First Vows

FIRST PROFESSION

“The First Profession marks the beginning of a period of consecrated life.” C113

The First Profession is just the beginning. What happens next is more important - fidelity to the vows. It is beautiful to hear the words of the theologian St.Thomas Aquinas which teach us that at the First Profession the candidate receives once more his baptismal innocence. But for how long he preserves that baptismal innocence afterwards would be far more beautiful.

The ecstasy of the First Profession is only for a moment. After a while it is no more. But the promises made in those fleeting moments must be lived constantly in the daily renewal of one’s commitment to be poor, chaste and obedient.

You have only begun your Salesian Life. You still need to nourish yourselves with what concerns following Christ and Don Bosco. You have to learn a lot of skills. This would entail sacrifice and even failures. Stand up every time you fall.

Do not forget the God who begun the good work in you. He will bring everything to completion and fruition if you just are willing to say “yes” every day. As you celebrate one anniversary after another, it will be more clear to you that God remains faithful even if you are not.

In the Beginning

bEGINNINGS

Fr. Alfred Cogliandro used to tell his novices every year that they were the Best Novices ever – well the novices always thought that it was true at least for that year. And it is really true because as everyone knows each year there is always a new batch of novices and every year there is only one batch. This must also be the reason why they are called “novices” – every year the novices are always new.

This year, however, the novitiate at DBMS is slightly different from the previous years. For this year even the novice master is new. He may be a bit old as some would tease him but he is at least new to his task as novice director.

Nonetheless, the present novice master is not at all worried. Despite walking on unfamiliar grounds, he believes that he is in a situation similar to the situation of everyone. No one starts at the end. Everyone starts at the beginning. No one is born an adult. Everyone is born a child. You can’t build a house from the roof down, nor dig a hole from the bottom up. You always start at the beginning. This year the master starts too at the beginning.

This year the master is also a novice. It is a good chance for him to once more live the “vitality of the beginnings” which his own novice director used to speak of when he was still a young novice. After being in the religious life for so many years, one can plateau in his fervor. And in these moments of holy immobility, he can always go back to where he had been once if only to bring back to his present situation his original spiritual force and dynamism.

Whether we are just starting our ascent up the mountain of religious life or are already on the way down, everyone needs the vitality of the beginning. May we have an abundance of this vitality with us always.

Mary In Our Lives

MARY’S PRESENCE

“What you see happening to these boys – turning from wild animals into gentle lambs – you would also do to my children: the young.” With these words our Blessed Mother gave John Bosco, in his first dream, his mission in life.

But being only nine years old then, he could only cry in bewilderment. Luckily Mary didn’t just leave after giving him this colossal task. True to what Jesus had said in the same dream: “I will give you a teacher without whom all wisdom is foolishness”, the Lady stayed with John, not only at the beginning to instruct him during his young years – but even throughout his entire life to be his constant guide and support. Hence later on Don Bosco as an old priest was able to say “at every step, in every circumstance, Mary was there”.

With Don Bosco gone, however, Mary up to now still remains with our congregation. What she had begun in Don Bosco she would bring to completion through Don Bosco’s sons. This Don Bosco himself believed when he said “every boy that comes to a Salesian school is brought by Mary”.

Every Salesian that comes to our congregation is brought by our Lady. Allow me to share with you my experience on this. There were five sons in my family. While all my brothers were already Bosconians, I was the only one who wasn’t. Fortunately I still made it to Don Bosco Technical Institute at Mandaluyong during my sixth year in elementary. But after that brief year I was snatched away by our parish priest to San Jose Minor Seminary. Why would Mary bring me to Don Bosco only to be swept out again after one year? It is also said that Mary sweeps away the bad boys from our schools especially during her feasts. Was I bad then? I enjoyed my time, nonetheless, with the Jesuits at San Jose. But after two years, the Jesuits, for lack of manpower, decided to close down San Jose. After trying out other seminaries, I decided that I would go back to the major seminary of Jesuits after finishing high school in DBTI where I graduated from elementary. But upon learning that I was coming from a seminary, the principal there suggested that I go instead to the Juniorate in Pampanga. And so I went. Mary managed after all to bring me back to Don Bosco and to do so she had a seminary closed down. And from that time onwards I never left Don Bosco.

