Introducing the Salesian Youth Ministry (SYM) Corner

By Fr. Louis Molinelli, SDB

It is a privilege to serve our Salesian Province of St. Philip the Apostle as the Delegate for Youth Ministry! Together, we as a Salesian Family can recreate the Valdocco option for the young who are just as much in need of it as the first boys of the Oratory.

Each week, I will reflect with you on an aspect of our youth ministry. We have a wonderful guide in our Salesian Family called Salesian Youth Ministry Frame of Reference. This work outlines our youth ministry approach and serves to guide all our ministries.

Chapter 1 is entitled, “Inhabiting the Life and Culture of Today’s Young People.” The image of the Good Shepherd is the icon on which we are asked to reflect for this chapter. We begin by considering the first dream John Bosco had at the age of nine. Our Blessed Mother showed him his field of action in this dream when She said, “Here is where you are to work.” The more accurate word for work in this section, since John came from a farming area, is “plow.” Plowing implies a digging in, the use of muscle to till the soil to make the ground fertile so that the crops can grow.

Each of us in the Salesian mission have been given this task as well by our Blessed Mother. To share in the mission of Christ the Good Shepherd along with Don Bosco means that we must get in there and “plow” the field so that the faith and life of the young take root in Christ.

Thus, we begin our new pastoral year asking for Christ our Good Shepherd to lead us to those young people whose lives we will influence in our educative and pastoral communities. We ask our Blessed Mother for Her assistance to strengthen our physical, moral, and spiritual lives so that, with God’s grace, we can begin to plow the fields of Her Son.