The morning began with opening prayer session in the Auditorium of Valdocco and the screening of a video summary of the previous afternoon’s discussions, fostering a climate of sharing and harmony among all participants.
Subsequently, Fr. Joan Lluís Playà, SDB, the Central Delegate of the Rector Major for the Secretariat for the Salesian Family, along with Sr. Leslie Sandigo, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians and General Councilor for the Salesian Family, introduced the day's activities. "The pilgrim is someone who sees many things along the way, looks deeper, and perceives the essential. For the pilgrim, what matters is not knowledge but the understanding of being and immersion in its mysteries," began Fr. Playà.
Joining online into the meeting from Salesian Pontificial Univeristy, Rome, where she teaches, Prof. Freni offered a thorough exploration into the theme of hope, drawing on the studies and scholarly work of her mentor, Fr. Sabino Palumbieri, SDB—founder of the "Witnesses of the Risen Christ" movement: This group, the 20th group of the Salesian Family, is also represented at these Salesian Family Days. The professor also drew inspiration from Gabriel Marcel, the philosopher par excellence who represented and advocated hope.
The speaker noted that hope is not merely a theological virtue but a fundamental and constitutive dimension of human existence. “It drives individuals to transcend existential limits, giving direction and meaning to life. Hope guides the “pilgrim” towards a certain destination and, in the Christian perspective, leads to a secure haven anchored in Christ. Its nature is not individualistic but relational, rooted in community and sharing, manifesting in selfless acts of humanity and hospitality.”
Prof. Freni continued: “Unlike optimism, which often rests on disappointing expectations, hope is based on a tension toward transcendence,. It is an inner strength capable of overcoming even death, addressing the challenge of human finitude, and pointing to the fulfillment of life in eternity. If we did not fundamentally hope that our being is destined not for an end, but for fullness and completion, our lives would take on a contingent and precarious value, culminating in the defeat of meaning," she explained.
Referring to Marcel, the UPS professor described hope as the “memory of the future,” an essential element of the human journey toward fulfillment, and above all, a quality inseparable from love, which finds its full realization in encountering others.
Concluding her reflection, the scholar, focused on the example of hope offered by the Saint of the Young: "Don Bosco was a man of hopes defying all logic of human awareness. He entrusted himself and all his work to Mary Help of Christians, the mother who never abandons her children, who anticipates their difficulties and needs. Don Bosco's prophetic vision”, she emphasized, “demonstrates how hope, for him, was a reality built with faith and action—a reason why his figure remains a model even today for facing contemporary challenges with determination and love.”
