THE MESSAGE OF THE VICAR
Fr. Stefano Martoglio, SDB
OUR ANNUAL GIFT
Traditionally as a Salesian Family, we receive the strenna every year – a gift at the beginning of the year. I value a look inside this gift with these few lines so as to welcome it as it deserves, without losing anything of the freshness of the gift.
A
gift
It is a gift because, before all else, strenna means: I am giving you a gift[1]!
I am giving you something important to help you celebrate a new time, a new
year. This is how Don Bosco thought of it, and he gave it to all the young
people and adults who were with him.
I want to give you this gift, this strenna, for the start of the new year,
of a new time.
This is something beautiful and important: a new
year, a new time, a box in which all the other contents will be held. The
coming year is not the same as those you have experienced up until now. A new
year needs a new vision in order that it may be lived to the full because the new
year comes only once! Each moment of time is unique because we are
different from the prior year, from how we were the year before. The purpose of
the strenna is to help us prepare for
this new time, by beginning to look inside this new year, bringing to light
some things that will be an important part of it.
The
“golden thread”
The
gift of time, the gift of life
God’s gift and all other gifts are found within life:
people, situations, opportunities, human relationships. Within this
providential way of viewing the gifts of time and life, the strenna, a gift that Don Bosco – and
his successors after him – have given every year to the whole Salesian Family calls
us to gaze upon the new year, this new time, with new eyes.
The strenna is an aid to help us look at the time to come by putting into focus a golden thread that will guide the new time ahead. The golden thread that the strenna gives us this year is Hope. This is also important! The new year will surely be filled with many things, but don’t get lost amid them! Start by reflecting on how important it is. Don’t scatter; gather!
The strenna that our Cardinal Angel has laid out for us for 2025, like a new outfit, brings to light the events that we will all experience, uniting them with a single golden thread: Hope!Strenna
2025 highlights both global and
Salesian events that involve us all so as to help us live them well:
· * The
Ordinary Jubilee of 2025: a
Jubilee is an event of the Church in the Catholic tradition that the Holy
Father gives us. To live the Jubilee is to live the pilgrimage that the
Church offers us so we may put the presence of Christ back at the center of our
lives and the life of the world. The Jubilee that Pope Francis has
proclaimed has a life-giving theme: Spes non confundit! Hope
does not disappoint! What a marvelous life-giving theme! If the world
needs one thing at this difficult time, it is precisely Hope, but not the hope
of what we believe we can do all by ourselves, which risks becoming an
illusion. Rather, it is the Hope of the re-discovery of the Presence of
God. Pope Francis writes: “May Hope fill your heart!” May it not only warm
the heart but fill it – fill it to overflowing!
· * Hope
makes us pilgrims. The Jubilee is a pilgrimage! It sets you in motion
inside; otherwise, it is not “Jubilee.” In the midst of this Church event
that makes us feel like Church, we, as the Salesian Congregation and as the
Salesian Family, will celebrate an important anniversary. 2025 will see
· * the
150th anniversary of the first missionary expedition to Argentina.
From Valdocco, Don Bosco casts his heart beyond all
borders. He sends his sons to the other side of the world! He sends them,
beyond all human security. He sends them even when he does not have a
sufficient number necessary to carry on what he had already begun.
He just sends them, and that is it, for Hope must be
obeyed since Hope guides Faith and sets Charity in motion. He sends them,
and these first confreres depart and go forth they know not where! From
there we were all born, from the Hope that sets us on a journey and makes us
pilgrims.
This anniversary should be celebrated, as should
every anniversary, so as to help us recognize the gift (it is not your
property, it was given to you as a gift), to remember, and to give strength for
the future, from the dynamic power of the mission.
Hope is the foundation of the mission because Hope
is a responsibility that you cannot hide or keep to yourself! Do not hide
what is given to you; recognize the Donor and hand over with your life to
the next generations what has been given to you! This is the life of the
Church, the life of each one of us.
St. Peter, who saw far ahead, wrote in his First Letter:
“Always be ready to respond to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that
is in you!” (1 Peter 3:15). We must think that responding does not
mean using only words; rather, it is our life that is the response!
With the Hope that is in you, may you live and
prepare for this new year to come, making a journey with the young and with our
brothers and sisters to renew Don Bosco’s Dream and God’s Dream.
Our
coat of arms
These are simple images which begin to move our hearts
toward the time to come: “Anchored in hope, pilgrims with young people.” “Anchored”
is a very strong term: the anchor is the salvation of the ship in the midst of
a storm; it is firm and strong, rooted in Hope!
Within this life-giving theme is found the entirety
of our daily life: the people, situations, and decisions – the “micro” of
each of us that is welded with the “macro” of what we will all live together, handing
over to God the gift of this time that is given to us. This is so because you
must do your part for the strenna
that we will all receive; your daily life must be illuminated by what we
have written and you will receive; otherwise, it will not be Hope, it will not
be what your life is based on, and it does not put you into “motion” by making
you a Pilgrim.
We entrust this journey to the Mother of the Lord, Mother of the Church and our Help of Christians, a Pilgrim of Hope traveling with us.
[1]The term strenna immediately refers to
the element of gift, and in the Italian linguistic tradition from which it
came, it is properly associated with Christmas gifts. In the Piedmontese
context in which Don Bosco grew up, it was more the case of a tradition of the
New Year’s gift that the head of the family gave to his children and the
proprietor to his employees. January 1 was known precisely as “the day of the
strenna.” The complete text
[2]The Labarum (Greek: λάβαρον / láboron) was a Christian imperial standard
incorporating the sacred “Chi-Rho” Christogram, which was one of the earliest
forms of christogram used by Christians, becoming one of the most familiar and
widely used emblems in Chrisitan tradition. It was adapted by emperor Constantine
the Great after receiving his celestial vision and dream, on the eve of his
victory at the Milvian Bridge in 313 AD.
The Labarum
of Constantine was a vexillum[note 1]
that displayed the “Chi-Rho” Christogram, formed from the first two Greek
letters of the word “Christ” (Greek: ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, or Χριστός) — Chi (χ) and Rho (ρ). Fashioned after legionary standards, it
substituted the form of a cross for the old pagan symbols, and was surmounted
by a jewelled wreath of gold containing the monogram of Christ, intersecting
Chi (χ) and Rho (ρ); upon this hung a rich purple banner,[note
2] beset with gold trim and profuse embroidery. The inscription “Εν Τουτω Νικα” (In Hoc Signo Vinces) — “In this sign,
conquer” was in all probability inscribed upon the actual standard, although
Eusebius mentions that royal portraits of Constantine and his children were
integrated.[note 3] St. Ambrose of Milan later wrote that the Labarum was consecrated by the Name of
Christ.[1]
As a new focal point for Roman unity, the
monogram appeared on coins, shields, and later public buildings and
churches.[2] From 324 the Labarum
with the “Chi-Rho” Christogram was the official standard of the Roman Empire. More information.
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