Family feast day of Mary Immaculate

The feast of the Immaculate Conception, besides being a solemnity in the Church, is a day of remembrance for the Salesian Family, for it was on 8 December 1841 that Saint John Bosco began his work with the youth of Torino. According to his own account, this took place quite unexpectedly when a bricklayer’s apprentice wandered into the sacristy of the church of San Francesco d’Assisi that snowy morning. Don Bosco’s description is interesting. He says:

A humourous incident opened the way to put into action my project for the boys who roamed the streets of the city, especially those released from prison.

This apprentice had lost both parents and had experienced hardship and abuse. Don Bosco worked with him gently, and then reflected that if young people, even those who had been in trouble with the law …

…could find someone to befriend them, to look after them, to assist them on [Sundays and holidays], to help them get work with good employers, to visit them occasionally during the week, these young people soon forgot the past and began to mend their ways. They became good Christians and honest citizens.

Sacristy of S. Francesco d'Assisi church (Photo by Teresio Chiesa)

Well, the full story is contained in Don Bosco’s little volume, The Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales (New Rochelle: Don Bosco Media, 1989). Suffice it to say that, to this day, Salesians retell the story.

There is another important incident that took place on 8 December -- one that is equally formative for the Salesian story, I believe. On this day Francis de Sales was consecrated Bishop of Geneva. In speaking of the day of his ordination, the sainted bishop reflected:

When I was anointed bishop God took me to himself and away from my own self, and then he gave me back to my people, that is to say, he changed me from being something in my own right to being something that existed only for their sake. And so may we all be taken away from self and changed into him by the sovereign perfection of his holy love. [S. Francis de Sales, as quoted by S. Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot Rabutin de Chantal, Saint Francis de Sales: a Testimony by St. Chantal, newly edited in translation with an introduction by Elisabeth Stopp (London: Faber, 1967), 55].

S. Maurizio, Thorens, where Francis was consecrated Bishop in 1602

So we remember all these vocational stories on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The day becomes a favorite day for Salesians, full of family stories. We heard a few of these stories repeated curing the liturgy today. Don Francesco Cereda, councilor for formation, celebrated with our university community, sharing teaching and spirit. The mass was joyful and festive.

Francesco Cereda presides at today's liturgy

After the mass, a reception that included the Salesians and young Cooperator Salesians… and then the banquet. In the early afternoon, as I was returning to the faculty quarters, I ran into three friends of mine  -- Polish Salesians Darek, Gabriel and Jan -- who were taking advantage of the beautiful weather and the free hours to take a trip up into the Alban Hills. Both Gabriel and Jan are here in Rome for the first time, and rightly enjoying a bit of tourism. I thought that this is also a very family way to celebrate the day of the Immaculate Conception.

Darek drives Jan and Gabriel to the mountains outside Rome