(Rome, 14th May 2019) - Given last year's success, the experience of the world Novena to Mary Help of Christians is being repeated in 2019, with testimonies on the sanctity of the Salesian Family and the comment of the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime.

The initiative, launched for the first time in May 2018, for the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, is repeated again this year, seeing as it is the 150th anniversary celebration of the foundation of the Association of Mary Help of Christians, which has scheduled its VIII International Congress of Mary Help of Christians (in Buenos Aires, Argentina) this next November.

If last year the guiding theme was Don Bosco's dreams, this year the novena deepens "the beatitudes of the Salesian Family", presented by the Rector Major at the last Spirituality Days of the Salesian Family. In this way the novena, in addition to being a tribute to Mary Help of Christians and an instrument of devotional unity among all the groups of the Salesian Family, again relaunches the central theme of the 2019 Strenna: the sanctity of everyday life.

The structure of the novena provides a different video for each day which will present:

• one of the Salesian Beatitudes;
• a motto related to the Magnificat of Mary;
• a reflection on a figure of Salesian holiness;
• the comment of the Rector Major;
• a testimony from a member of the Salesian Family;
• the final prayer.

The novena videos shall be available in Italian, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Polish, on various channels: the sdb.org site, the ANS channel on YouTube, and the ANS Facebook page. The first day’s videos are already online.

The initiative of the Novena to Mary Help of Christians is promoted by the Rector Major, with the support of the Department for Social Communication, and produced by ANS, in collaboration with "IME Comunicazione". Fr Bruno Ferrero, SDB, Director of the Italian Salesian Bulletin, Fr Carlo Cassatella and Antonella Colucci collaborated on the texts.

The videos of the novena, can thus be used for prayer and animation in the communities, parishes and centres of the Salesian Family across the globe.