It is with joy that I take the floor at this Marian Congress, after what we have heard and experienced, to reaffirm an act of personal and institutional commitment, according to the heart of Don Bosco and the Faith of the Church. Let’s close these days with one of the spiritual aspects that Don Bosco realised and lived as important on a personal level and as a qualifier of his work: Marian devotion. Let us entrust ourselves into Mary’s maternal hands. Here, now, in this holy place of Mary’s presence, let us ask her to make what we live, pray and listen to here fruitful in our lives.
So my word, after what we have heard and experienced, is to remember, starting from the beginning. Remembering is important: it means recognising that this is not ours, it has been entrusted to us and we must hand it on to other generations.
With great simplicity, I present to myself and to each of us some central aspects of the Presence of Mary in Don Bosco, of his devotion and ours.
The lady ‘of majestic appearance, dressed in a mantle all resplendent in every part’, described in the dream of the nine years that we have meditated on and reflected on so much in this Bicentenary of the Dream, is the Madonna loved by popular tradition and common devotion. Don Bosco emphasises her maternal goodness above all. This representation is the one most in keeping with his spirit, which will accompany him until the last breath of his life.
The Memoirs of the Oratory recall many of the typical aspects and devotions of popular religiosity: family rosary, Angelus, novenas and triduums, invocations and jaculatories, consecrations, visits to altars and shrines, Marian feasts (Maternity, Name of Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Consolation, Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Grace…). Please note: when we say typical aspects of popular religiosity, we are not saying something easy or ‘automatic’. Popular religiosity is the quintessence, the concentrate, of centuries of experience that is passed on to us as a gift, which we must appropriate.
During his studies in Chieri, new elements emerged that linked Marian devotion to the young Bosco’s spiritual choices, especially his maturing vocation and the consolidation of the virtues that form a good seminarian. The Madonna of the seminary is the Immaculate Conception (in all Piedmontese seminaries, and in those influenced by the Lazarist tradition, the chapel has been dedicated to the Immaculate Conception since the 17th century).
This, in fact, is the aspect that characterises the Marian piety of the young Don Bosco (formed at the school of Saint Alphonsus): ‘true devotion is expressed above all in a virtuous life, it guarantees the most powerful patronage one can have in life and in death’.
He also wrote in The Educated Young Man, in 1847: ‘If you are his devotees, as well as being filled with blessings in this world, you will have paradise in the next’.
However, it was in the booklet The Month of May Consecrated to Mary Most Holy Immaculate for the Use of the People (1858), that the saint explicitly and insistently placed popular and youthful Marian devotion in a context that emphasised the serious concrete commitment of a Christian life lived with fervour and love.
‘Three things to practise during the whole month: 1) Do everything we can to avoid committing any sin during this month: let it be entirely consecrated to Mary. 2) Give ourselves with great solicitude to the fulfilment of the spiritual and temporal duties of our state…. 3) To invite our relatives and friends and all those who depend on us to take part in the pious practices that are carried out during this month in honour of Mary.’
Another theme, inherited from the devotional tradition, is the link between Marian devotion and eternal salvation: ‘Since the most beautiful ornament of Christianity is the Mother of the Saviour, Mary Most Holy, I turn to you, O most clement Virgin Mary, certain of acquiring the grace of God, the right to Paradise, of recovering in short my lost dignity, if you ask for me: Auxilium christianorum, ora pro nobis’. Don Bosco is convinced that Mary intervenes as an effective advocate and powerful mediator with God.
Ten years later (1868), for the inauguration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians, the saint wrote and distributed a booklet entitled Wonders of the Mother of God, invoked under the title of Mary Help of Christians. In this small work, the ecclesial dimension is emphasised, on which Don Bosco opened his gaze more and more and orientated his missionary and educational concerns.
The titles Immaculate and Help of Christians, in the ecclesial context of the time, evoke struggles and triumphs, the ‘great clash’ between the Church and liberal society. There is a religious reading of political and social events, in line with the Catholic reaction to unbelief, liberalism and de-Christianisation.
