Over 200 youngsters from 18 Salesian houses across the three states of Goa, Karnataka, and Maharashtra from the Salesian Province of Panjim, India, came together on February 19, 2023, at Don Bosco Animation Centre, Benaulim, to celebrate the annual Youth Day. ‘Arise-Go-Serve’, an inspiration from the Holy Father, Pope Francis, inviting youngsters to do the same was the theme for the celebration. Father Jason Coelho, Director of Don Bosco Youth Services, Province of Panjim (DBYS-INP), and a team of youngsters and Salesian priests organized the day with the Holy Eucharist, ice-breakers, sessions, team-building activities, songs and dances to celebrate love, spirituality and fellowship. During a session animated by Father Edison Fernandes, he invited youngsters to wake up and make a difference in the world. Father Clive Telles, Provincial of the Salesian Province of Panjim, and Vice-Provincial, Father Banzelao Teixeira, celebrated the Holy Mass with over ten other Salesian priests. Post-lunch had games, challenges, and action songs that energized the crowd. Father Christovan Cardozo, Youth Animator, Oros, Maharashtra, said, “the ambience at Don Bosco Animation Centre, bright with colour and loaded with love, did make us all forget having to look at our watches or our mobile phones. Adding to this, the gathering of youngsters from all over our province in all shapes and sizes carrying a smile all day was the life of the event. They shook the grounds with the real Salesian feeling, which Saint John Bosco would have enjoyed and loved to be a part of”.

Francis Xavier