After studying the social, political and religious context throughout the previous three years, through a historical-critical-experiential method, a great gift of God was now revealed for all the participants to be able to see, touch, contemplate, the spaces, the memories and relics that make present the memory of Don Bosco to us all, and thus giving a true dimension and real proportions to what was previously for them only of the imagination.
The students of the course began their journey in Annecy, to learn more about St. Francis de Sales; they then visited the places of Mother Mazzarello in Mornese and Nice; they passed through Genoa to renew their missionary convictions; visited the places of Don Bosco's childhood and the life of Mother Margherita in Capriglio in Monferrato; then they went to the house at Colle and Chieri, where the future saint held a seminar; they visited the houses of Domenico Savio and walked in the footsteps of a few of Don Bosco's autumn walks. Finally, they crossed Turin in every which way, to get to know the Salesian realities, such as the Oratory of Valdocco, Casa Pinardi, the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, and the site of the many contemporary "social saints".
Such a rich path necessarily required a good logistic and training organization. On the occasion of the celebration of the feast of Mary Help of Christians, meetings were also planned with the Rector Major of the Salesians, the Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and Fr Pier Luigi Cameroni, Postulator General for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family.
Furthermore, each day ended with a moment of evaluation, during which attempts were made to collect the experiences lived and the reflections motivated by the various visits.
For the participants it was an experience that not only illuminated, but that touched their hearts, renewing the motivations and deep convictions that sustain the Salesian charism.
And it was certainly also an experience of family, of fraternal communion, of strengthening the bonds of friendship rooted in the sources of the shared Salesian charism. The closing of the experience, after passing also through Assisi and visiting the places of Don Bosco in Rome, took place with the Eucharist celebrated at the Catacombs of San Callisto.
The participants have now returned to their respective Provinces and works with hearts inflamed by Salesian fervor and with renewed and updated fidelity to the young people whom Divine Providence entrusts to them.
By Fr Luis Timossi, SDB
