Writings and Testimonies

PART THREE

WRITINGS AND TESTIMONIES

OF DON BOSCO

ON SPIRITUAL LIFE

by

Aldo Giraudo

Introduction

Don Bosco, a prolific religious writer, is not considered a “spiritual writer” in the classic sense of this term. We don't find texts by him which are analogous to the autobiographical writing of Saint Teresa d’Ávila, St John of the Cross or St Teresa of Lisieux. Nor did he write treatises or manuals of spiritual life similar to the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, or the Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli, the Introduction to the Devout Life by Francis de Sales, the Exercise of Perfection and Christian Virtues by Alonso Rodriguez or other ascetic works by Alphonsus Liguori. Nevertheless he left a broad testimony of spiritual teaching throughout his many writings and documented in memoirs collected by his disciples. This is why he can be considered a “master of spiritual life” especially for his very fruitful activity in forming saints, a spiritual guide of communities and individuals, founder of congregations, initiator of a historical movement with unmistakeable features which become a true school of Christian holiness[1].

If we compare features of his magisterium and praxis with those of other spiritual schools we see clear connections with the teaching of St Francis de Sales, and substantial elements assimilated, through St Joseph Cafasso, of the moral and ascetic teachings of St Alphonsus Liguori, classic spirituality, Jesuit literature. In his apostolate too and especially in his outstanding charity to the young we see many points of contact with St Philip Neri. But Don Bosco is unmistakeable.

Through the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Spiritual Treatises, Francis de Sales passed on to him, reworks the substance of Italian spirituality of devout Humanism stressing the beauty of piety, source of spiritual joy, keeps a balance between human will and grace, and love simplifying practices so they can be readily available to common people. The Italian spiritual school also has a somewhat combative approach that comes from awareness of the presence in the human heart of the “double law” encouraging 'spiritual warfare', mortification of the senses, prayer and sacramental practice with a view to growth in virtue. Like Francis de Sales, Don Bosco looks optimistically at this struggle, in the certainty of victory, because of his belief in the power of sanctifying grace, the effectiveness of the Blood of Christ which makes human effort fruitful and makes the way to holiness possible for the little ones including youngsters. In consideration of this latter group's psychological structure, he looks after little things, gives more important to inward mortification than corporal mortification, relies on inner joy and emotion in piety, insists on unifying the life of prayer and action, educates to a spirit of adaptation and conciliation without ever detracting from the total gift of self to God.

This “giving oneself to God” which he insisted on with his boys is none other than the invitation to conversion through generosity and to the primacy of divine love, overcoming attachment and withdrawal. Substantially it is about leading each one to fully and finally take up his baptismal promises, live out one's baptism as a boy or teenager; being happy to put God at the centre of one's life, thoughts, interest. What springs from this is an inner energy which is fruitful in daily life in spiritual terms, gives rise to purification, virtue, aims at an active holiness, that is a well-integrated and joyful Christian existence expresses in fleeing from sin, practical charity, union with God, fidelity to one's duties especially duties of one's state in life, and fervent and fruitful human relationships.

The consequence of this choice is a life of zeal, marked by fidelity, obedient and joyful observance, permeated by kindness, warmth, service, action; it is an ongoing thing demonstrating self-control, purification of the heart and practising virtue; it becomes testimony, apostolic energy, vocation to serve the Church and society. From this point of view Don Bosco is more ascetic than mystic, even if love of God is the driving force, and even though the piety he fosters is characterised by perfect union of contemplation and action. It could not have been different given his contemplative but active character. He was a contemporary apostle. He wanted to be salt and light, the Gospel leaven in the earthly city in view of reaching the heavenly one.

Unmistakeable features of Don Bosco are his insistence on the centrality of obedience as a way of perfect conformation to Christ in the generous gift of self; his emphasis on the “beautiful virtue”, chastity, as essential for loving intimacy with God and a source of grace, as perfect realisation of giving oneself to Him who is loved above all things; the pedagogical worth of the sacraments of penance and Eucharist; promotion of a devotion to Our Lady inseparable from the decisive inner orientation to virtuous perfection by corresponding in practical terms to grace, zeal for the glory of God, the spirit of prayer, the exercise of everyday virtue, Eucharistic and apostolic fervour: a Marian devotion which could kindle a desire in young people for perfection at the highest level[2].

A special aspect of his spirituality is the active and decisive role given to the Christian educator, his or her patient guidance, burning charity, zeal, daily dedication, and particular style of “assistance”. This is where we can place any discussion on the role of the confessor as educator, a friend of the soul who earns trust and gives rise to confidence; teaches the art of examination of conscience, forms to perfect contrition, encourages good resolutions, guides along the path of purification and virtue, introduces to taste for prayer and practice of God's presence, teaches ways to fruitful communion with Christ in the Eucharist. Frequent confession and communion are intimately bound up with Don Bosco's spiritual pedagogy. Regular diligent confessions promotes life “in God's grace” and nurtures a virtuous energy enabling one to approach frequent communion more worthily; at the same time conditions are created so that in Eucharistic communion God can take possession of the heart, so that grace finds the ideal inward conditions for it to be effective, transforming and sanctifying.