For his young people and his Salesians, however, Don Bosco continues to emphasise above all the ascetic-spiritual and apostolic dimension of Marian piety. In fact, the practice of the month of Mary and the various devotions is intended to arouse in young people the decision to commit themselves more to their duties, to the exercise of virtues, to ascetic ardour (mortifications in honour of Mary), to hard-working charity and to a generous apostolate among their companions.
In other words, Don Bosco tended to give the Immaculate Conception and the Help of Christians a decisive role in the work of education and formation and to value, in the climate of Marian fervour of the time, virtuous exercises and devout practices in order to lead a life of purification from sin and affection for it and of growing totality in the gift of self to God.
In other words: fighting against sin and turning towards God, sanctification of self and neighbour, service of charity, strength to carry the cross and missionary commitment. These are the hallmarks of a Marian devotion that has very little devotionalism or sentimentality (despite the climate of the time and popular tastes, which Don Bosco valued in any case).
What a journey in Don Bosco and in the man of faith, Don Bosco! Among what you have in your hearts, I would like to emphasise: we too must walk in devotion. You can’t stand still; if you don’t go forwards, you go backwards… and nobody can do that for me!
In Don Bosco’s life, Mary is a perceived, loved, active and stimulating presence, orientated towards the great enterprise of eternal salvation and holiness. He felt her near and entrusted himself to her, allowing himself to be guided and led along the paths of his vocation (he dreamt of her; he ‘saw’ her).
In Nizza Monferrato, in June 1885, Don Bosco was in the drawing room with the capitular mothers of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, in a very tired voice. They asked him to leave them one last memory. ‘Ah, so you want me to tell you something. If I could speak, how many things I would like to tell you! But I’m old, a decadent old man, as you can see; I find it difficult even to speak. I just want to tell you that Our Lady loves you very, very much. And, as you know, she is here among you -. Fr Bonetti, seeing him overcome with emotion, interrupted him and began to say, to distract him: – Yes, that’s right, that’s right! Don Bosco means that Our Lady is your Mother and that she is watching over you and protecting you.
It was an active presence that accompanied, supported, guided and encouraged her: ‘I will give you the teacher under whose guidance you can become wise, and without whom all wisdom becomes foolishness’. A presence that encourages us to live consciously in the presence of God in a tension of totality: ‘To the thought of God present / make lips, heart, mind / follow the path of virtue / O great Virgin Mary / Sac. Gio Bosco’ (a prayer written by the saint at the foot of one of his photographs).
Splendid and essential: what is not a living presence in my life is an absence! The sense of Presence, of God’s Providence, of Mary’s action. A continuous journey for each of us and for all of us together as the Salesian Family.
Don Bosco closely linked Mary to his vocation and ministry. It’s good to return here to Don Bosco’s presentation of the dream at the age of nine: ‘He took me by the hand with kindness – look – he said to me…. Here is your field, where you must work. Become humble, strong, robust; and what you now see happening to these animals, you must do to my children’. This is the mission of salvation/transformation/formation of young people, through prevention, education, evangelisation and a solid set of virtues in the educator.
The Son of Mary teaches his method and his goal: ‘It is not with blows, but with gentleness and charity that you must win these friends of yours. Set about instructing them in the ugliness of sin and the preciousness of virtue.’
The account given in 1873-74 of this inspiring dream is related to many other accounts of interior interventions and inspirations (dreams) in which our saint attributed to Mary a role of animation, guidance and support for his desire and zeal for the mission of the salvation of young people.
In this context, it is necessary to situate and interpret what Don Bosco recognised as Mary’s prodigious interventions: the ‘graces’ (spiritual and corporal) granted to individuals, her powerful protection of the Oratory and the nascent Salesian Family and its prodigious development for the benefit of souls.
Personal graces, the realisation of God’s special presence, through Mary’s intercession, which providentially guides personal and institutional existence. If you don’t realise the Presence, you’re at the mercy of chance.
Don Bosco lived Marian devotion as a stimulus and support for the tension towards Christian perfection. From the same perspective, he wisely inculcates it in young people in order to promote Christian life in them and stimulate their desire for holiness.
