Happy name day Don Bosco!

Rome (Italy). On 24 June 2023, the Feast of St John the Baptist, the Salesian Family recalls the name day of St John Bosco and the origins of the Feast of Gratitude at the Valdocco oratory given that, as narrated in the Biographical Memoirs, “the special occasion for the boys to demonstrate their sentiments was the feast of St. John the Baptist”.

The great affection towards Don Bosco led two of the young people to something more than being content “to read some brief but affectionate greeting compositions” and “to offer him a few bouquets of flowers.” “What more could those poor boys do then?”. The narrator continues and adds that their intense affection suggested to them the best way to honor the Father of the young.

In fact, in 1849 they had a happy idea. “Carlo Gastini and Felice Reviglio having made an agreement in secret for several months, saving on food and jealously guarding their small tips, managed to buy two silver hearts.” On Saint John’s Eve, while everyone was already resting, “Gastini and Reviglio went to knock on Don Bosco’s door.  Although the hour was very late, he was still up, and replied that they should come in. Think of his amazement and emotion in seeing those two silver hearts presented to him, and in hearing the few but cordial words of good wishes from those two good sons of his”.

Since then, the feast of St John the Baptist has been linked to the celebration of the Feast of Gratitude, which for Don Bosco and in all Salesian houses remains a concrete way of educating in gratitude. Even Mother and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the General Council did not fail to go to Turin on that day to “bring Don Bosco the homage of his daughters on his name day” (Cron. 5, p.36).

Among the gifts presented on the eve of the 1885 feast, the Cronistoria narrates, “the oil portrait of Mamma Margherita stood out, painted in full size by Rollini. After examining it well, Don Bosco exclaimed moved, ‘It’s really her; she just lacks the word’. (Letter from Fr. Lazzero to Msgr. Cagliero, 3 July 1885).

Today as then, the Mother General of the FMA Institute, Sister Chiara Cazzuola, with her Council, made herself present to the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime with a Letter, assuring the ‘gift’ of all the FMA:

“I come to you to tell you my closeness, and that of all the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, on the anniversary of our Founder’s name, a memory so dear to the Congregation and to the whole Salesian Family and at the same time, to wish you a beautiful and fraternal Feast of Gratitude.

The gift we intend to offer you in this circumstance is our prayer and the acceptance of your Magisterium, which inspires and accompanies our journey of communion in the Family of which you are the center of unity, with the joy of feeling fully involved in the richness of the Salesian charism to be witnessed to the young people whom the Lord entrusts to us”.

At the conclusion of Circular No. 1029 of June, she recalls his role as guide and center of unity of the Salesian Family, and entrusts him to Mary Help of Christians:

“Like Don Bosco, he too guides us towards an ever more authentic willingness to discover the mystical dimension of our life, the secret of apostolic efficacy in every part of the world.

We entrust Fr. Ángel to Mary Help of Christians, so that his mission may be ever more fruitful for good, and new vocations may sprout for the Church and the Salesian Family”.