These features can be found throughout Don Bosco's spiritual magisterium. The spirituality of the Salesian religious is also imbued with this. The resolute giving of oneself to God which he proposed to the boys becomes a more radical, total thing in religious consecration, underlining the absolute primacy of God and the practical demands of following him unconditionally through the vows, a movement of complete conformation to Christ who is offered up in sacrifice. The substance is the same, that of an ardent charity that nurtures the unconditional gift of self in a practical but energetic unity which becomes obedient availability, spirit of sacrifice, ongoing work in the service of the mission, simplicity of life, serene chastity, fraternity, loving and solicitous service, and faithful observance.

In this third part, dedicated to Don Bosco's writings and testimonies on spiritual life, the quantity and variety of documentation meant a selection had to be made. The criteria adopted are historical relevance, significance and the role they can play as examples. There are six sections: 1. Guidelines on spiritual life for the young; 2. indications on spiritual life for Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; 3. Guidelines for consistent, active Christian life; 4. The Marian dimension of Salesian spirituality; 5. Zeal for the salvation of souls: Don Bosco's models; 6. His Spiritual testament. Each section is introduced by a brief “presentation” illustrating and contextualising the sources it contains and criteria for choice.

SECTION ONE

GUIDELINES ON SPIRITUAL LIFE FOR THE YOUNG

Presentation

There is no systematic writing by Don Bosco on spiritual formation of the young. However we find a good amount of printed material, biographical testimonies, formative interventions where we can identify a well-defined view of Christian life, along with some specific recurring themes, emphases on values and attitudes, insistence on virtuous behaviour to be nurtured and risks to avoid. All this allows us to reconstruct Don Bosco's spiritual horizons well-anchored in cultural parameters and sensitivities typical of his time and setting, and which clearly belong to earlier spiritual traditions. Just the same they display spiritual principles and pedagogical features which are particular to him and allow him to transpose them into a historical context and culture which was different from 18th century Italy. The items we present here are significant and exemplify this.

The section has four parts.

The first comprises substantial parts taken from the Companion of Youth (1847). This was a fundamental work by Don Bosco, “adapted to the times and the young”—as he writes in his Memoirs of the Oratory—“appropriate for their religious ideas, based on the Bible”, and in which he explains “the basics of the Catholic religion with maximum brevity and clarity.”[3] It is not just a collection of prayers but a small handbook on spiritual life with meditations, edifying readings, instructions and devotions aimed at nurturing the spirit of piety, touching youngsters' hearts and guiding them towards a complete and joyful Christian life. Study of this document is fundamental for grasping the basic features of Don Bosco's spiritual pedagogy[4].

The second part includes a sample of letters addressed to individual boys or Salesian educational communities. We see features of Don Bosco's spiritual direction, his practical realism and tendency to simplify things—this was not a lowering of ideals but an educational strategy. The Christian orientation of his proposals is very clear. His suggestions are demanding ones. We see his constant reminders of daily life, its challenges and the responsibilities stemming from it. Don Bosco has the art of providing transcendent horizons of meaning and enthusiastic visions of the future and these inspire a very active life. Convinced of God's effective action in the human heart, he knows how to work with a youngster's better feelings, native generosity, in order to arouse real cooperation with sanctifying grace.

The third part draws on the original Regulations for the sodalities: St Aloyius Gonzaga (1847), the Immaculate Conception (1856) the Blessed Sacrament (1858). The sodalities were excellent tools for spiritual formation of the youthful élite at the Oratory and in Don Bosco's houses. They were reserved for boys who were more sensitive to interior life, and available for an all-encompassing spiritual journey, open to cooperating in educating their companions. The sodalities were an excellent nursery for Salesian vocations.

The fourth part has examples of Don Boscs talks to the boys, usually as Sunday instructions, or evening conversations ( “goodnights”) or accounts of his dreams. They are a good demonstration of a style of formation which was all Don Bosco's own.

1. THE COMPANION OF YOUTH

The first edition of Il giovane provveduto (in English The Companion of Youth) appeared in 1847 and was Don Bosco's greatest publishing success. The year he died it had reached its 119th edition. It was reprinted with minor adaptations until 1961[5]. It is also the book which Don Bosco most liked and constantly recommended.

It represents a point of arrival for his pastoral experiences amongst boys at the early Oratory and is the basis for developments in his plans for youthful holiness. We find in it the content and model of Christian living which he offered the boys, his unmistakeable “horizons of youth spirituality”[6]. This was the author's intention, declared right from the preface, where he says he wants to teach “a method of Christian living which is cheerful and content at the same time”, “brief and easy, but sufficient” so young people can become “the consolation of their parents, an honour to their town, good citizens on earth to then be the fortunate inhabitants of heaven.”

