Mary Immaculate: Feast of the Origins

Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is a great day for the Church, but it has a lot of significance for the Salesians. This is the day when Francis de Sales was ordained bishop of Geneva (1602). This is the day when Don Bosco began his first work among Turin’s poor and marginal youth (1841), symbolized by Bartholomew Garelli. This is the day when Dominic Savio organized his classmates and companions to form the Company of Mary Immaculate (1856). This is the day when Don Bosco proposed and launched the Pious Society of St Francis de Sales to 18 young adults from his Oratory in Valdocco (1859). It is a day when we go back to our origins; it is a day for reaffirming our vocation.

As I have said, this day calls forth a great spirit among the Salesians. Last night there was an artistic and devotional entertainment after supper, hosted by the Don Rua Community. Today, all the communities joined for the Mass in the professors chapel of Gesù Maestro. Juan Antonio Surel Sánchez and Barnaba Le-An-Phong, student-priests from the Don Bosco Community, skillfully led the assembly in the music.

Principal celebrant and homilist at the inter-community Eucharist today was don Pietro Migliasso. In September, don Pietro completed six years as provincial superior in Piedmont; he has come to the UPS for a three-month sabbatical. Actually, I remember him from 30 years ago when we were both students at the Crocetta in Turin. He was a year ahead of me, and ordained in 1978. We were not exactly in the same little crowd. I used to hang with the Oratory; he had ministries with his own province, which was the Novara province at that time.

Well, enough about the past. What is happening in the future for Pietro Migliasso?

In January he will take over as director of the Salesian community within the Vatican. That is the community that runs the polyglot press and prints the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. Other Salesians who work in departments for the Holy See also live there, although there are Salesians working at the Vatican in several other communities in Rome, including the UPS. In his homily, Pietro spoke of the origins of Don Bosco’s vocation as linked to a Marian lifestyle in living the Gospel… and how this day calls us to greater attention to the needs of poor and marginal youth.

Pietro Migliasso brings a great deal of experience to the UPS, even as he is only here for three months. He was superior of the largest district in the Salesian Society, centered in the place where Don Bosco began his work. That district (circumscription) includes rural and urban areas, and has outreaches in Africa and Eastern Europe. So, as he speaks about greater attention to poor youth, Pietro reminds us of the importance of knowing the concrete cultural identities and situations of the young among whom Salesian Family is called to work today. It is back to the origins, with full awareness of the currents and trends, the hopes and fears, the opportunities and threats that surround the world of the young today. It is never letting ourselves be overwhelmed by the grave needs, while never letting ourselves remain superficial in our response.

The feast of Mary Immaculate, as lived by Don Bosco and all those of the Salesian tradition, is a day of commitment. This feast has that sense in particular. It is perhaps the reason that every year the pope places a wreath of white roses at the statue of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza di Spagna, at the Spanish Steps. Marian devotion for us is more than affection piety. It becomes a call to pastoral action. Yes, it is a day of commitment made in the joy of being accompanied by the woman clothed in the sun with the moon under her feet.

After the mass, the celebration continued with a reception for all the Salesians, and then a festive dinner in the various communities. Some of the elders even sang the old songs and recited the old poems, in ways that this feast was celebrated in decades past. All in all, a very special day for the Salesians at the UPS, and I would guess everywhere else.

Immaculate Conception, Peter Paul Rubens, 1627