The holiness of Dominic Savio is a strong reminder to us of God’s anticipative grace, that first act of grace that precedes and accompanies. Speaking of his first meeting with Dominic Savio, Don Bosco testifies: "I recognized in him a soul totally in harmony with the spirit of the Lord, and I was not a little surprised to see the work that Divine Grace had already achieved in that tender heart."
The sacramental sign of the divine action was his First Communion, a seed that when cultivated became a source of joyous life and firm commitments: "Oh!” he used to say, “for me it was a beautiful day and a great day.” He wrote some resolutions that he kept jealously in a prayer book that he often read: 1. I will go to confession very often and I will receive communion as often as my confessor allows. 2. I want to keep Sundays and Feasts holy. 3. My friends will be Jesus and Mary. 4. Death rather than sin. These resolutions, which he kept repeating often, were the rules that guided his actions until the end of life.
All this makes Dominic Savio a model, a kind of master in the ways of God, as is confirmed by the life of so many blessed, venerable and servants of God in the Salesian Family who made his resolutions their own: Laura Vicuña, Zephyrinus Namuncurà, Joseph Kowalski, Albert Marvelli, Joseph Quadrio and Ottavio Ortiz Arrieta.
We should also remember the role of Dominic Savio in the foundation of the Immaculate Conception Sodality, nursery of the future Salesian Congregation, and his friendship with Giovanni Massaglia of whom Don Bosco said: "if I wanted to write the characteristics of the virtue of the young man Massaglia, I would have to repeat most of the things I have said about Savio, of whom he was a faithful follower for as long as he lived." Spiritual friendship is an expression of a shared holiness and joy in serving God and neighbour.
