DON BOSCO - THE MAN OF GOD
The Three Devotions - his spiritual project
In the dream of the Two Columns, Don Bosco actually speaks of three important signs; the three elements that would make up a wholesome Salesian spirituality. The Column of the Eucharist, the Column of Our Blessed Mother and then the Ship steered by the Holy Father. In some predominantly Catholic cultures, these could be taken for granted, though it is difficult these days to find such predominantly Catholic cultures. Anyway the three elements underline the 'catholicity' of a son or daughter of Don Bosco. All the three of them are so specifically Catholic and are those very core elements that are under attack from any anti catholic force, be it in history or now.
The devotion to the Blessed Sacrament sets the sense of God's continual presence to degree extremely high and makes a person awe filled in his or her daily life. When the Church , in the year 1905, declared that a person prepared duly could receive communion everyday, Don Bosco would have screamed with joy, if he were alive. Because that is what he wished for his children even before the Universal Church could come up with it. But today, is the Eucharistic presence being taken for granted? Is it being made into a mere ritual or is the sacrament truly received as a mode of uniting oneself with the Lord?
The devotion to Our Blessed Mother was for Don Bosco the most human form of tasting the love of God - in and through the love of a Mother, the Mother of God. Jokingly said, that Don Bosco found a short cut in Mary, to arrive at what he wanted from the Lord and Saviour, it could but be all meaningful. Mary is the short cut, the direct manifestation, the immediate proof of God's grace within human nature. That was the inspiration that Don Bosco had in growing to the full in his nature and grace - our devotion to the heavenly mother, has to make us more like her, ultimately more like her Son.
The devotion to the Holy Father, as sons and daughters of Holy Mother the Church, is a guarantee of remaining true to our identity: the identity of children of God. What would have Don Bosco done, in times like the present? People trying to form factions against the Holy Father, those trying to mislead the Papacy, those vying to destroy it and those trying to misinterpret it unceasingly? Times actually are not too different - in Don Bosco's time there was a great criticism of Pius IX and what was Don Bosco's stand: he said categorically: "it is better to go to heaven with Pius IX than to be right with those who criticise the Pope." We are beloved sons and daughters of the Church, and hence of the Holy Father!
The call that we have today, the second day of the triduum, is the spiritual project that Don Bosco presents to us. It is a call to renew our awe and love for the Eucharistic Lord, to learn from our Blessed Mother and to resolve to stand with our Holy Father, as true and worthy children of God.
The devotion to the Blessed Sacrament sets the sense of God's continual presence to degree extremely high and makes a person awe filled in his or her daily life. When the Church , in the year 1905, declared that a person prepared duly could receive communion everyday, Don Bosco would have screamed with joy, if he were alive. Because that is what he wished for his children even before the Universal Church could come up with it. But today, is the Eucharistic presence being taken for granted? Is it being made into a mere ritual or is the sacrament truly received as a mode of uniting oneself with the Lord?
The devotion to Our Blessed Mother was for Don Bosco the most human form of tasting the love of God - in and through the love of a Mother, the Mother of God. Jokingly said, that Don Bosco found a short cut in Mary, to arrive at what he wanted from the Lord and Saviour, it could but be all meaningful. Mary is the short cut, the direct manifestation, the immediate proof of God's grace within human nature. That was the inspiration that Don Bosco had in growing to the full in his nature and grace - our devotion to the heavenly mother, has to make us more like her, ultimately more like her Son.
The devotion to the Holy Father, as sons and daughters of Holy Mother the Church, is a guarantee of remaining true to our identity: the identity of children of God. What would have Don Bosco done, in times like the present? People trying to form factions against the Holy Father, those trying to mislead the Papacy, those vying to destroy it and those trying to misinterpret it unceasingly? Times actually are not too different - in Don Bosco's time there was a great criticism of Pius IX and what was Don Bosco's stand: he said categorically: "it is better to go to heaven with Pius IX than to be right with those who criticise the Pope." We are beloved sons and daughters of the Church, and hence of the Holy Father!
The call that we have today, the second day of the triduum, is the spiritual project that Don Bosco presents to us. It is a call to renew our awe and love for the Eucharistic Lord, to learn from our Blessed Mother and to resolve to stand with our Holy Father, as true and worthy children of God.
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