SPECIAL REPORTS
(ANS – Rome) – The figure of Mary also returns in the second dream of Don Bosco that is presented to ANS readers in this bicentenary year of the Dream at Nine Years of Age and in preparation for the feast of the Saint of Youth. “Gifts for Mary” is the title with which it is remembered (Biographical Memoirs, Vol. VIII). The Mother of Jesus in this case is the explicit goal of the devotion that is manifested in the dream, but Don Bosco, to educate his boys, points out that one cannot deceive oneself and one's neighbour by venerating the Virgin while at the same time leading a life that is only apparently Christian. The dream then ends with Don Bosco who knew young hearts so well, leads the boys to continue their journey of accompaniment with him.
(ANS – Rome) – Many of the dreams that Don Bosco told his boys had obviously educational purposes, so much so that very often not even his biographers were able to clearly demarcate the boundary between dream, vision and pedagogical storytelling. Among these we can certainly include the one known as “the dream of the snake and the rosary” (Biographical Memoirs – VII 141-145). Occurring in the summer of 1862, it is a clear manifestation of how central Mary Help of Christians was not only in the saint's life, but in his pedagogical vision; and how Marian devotion was never in contrast to, but rather an encouragement for his boys to move towards a full experience of sacramental and ecclesial life.
(ANS – Turin) – The presentation of the so-called "Social Saints" of Turin concludes today: apparently ordinary people, but in reality extraordinary, because they lived by putting God and their neediest neighbours first, forgetting about themselves. Precisely because of this commonality of attitudes and because of their shared existence more or less at the same time in the same geographical area, many of them knew each other directly and cooperated – or at least, shared a part of the journey together. And for this reason many of them are also remembered, with relics and panels, in the Casa Don Bosco Museum at Valdocco in Turin.
(ANS – Turin) – In the nineteenth century, Turin was a city in expansion, but many of its inhabitants lived in hardship. In this poor and degraded environment, however, there are those who did their best to help them. The most famous was Don Bosco, but he was not alone: there was also Cafasso, Murialdo, Frassati, Faà di Bruno and others. Canonised during the twentieth century and the early 2000s, they are called "social saints". Let's discover some of them together.