father wanted (cf. John 4:34)—in gathering disciples (he appointed his Twelve after spending the nite in prayer [Luke 6:12-16]), in teaching them and all the people, in calling people to conversion in their attitudes and behavior, in offering divine mercy and forgiveness to sinners—sinners like the paralytic brought to him while he was teaching in his home at Capernaum (Mark 2:5), like those possessed by demons, like the woman whom the scribes and Pharisees wanted to stone for adultery (John 8:1-11), like the thief crucified next to him (Luke 23:39-43).  Finally, he put aside his own will and his fear, and accepted the cup of suffering presented to him by his enemies (Luke 22:39-45)—enemies who didn’t like what he taught and how he acted as his faithfully carried out his Father’s will.  He was able to do all that because he prayed to his Father regularly, even in the garden of Gethsemane as he confronted his passion (Mark 14:32-42).

If we pray—to Jesus’ Father, to Jesus himself, to their Holy Spirit, to our Blessed Mother the Help of Christians, to the saints—then we too will be able to do the works of Jesus.  We’ll be able to live truthfully, chastely, and patiently.  Without prayer, we’re powerless and lose our insights into the truth that is Jesus Christ, lose the way toward eternal life (cf. John 14:6).