“As a Salesian I am strongly convinced of what Don Bosco told us” added the Rector Major. “Every boy, every girl, every young person who comes to a Salesian house does not come by chance, but because Our Lady takes them by the hand. And so it is in this WYD, in communion with Pope Francis, with so many pastors of the universal Church and with so many consecrated and lay women and men who are accompanying this precious youth.”
“Together we go to meet the Lord Jesus and we will try to imitate Mary who ‘arose and went with haste’ he continued. “I see a great desire in all those I meet when visiting our works around the world to experience God and his Mother in their lives. Many of them want to discover more clearly God’s dream for their lives; others are perhaps looking for the meaning of life or faith; in all cases, I think that Our Lord, who deeply loves young people, is waiting for them in Lisbon for a life-giving encounter, along with many of us adults, because we continue to ‘give life’. And with the Lord Jesus, the Lord of life, always at the centre.”
The Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) has been preparing for WYD for months, with a team of over 500 volunteers. “We have thought about some moments that can help our young people to fully experience the WYD and to bring what they have experienced to their peers at home” explains Fr Fabiano Gheller, in charge of Vocation Ministry for the Salesians in Piedmont and the Valle d'Aosta, from where more than 600 have left for Lisbon. “It is important that young people at the WYD have a firsthand experience that the faith is alive and you are not alone in believing, that faith is a community thing and you are jounrneying with others and for others, as the Pope indicates.”
Today, Wednesday, 2 August , all the young people will gather at the Salesian centre in Estoril, on the Riviera, for SYM Day, welcomed by the Rector Major and Mother Chiara Cazzuola, Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. “It is a great celebration of the various Salesian presences from around the world” continues Fr Gheller.
