Lord, thank you for calling us to be and to belong to your family here on earth.
We celebrate your gift of consecration and we ask you to continue to call us to renewal.
Keep us faithful. Keep us joyful. Keep us ever close to you.

We pray that you guide us and our society to always seek your will.
Gift us with new members—young men willing to leave everything and to follow you in the footsteps of Don Bosco. In a special way, we ask for more Salesian Brother vocations.
Send us men open to your bidding. Send us men who are in love with you. Send us men capable of loving others above themselves.

We ask your mother, the Help of Christians to assist us in our petition. And together with Don Bosco, Blessed Artimedi Zatti and Simon Srugi—we pray that you keep us faithful day by day. Amen.

Don Bosco, our model in loving the Lord Jesus Christ
by Fr Tito Pedron

 
Don Bosco, since his young age and throughout all his life, gave a clear example of his love for Christ.
On many occasions he suffered much for expressing and proving his love for Christ in order to give a good example.
At four years old he was ready to be beaten by his companions and to suffer just to be able to prevent bad talks and fighting.
When he was nine years old, in his famous dream, he tried to prevent the quarreling and bad words of the boys that were against God’s love and goodness. He was struck by the boys in return.
During his time at the Moglia farm, on Sunday, he would attend the first Mass in order to go to confession. Consequently he had to attend another Mass.
At  Chieri he preferred to go often to receive Holy Communion. This meant forgoing breakfast.
During his three years at the Convitto he encountered many difficulties just to be able to give the possibility to his boys to go to confession, attend Mass and receive holy communion.
The entire life of our dear Don Bosco is a constant witness to his great love for our Lord Jesus Christ. His life is an example for us Salesians and for many other people to imitate.

"Lord Jesus, bless and preserve the Salesian Brother Vocation with which you have enriched the Salesian Congregation of St. John Bosco in the Church. Keep our Salesian Brothers faithful to Your Call and choose some more young men to follow you as Salesian Brothers dedicated to the temporal & eternal welfare of poor youth. Help our youth to understand and appreciate the real meaning and mission of the consecrated Salesian vocation in the Church. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Link: http://eaosalesianbrothers.wordpress.com

Lord Jesus,
we thank you for calling Salesian Brothers
to work in your mission in the Church.
May in every place they exhaust their energy
guarantee orderliness, morality and good works.

Help them courageously face the challenges in their vocation.
Bestow upon them the blessings they need
to grow more in goodness and dynamic zeal
so that they may be like invincible lions.

May they remove all fears, all doubts,
all sadness, all uncertainties,
all faintheartedness.

Deliver them from disheartedness
caused by all the dangers, all evils,
all contradictions, all persecutions
and all scandals that may come from the world.

May they pattern themselves according
to your heart as the Good Shepherd.
May they persevere in their vocation and
inspire more young people to live the
Salesian Brother vocation.

(Prayer inspired by the goodnight talk of Don Bosco to the coadjutor novices in Canavesse, 1883)

Intimacy! What a beautiful word to say a few words about. Just hearing the word fills my heart with joy. That joy that Don Bosco wanted in the heart of each Salesian and in each community.

Years ago when I first met The Servant of God, Don Vincenzo Cimatti, he seemed so happy to see me, to see a young Salesian missionary heading for So. Korea. It was that feeling of being loved, wanted, and in a way admired. There seemed to be that continuation of Don Bosco's love for his confreres, his boys, his Salesian family. As the years passed so quickly, I came to realize how lucky I was to have encountered Don Cimatti on various occasions. Every time we met it was as if he was so interested in our work in Korea. He was listening to every word I said and I was speaking in Italian, a very poor Italian and yet I could feel that deep love, that intimate love that springs from that closeness, that intimacy with the Good Lord. That intimacy that springs from our hearts, from the heart of God.
Intimacy is this experience of closeness or union or attachment between two hearts. Our Salesian way or spirituality's goal is to make the gentle and humble Jesus live in the hearts of the young. Perhaps we could say that "amorevolezza" is that intimate friendship between two hearts - Don Bosco's heart and the heart of a young boy - Don Cimatti's heart and my young missionary heart, and so on in our Salesian encounter with the young.

What a wonderful world of deep intimacy between two hearts - this spirituality of intimate union, of a profund and deep friendship. This spriitualy of the heart.

I would like to sum up these few words with Don Bosco's words when he was dying: " Il mio unico dolore sara, figli miei, quello di abbandonarvi". What a beautiful tradition we have like Don Bosco and Don Cimatti to share our hearts, Don Bosco Heart with the young.

Fr Bob Falk