“We believe that Mary is present among us and continues her mission as Mother of the Church and Help of Christians. We entrust ourselves to her that we may become for the young witnesses of her Son’s boundless love.” C8

Assistants

ASSISTANCE

“Care should be taken that the pupils are never left alone. As far as possible the assistants ought to precede the boys to the place where they assemble; they should remain with them until others come to take their place, and never leave the pupils unoccupied.” Don Bosco

As a young Salesian I have been taught by my superiors never to leave the boys alone unattended. Thus when I was a practical trainee, much as I wanted to unwind and watch TV on Friday evenings with the rest of the brothers, I stayed in the dormitory to watch over the few weekend boarders while they were sleeping.

But in these post-modern times of multi-tasking and fewer Salesian vocations, it seems we cannot anymore avoid on certain occasions leaving the boys alone.

Don Bosco himself on certain occasions had also to leave the oratorians by themselves. When that would happen he would normally leave his biretta on top of his desk in the study hall to remind the boys to behave in his absence. He also had inscribed on the walls at Valdocco these words: “God sees you” for the same purpose of keeping discipline at those times when the boys would be unassisted.

Don Bosco was well aware that the oratorians sooner or later would eventually leave him, the Salesians and the oratory. Without the assistance of the Salesians, they would nevertheless have to do still the right things; but by then they would already be on their own. Thus it was clear in Don Bosco’s mind that the real goal of his Preventive System is not only independence from the Salesians but real self-discipline – control and restraint springing from the boys themselves and not from the external presence of their superiors.

Preventive System after all is not repressive but rather expressive. Through it the boys learn to act independently expressing themselves in multiple ways that are healthy and pure. Thus Don Bosco encouraged among the boys sports, recreation, music and theatre as well as study, work and prayer. But among the Salesians themselves he still encouraged assistance not only as a necessary means for the boys to attain self-discipline and independence but more so as a crucial way for the Salesians to know the young.

“Here in your midst I feel completely at home; for me, living means being here with you.”

Don Bosco

Service

HOLY SERVANT

“You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be the first among you must be the slave of all.”

Mark 10:42-44.

When I was assigned as Catechist at DBTC as expected my office was “tambayan” of students during recess. As a result my office became also one of if not the dirtiest at school. The janitor cleaned it only once a week and so everyday I had to tidy it myself. Usually I only had to sweep the floor and dust but when it was raining I had to mop off too the muddy footprints. In one of those days, one teacher saw me and said: “Father, why are you doing this? It’s so shameful! You are a priest.” Puzzled, I asked myself: “Why? Did I do anything wrong?”

I did nothing wrong and so I had nothing to be ashamed of. But why is it some of us think that if we already hold some authority we cannot any more do work because others will be working for us? I think it was not correct because as far as I can remember Jesus even recommended service to would-be-leaders.

I remember a priest who always impressed me in the past every time we meet. He was then the rector of one house. But almost at the end of the meal he would stand up to collect the plates of everyone. This happens especially on days when his community had guests at table. I said this is a leader after the pattern proposed by Christ.

When I myself became a rector, shamefully I acted or at least thought differently from this model rector. I said: Now I am rector they must ask me permission. Now I am rector they must pray everyday for my intentions. No, I did not think of going to the places where the confreres worked to ask them how they were doing. I thought more of others working for me than me working for them. I had the leadership of this world. Fortunately I am ending my third term and I have been learning from my mistakes.

To be the first in heaven one must the least on earth. To lead or better still to be holy one must be a servant of all.

In imitation of Christ and in his name, authority in the Congregation is exercised according to the spirit of Don Bosco as a service to brothers for discerning and fulfilling the Father’s will.

This service is directed to fostering charity, coordinating the efforts of all, animating, orienting, making decisions, giving corrections, so that our mission may be accomplished.

C121

Vows or Virtue?

