Receive my affectionate greeting, friends and readers. Today I would like to share with you the message found in the title, whose author, I must admit, I am not. It was Pope Francis who chose “the smile” as the guiding theme of his Christmas greetings last year to the employees in Vatican City and their families. He chose this theme precisely in a time when a smile is too often missing because humane and respectful behavior is often missing.

«Here with you I feel at home: to stay with you is my very life.» (BM IV, 455) This phrase that gushed from Don Bosco’s heart is still the secret of the Salesian Family.

The pandemic has changed the way in which we relate with the world, others, and ourselves. We need to rebuild and to begin again in greater solidarity and with greater awareness so as to rebound from a silent calamity marked by pain, confinement, struggle, and fear. What would Don Bosco do if he were alive today?