The Salesian Family Spirituality Days (SFSD) came from the initiative of Fr Egidio Viganò, 7th Successor of Don Bosco, in the first half of the 1980s. Although the SFSD count may start correctly from that time, in truth those first meetings were something different from the gatherings that are so well known today throughout the Salesian world: they were not ‘Days’, but ‘Spirituality Weeks’; there was a great predominance of Salesians compared to the other groups of the great charismatic tree originating from Don Bosco; and they were not linked to the message of the Strenna for the year just begun, but rather to specific themes that the Rector Major identified from time to time.
And things went on like this for a while: it was only with the 9th Successor of Don Bosco, Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva, that the SFSD assumed the current shape and character, while gradually expanding the number of participants (expected to be around 350). Also because it is precisely from these years that the participation of different groups of the SF was further expanded, with a dozen new institutes, associations and congregations that become part of the Salesian Family starting from the new 21st century.
What above all characterises this new way of experiencing the SFSD can be summarised in three points, explains Fr Joan Lluís Playà, Central Delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family Secretariat, in a conversation with ANS: "life, mission, and communion: life, because the Days allow us to share the call that God makes to each of us and our response; mission, because they focus on the pastoral action carried out with the young people and the people entrusted to us; and communion, as a characterising element, the fruit of fraternity between the various groups of the SF".
When it seemed that the SFSD had taken on a stable and fixed form, however, an unforeseen and cataclysmic event such as the Covid-19 pandemic changed things again. And what initially seemed like a great limitation, capable of stopping an already decades-long tradition, has instead become a strong driver of development.
"Participation grew extraordinarily during the year of Covid and as a result of the experience lived in the year of Covid, through the Online Days" Fr Playà said, noting that at the 2021 SFSD, with the first pandemic in progress, some 7-8 thousand people connected to participate remotely in that edition, practically 20 times more than those who previously gathered in Valdocco.
As a result of this experience, from the following year the SFSD have always foreseen opportunities for online connections for everyone; and, moreover, a new methodology of participation in the event has been developed: "Currently there are three modes of the Days: the face-to-face one in Valdocco, Turin, with direct streaming of some of the main moments; the one organised online by different regions of the SF, especially in East Asia - Oceania and in America, both at the regional level, and at the territorial level; and then the level of the days in presence that are organised at the province level, in one or more areas of the provincial territories".
These new forms of experiencing the Days, developed precisely since the pandemic, in most cases are organised around the feast of Don Bosco, but in the southern hemisphere also in March, at the beginning of the pastoral year and in some cases also around the date of Don Bosco's birth, 16 August, with a freedom of movement that reflects the variety of the Salesian Family and that accords with the pastoral needs and calendars of each territory.
With all this wealth behind it, the Salesian Family is now preparing to experience a new edition of the SFSD. And to encourage the maximum dissemination of what will be shared around Strenna on this occasion, the Secretariat of the SF is making available online from now on all the materials that will be presented in Turin, "so that they can suggest initiatives and bring new fruits", concludes Fr Playà.
For this and all other useful information related to the SFSD visit: https://www.famigliasalesiana.org/en/days-2025/15/fs