From the point of view of its content the book is split into three parts plus an appendix with hymns. The first part has a series of instructions and reflections on God, his special relationship with the young, Christian duties, eternal truths and the example of St Aloysius Gonzaga.

The second part offers a range of “particular exercises of Christian piety” which are out of the 18th century devotional context but chosen and organised for the special kind of Christian life Don Bosco liked to offer and in tune with his personal sensitivities: morning and evening prayer; suggestions for assisting fruitfully at holy Mass and approaching the sacraments; prayer for a visit to the Blessed Sacrament and for spiritual communion; prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows and other devout practices; prayers for the exercise for a happy death; an instruction on choice of state (included much later, after 1878).

The third part of the Companion of Youth has the Office to Our Lady and prayers for Vespers throughout the year.

Here we include the complete first and second parts of the Companion of Youth, including prayers and devotional practices common to 19th century Catholicism. Even here Don Bosco's publishing work has an unmistakeable feel about it. It is very instructive for the reader to retrace the texts the boys at Valdocco used for prayer every day, full of devout affections and spiritual energy, fruitful practical resolutions and ethical responsibility, targeted at ascetic and virtuous activity.

Scholars have identified the authors Don Bosco referred to frequently, but have also noted his criteria for selection or exclusion, his emphases and the connotations which give the work an unmistakeable personal imprint[7]. For example, the comment on the traps the devils sets for the boys to distract them from giving themselves to God from their childhood and the statement of perfect harmony between religion and happiness. Especially his insistence on childhood as a favourable time for working on virtue, and on a complete baptismal way of life with good results throughout life. The age of youth, according to Don Bosco, is the “key to one's whole earthly existence”[8], a responsible and constructive age, a happy occasion for entering into a special relationship with God and for undertaking a virtuous and happy journey to holiness (Servite Domino in laetitia).

Other issues arise, and will recur constantly in the Saint's magisterium: the need to always be ready, because death can come at any moment, by always keeping our eye on our fate; union with God in a loving and self-giving relationship through prayer, devotional practices, and brief thoughts about God, offering things up; Marian devotion; the exercise of specific virtues such as love and fear of God, obedience and purity, charity and service; the exact and joyful fulfilment of one's duties of state; seeing to meditation, listening to the word of God, catechetical education; the need to mortify the senses, flee bad companions and occasions of sin; the strategic centrality of the sacraments of confession and communion which are the pillars of the formation approach Don Bosco used.

The importance of the Companion of Youth emerges especially when read in the light of all of Don Bosco's teaching and “his entire system and lifestyle” by which he immerses young people at the Oratory in daily life[9]. The reader can see this by comparing with other texts in this collection, especially the lives of Dominic Savio, Michael Magone and Francis Besucco.

184. THE COMPANION OF YOUTH IN THE PRACTICE OF RELIGIOUS DUTIES

Critical ed. in [Giovanni Bosco], Il giovane provveduto per la pratica de’ suoi doveri degli esercizi di cristiana pietà per la recita dell’ufficio della beata Vergine e dei principali vespri dell’anno coll’aggiunta di una scelta di laudi sacre ecc. Torino, Tipografia Paravia e Comp. 1847, pp. 5-143

(OE II, 185-323).

To the young

There are two main snares by which the devil usually tempts young people away from virtue. The first is to convince them that the service of the Lord consists in living a life of melancholy, devoid of all pleasure and enjoyment. This is not the case, my dear friends. I would like to teach you a kind of Christian life that will make you happy and contented. I want to show you what true enjoyment and pleasure is, so that you may follow the advice of the holy prophet David: “Serve the Lord with gladness: servite Domino in laetitia.” This, then, is the purpose of the present book: to teach you how to serve God and to be always happy.

The second snare is the hope of a long life, with the expectation of conversion in old age or when death threatens. Be careful, my dear boys, because many have been deceived in this manner. What assurance have we got that we shall ever reach old age? We cannot expect death to await our convenience at old age, since life and death are in God’s hands, and he apportions them as he sees fit. If God, however, grants you a long life, listen to the serious warning that he has uttered: A young man according to his way—even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Adolescens iuxta viam suam etiam cum senuerit non recedet ab ea. In other words, if we lead a good life when we are young, we shall be good when we are old, and our death will be happy, the beginning of eternal bliss. On the other hand, if vice takes hold of us in youth, it will gradually grow in the course of the different stages of our life until death, which will be the terrible herald of a most unhappy eternity. That this misfortune may not befall you, I have drawn up a scheme of life, brief and easy enough, which will enable you to be a joy to your parents, and a glory to your country, making you good citizens upon earth, and one day blessed inhabitants of Heaven …