By valorising the sensitivity of his boys and the popular tastes of their piety, Don Bosco knew how to transform the devotional tendency, marked by romantic sentiment, into a powerful instrument of spiritual formation (encouraging, correcting, guiding).
Mary never leaves us where she finds us. As at the beginning of the Signs in John’s Gospel, she knows that we must be guided, accompanied… by a precise itinerary: do what he tells you and you will arrive where I am waiting for you, Don Bosco tells us. Seeing the invisible.
To conclude, I’ll simply share what we live as brothers and what is at the centre of our vocation. I like to end with this part because it is the backbone of my life and ours. If it does so much good for me, for us, it will certainly do good for everyone.
First of all, the Constitutions, which outline for us the aspects that characterise our Marian devotion. Article 8 (placed in the first chapter, concerning the elements that guarantee the identity of the Salesian Congregation) summarises the meaning of Mary’s presence in our Society: she indicated to Don Bosco his field of action, guided and supported him constantly, and continues her mission among us as Mother and Help of Christians: ‘We entrust ourselves to her, the humble servant in whom the Lord has done great things, so that we may become witnesses among the young of the inexhaustible love of his Son.’
Article 92 presents the role of Mary in the life and piety of the Salesian: model of prayer and pastoral charity; teacher of wisdom and guide of our family; example of faith, of concern for those in need, of fidelity at the hour of the cross, of spiritual joy; our educator to the fullness of self-giving to the Lord and courageous service to our brothers and sisters. Hence a filial and strong devotion, which is expressed in prayer (the daily rosary and the celebration of her feasts) and in convinced and personal imitation.
The best synthesis, however, is found, in my opinion, in the Prayer of Entrustment to Mary Most Holy Help of Christians, which is recited daily in each of our communities after meditation. It was Fr Rua who composed it in 1894, as an expression of daily consecration in the commitment of fidelity and generosity. It has been revised, but retains the same outline as the old one and the same content. Here is the original text:
‘Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Help of Christians, we consecrate ourselves entirely to you and promise to labour always for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.
We ask you to turn your compassionate gaze on the Church, on her august Head, on priests and missionaries, on the Salesian Family, on our relatives and benefactors and on the young people entrusted to our care, on poor sinners, the dying and the souls in purgatory.
Teach us, most tender Mother, to copy in ourselves the virtues of our Founder, especially angelic modesty, profound humility and ardent charity.
Grant, O Mary Help of Christians, that your powerful intercession may make us victorious against the enemies of our souls in life and in death, so that we may be your crown with Don Bosco in Paradise. So be it.
As you can see, the current version simply takes up Fr Rua’s text with some developments. I think it’s good to return to it from time to time and meditate on it. The text is structured in four parts: promise; intercession; docility; surrender.
The first part (Most Holy) recalls the ultimate purpose of our consecration, promising to direct all our actions solely to the service of God and the salvation of our neighbour, in fidelity to the essence of the Salesian vocation.
The second part (We ask you) summarises the ecclesial, Salesian and missionary meaning of our consecration, entrusting to Mary’s intercession the Church, the Congregation and the Salesian Family, young people, especially the poorest, and all people redeemed by Christ. Here the passion that must nourish and characterise Salesian prayer is clearly outlined: universality, ecclesiality, youth missionary spirit.
The third part (Teach us) focuses on the virtues that characterise the typical Salesian disciple of Don Bosco: he places himself at Mary’s school in order to grow in union with God, in chastity, humility and poverty, in love of work and temperance, in ardent charity (kindness and limitless self-giving to his brothers), in fidelity to the Church and her Magisterium.
In the last part (Do, O Mary Help of Christians), we count on the intercession of the Virgin Help of Christians to obtain fidelity and generosity in the service of God until death and admission to the eternal communion of saints.
This excellent synthesis, which contains a complete programme of spiritual life and outlines the physiognomic features of our identity, can serve us today as a reference and a concrete outline for spiritual examination and planning. And may it be so for each one of us!