Australian Salesian Bulletin

Readers of the Salesian Bulletin do not take Christmas for granted. Nor do we see it as a time for a holiday and a family experience that just happens to come around at this time of the year. We pause at this time of the year to rejoice and to show our gratitude to God for the gift of his Son. Christmas reminds us, year after year, that God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son (see John 3:16).

If you think about it, what we celebrate at Christmas is beyond understanding. We believe that the divine creator who sustains all that exists so loved our little world, our puny, fragile and divided human race, that he gave us his only Son, so that we might all have life.

CELEBRATION

Educational optimism – the globalisation of acceptance

Don Bosco has sanctified the joy of living and has offered young people the key to the attainment of happiness … The Salesian consecrated or lay person builds within him/her self certain basic attitudes: * Confidence that the good will ultimately prevail; * openness to human values; * education to daily joy and happiness. (CIC 22)

Don Bosco was a realist, but throughout his whole life he revealed a great sense of hope.  “The times in which he lived were not easy. In the course of his life he was involved in truly epoch-making changes … In his writings he does not fail to mention the evils which afflicted those living at the time. Yet, nevertheless… he strove for a better future. He did not allow himself to complain needlessly. He became actively involved, taking the side of the good and its promotion in all possible ways. In particular he did this putting his hopes in the possibilities of a preventative form of education which, not only provided a protection against evil and kept it at bay, but it also took the initiative and fostered what was best in his boys, in the young people, in his helpers, in society itself, far removed from any attachment to a particular political ideology.” (Carlo Nanni). Don Bosco was a man of hope which was founded on God. In his writings we find constant references to the motives for the hope which had guided him  throughout his life: the “Lord’s goodness” shown towards all, “the fatherliness of God” who never abandons his sons; the “mercy of God” who always forgives, the “power of God” always faithful to his promises; and again: the trials which are an invitation “to turn to God in order to overcome them”; obstacles and lack of success which “purify” and increase trust; the “merits of Christ”, which have bought us at a high price; the ”help of Mary” mother, protectress and advocate of our salvation.