(ANS - Turin) - “Every community is Cana of Galilee,” said the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, in his homily at the conclusion of the 40th edition of the Spirituality Days of the Salesian Family. Starting from the commentary on the Gospel which commemorates what happened between Mary and her son, with the disciples also present at the wedding banquet, he remarked that “God is always at work where men and women spend their time, and this also in the Salesian Family.”

(ANS - Turin) - The final session of the Salesian Family Spirituality Days is a more delicate moment: the extensive and fervent work of the regional groups of the previous days must arrive at a synthesis that indicates the "news" that emerged and the “intentions” for the year that opens. Just as Don Bosco wanted to impress a "strong thought" on his boys, so the Rector Major today must also be able to ascertain whether the thread that binds the 32 Groups to common inspiration is sufficiently robust, to ensure unity of purpose, and long enough, to envelop a reality extended to 134 countries. The "miracle" occurs: in the minute and a half assigned to each referent, it emerges that the topic has been adequately mulled over, both individually and by the 150 participants, and above all that each returns with a rich baggage to share in their respective Groups.

(ANS - Turin) - St. Francis de Sales dialogued within the Church, even with his brothers separated by the Reformation, and with the "lay" world. For this reason, 400 years after his death, it is not only the religious world, inspired or questioned by his holiness, that is concerned with him, but also society in its various spheres. The Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, wanted an exhibition on his figure in order to keep open a relationship with the exponents of cultural life, and so the Days of Spirituality of the Salesian Family dedicated the morning of Saturday 15th to a round table on the Saint. Invited to listen to the civil and religious authorities, experts were given the floor to present an exhibition that will occupy the temporary spaces of the Casa Don Bosco Museum in Valdocco for the whole of 2022. Speakers included the Archbishop of Turin and Bishop of Susa, Msgr. Cesare Nosiglia; the Provincial of the Salesians of Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta and Lithuania, Fr Leonardo Mancini; and his Vicar, Fr Michele Molinar.

(ANS - Turin) - The Days of Spirituality have the effect of strengthening the charism shared by the 32 Groups that make up the Salesian Family. This is explained by Fr Joan Lluís Playà, delegated by Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, the Rector Major of the Salesians, to take care of this robust tree that has grown in the Church starting from Don Bosco's experience. He accepted an interview on Saturday afternoon in the only free hour left by the intense program of the four days.

(ANS - Turin) - The third of the Salesian Family Spirituality Days opened with a Eucharistic celebration in the Basilica of Maria Ausiliatrice in Turin. A moment that represents the culmination of "thanks" to the Saint who translated faith into a proposal of "devotion to God" in the ways and language of his time and beyond, up to Don Bosco. "By devotion we mean the fullness of charity, that which constitutes holiness," explains Fr Joan Lluís Playà, Central Delegate of the Rector Major for the Secretariat for the Salesian Family: "It is like the love I saw between my parents: a closeness of very strong hearts that becomes mutual devotion."

(ANS - Turin) - Conferences, when they are a due or fitting tribute to a theme or a person, proceed with the weight of something that is done a bit by force. The Days of Spirituality of the Salesian Family give a completely different impression: they are taking place in Turin-Valdocco under the banner of a lightness of manner that takes nothing away from the effectiveness of listening. And this is not only to give truth to the title assigned to the Strenna of the Rector Major "Do all through love, nothing through constraint", but because the person at the center of the meeting is St. Francis de Sales, champion of friendship and gentleness.