On reaching the Provincial House, Fr Á.F. Artime met with Salesian novices and prenovices, conversing and reflecting with them and other guests present, including the Provincial, the Councilor for America South Cone, Fr Natale Vitali, and Fr Horacio López, the Rector Major's Secretary.
In a greeting sent via social networks, the X Successor of Don Bosco said, "My dear young people, I am at the International Salesian Congress on Education, and I am already among you. My heart is restless because I want to meet you to greet you, embrace you and talk with you."
From 6 to 8 August, in fact, a congress on education involving hundreds of Salesian educators, social workers, catechists, teachers, male and female religious gathered in Belo Horizonte with a dense and detailed program to discuss together the concepts and the tools to best contribute the educational process of their students.
The event was planned specifically to also involve the Rector Major. "With Don Bosco among us" was the slogan used to advertise the presence of the Successor of Don Bosco.
Fr Á.F. Artime participated in the congress on Tuesday 7, presiding at the Eucharistic celebration and speaking on the theme: "The art of listening and accompanying in educative-pastoral action". A presentation that recalled the importance and necessity of accompanying young people, and that for this reason has marked the capacity to listen as urgent and a priority.
"Listening, today, for us, has much to do with an art," said the Rector Major. "We need to practice the art of listening, which is more than simply listening. The first thing in communicating with each other is the capacity of the heart, which makes closeness possible, without which there is no real spiritual encounter."
