Our Apostolic Passion

By Fr. Louis Molinelli, SDB, Delegate for Youth Ministry

We have just celebrated the Solemnity of St. John Bosco, our Father and Founder. Each of our ministries celebrates this anniversary with deep and rich traditions. While each place is different, the centerpiece is the gathering of our young people to rejoice, pray, and celebrate! When young people gather, there is an infectious joy that permeates the gathering. Our young people feel the fire of joy and optimism that is the spiritual heritage bequeathed to them by Don Bosco. The Rector Major, Fr. Angel, reminds us in his commentary on the strenna for this year that, "…Don Bosco, in his relationships with the most disadvantaged and poorest young people at Valdocco, learned to follow the way of the heart in accepting them and accompanying them in their education….to enter into this relationship of friendship because in his [the young person’s] heart, he felt that he was loved."

The Preventive System has at its heart this apostolic passion to walk with young people along the journey of life. We as Salesians must kindle the fire of passion for the Lord that moved us to answer our call to be signs of bearers of God’s love in the Salesian Family for the young. Being in the midst of young people requires us to find that space in their hearts where God is waiting to meet them and then to bring our young people into an encounter with God. Because we have been loved and have responded to God’s vocational gift, we can then become that infectious agent of God’s plan to bring the young into a relationship with Him.

What fuels your passion? What makes your heart burn with energy and zeal? As Salesians, is it not that call from God, who formed us in our mothers' wombs and gave us life so that we may give life to others? I believe that, when we rekindle this passion, we create the space for God to continue to bring us deeper into the heart of His Son and into communion with one another, especially the young. Let us be conduits of apostolic passion to the young!