Two sessions of a profound theological and spiritual level on Monday 24 July, encouraged us to explore Vera Grita's message from the point of view of formation. Fr Roberto Carelli, professor of Systematic Theology and Theological Anthropology at the UPS Faculty of Theology - Turin section at the Crocetta, presented the theme "Eucharist and education: for a pedagogy of grace". Starting from desire as an access point, he illustrated Christian pedagogy as a pedagogy of grace and Easter pedagogy, concluding with some points of attention found in the spirituality of the Living Tabernacles. Paolo Zini, professor of philosophy, spoke instead of the "Formation of the Salesians in the light of ‘Take me with you’: theological, anthropological and pedagogical aspects".
Tuesday the 25th featured a pilgrimage to the places where Vera Grita lived, accompanied by Dr. Lodovica Maria Zanet, collaborator of the Salesian Postulation, who presented the connection of these places with Vera Grita's life and mission. There was a Eucharistic celebration, where the main celebrant was the Bishop of Noli, Savona, Bishop Calogero Marino, in the parish of Mary Help of Christians in Savona. This was where her vocation as a Salesian Cooperator came to fruition on 19 September 1967 and where her mystical experience began. In the homily, inspired by the readings of the day, the bishop presented Vera Grita's life as the life of a woman who despite her fragility allowed herself to be shaped by the action of the Spirit, becoming an instrument of grace and blessing.
This was followed by a visit to the "Vera Grita e don Gabriello Zucconi sdb Opera dei Tabernacoli Viventi" Foundation, involving the Movement of Living Tabernacles on the centenary of the birth of the Servant of God Vera Grita. The third stop was at the Gallery in Via Paleocapa, where the Servant of God was run over and trampled by the fleeing crowd during the air raid on the city of Savona on 4 July 1944. Hence, at the Diocesan Archives of Savona we were able to see the 13 handwritten notebooks that contain the Work of the Living Tabernacles, just as Vera received it from Jesus.
After a stop at the Zinola cemetery, where the grave of the Servant of God is located, the group moved on to the Salesian Oratory in Varazze, where they got to know an interesting oratory experience led by Ivano and Claudia Perata, Salesian Cooperators, who animate the Salesian presence in the area with a group of collaborators. The day ended at the Desert of Varazze, a Carmelite hermitage, where Vera Grita spent the last year of her life as a teacher and where she received some of the most significant messages.
On the final day, Father Francesco Marcoccio, Vicar of the Central Italy Circumscription (ICC), presented "The call of the Salesians of Don Bosco to renew the spirit of the founder" drawing on the Work of the Living Tabernacles, highlighting its spiritual, educational and pastoral implications. In the sharing that followed, the will to live an experience of fraternal communion as Salesians that puts the Eucharist at the centre was manifested, in the conviction that the theological and spiritual understanding of the Eucharist through the meditation of the messages of Jesus to Vera Grita helps to internalise the Eucharistic spirituality lived by Don Bosco.
The seminar ended with the Eucharistic celebration at the shrine of Our Lady of Pens, located on the tip of Capo Mele, between Laigueglia and Andora, where Don Bosco celebrated Mass on 25 August 1881 and where the following year, in August, he spent a period in spiritual retreat.
