Italy – Formation Meeting of young Lombardy Provinces SDB and FMA in the, ‘Pausing to be formed: to speak of Christ one must live by him’
Carisolo, Italy - November 2024 - ‘Pausing to be formed’: with these words Fr Roberto Dal Molin, Superior of the Salesian Province of Lombardy-Emilia (ILE), in the name of the Provincials and the Vice-Provincials, introduced the formation event addressed to the young Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians fromthe Provinces of ILE and ILO. It is not a slogan, but the expression of a precise purpose: to carve out a precious time in a demanding and sometimes overwhelming everyday life destined to allow oneself to be powerfully strengthened by the Spirit in the interior life (cf. Eph 3:16). The central theme is new evangelisation: accompanied by the wise text The Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Jean Baptiste Gustave Chautard. The SDB and FMA young people were accompanied by Luca Crivellari and Arianna Scalabrin from the Salesian University Institute in Venice (IUSVE). The formation event set out to refine some important skills for personal development, empowerment and the exercise of leadership, and to help create some necessary conditions for the proclamation of the Gospel. The activities followed one another at a fast pace, allowing participants to work on all the dimensions of the human person that come into play in evangelisation. At the end of the sessions, each participant was able to have any number of impulses to improve their relationship with themselves, others and God for a more productive evangelising activity. The retreat that was the culmination of the days made the virtues necessary for evangelisation more evident, as Chautard teaches, virtues are formed in intimate contact with Jesus: ‘to speak of Christ, one must live by him’ and ‘put oneself in close communion with His feelings’.