The VOWS –

as means to VIRTUE

Vows are only means to becoming virtuous. Virtue is the end of the religious who vows to be chaste, poor and obedient. As means, the vows serve the acquisition of virtues and thus are less important with regards to virtues. Unfortunately some mix them up sometimes – they confuse the vows as the end.

Jesus before fought with the Pharisees because they did something like this. The Pharisees also confused the means for the end. They thought and taught that the laws were more important. At all cost they were to be followed even if it means avoiding what is good to one’s neighbor. If one’s kid falls into the well, you cannot save him if it is the Sabbath. For the same reason you cannot make the paralytic walk, you cannot feed the hungry, you cannot heal the shriveled hand of a man or end a woman’s long suffering from hemorrhage if it is the Sabbath. The man was made for Sabbath. In this case the end was inferior to the means.

Don Bosco also was against this type of confusion. He said punishments are only means to correct the offender. If thus the boy repents even before he is punished, then the punishment is rendered useless. He said this because some superiors might wish to punish some boys for wrong motives of revenge because these boys spurned their authority.

Jesus and Don Bosco think in the same way because they both have the good of the person in mind – not anything else. The confusion only enters when other things are set as priorities over the person.

This is the reason why this confusion continues on in the post-modern world and why unfortunately (as I‘ve already insinuated) it has crept even into our religious circles.

Some religious have been very critical of confreres who break the rules in the guise of upholding the rules. They reached the point of being cruel to their brothers for the sake of the constitutions. Isn’t it strange because the same rules they uphold are supposed to safeguard love and mutual forgiveness that is to exist in community life?

When we reach heaven, we won’t anymore receive the Holy Eucharist because Jesus will be there in person. What more have we need of pictures when the one in the picture is already right in front of us? What more do we need vows when one is already virtuous? But that happens only when we are already in heaven. In the meantime let us keep our vows – but in their proper place only as means to becoming holy.

Grace

Everything is grace!

Last month Novices Batch 77, to which I belong, had a reunion at Tambuli Resort to celebrate its Pearl Jubilee of Salesian life. After a year under my novice master, Fr. Alfred Cogliandro SDB, I made my first profession last April 1, 1987 with 22 others in Don Bosco Seminary College in Canlubang.

Actually I commemorated two other anniversaries last year. Last year was thus memorable for me – a whole year marked by gratitude to the Lord. Last December 6, I reached 20 years of my priesthood. And last 8 March I turned 50 years old. In both occasions my Nanay came all the way from Manila to Cebu.

In those three occasions I shared with the people this single message: Fidelity. If ever I am still around as a religious after 30 years or as a priest after 20 years, it’s only because of fidelity. But I am speaking of God’s fidelity. I am not speaking of my fidelity because God knows I had not been faithful all the time. There were moments of weakness and even sin in the past years. But God forgave me every time. I was ashamed of my mistakes but I was grateful and happy for every chance God gave. I can only sing with Mary her Magnificat. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord (not mine) for He has looked upon His servant in his lowliness (weakness and sinfulness).”

In the end after all those years, as one would look back he can admit to himself only one truth: It’s all God’s grace. I did nothing except maybe to say “yes”. But God did everything. It is all His work. I claim nothing of it. I repeat. It is all God’s grace.

1 Corinthians 4:7 “What do you have that you did not receive from God?”

Don Bosco Our Model

Monthly Recollection 5-8 p.m. 18 January 2002

Salesian Community of Don Bosco Lawaan

OUR EXAMPLE OF PASTORAL CHARITY

The theme for tonight’s recollection is Don Bosco - our Model of Pastoral Charity. Article 21 of our Constitution speaks precisely of this idea and it reads as follows:

“We study and imitate Don Bosco, admiring in him a splendid blending of nature and grace. He was deeply human, rich in qualities of his people, open to the realities of this earth; and he was deeply the man of God, filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and living ‘as seeing him who is invisible’.

These two aspects combined to create a closely-knit life project, the service of the young.”

Speaking of Don Bosco as our model, the above article tells us three things. First that our founder was both very human and very divine. Second it says further that these two opposite qualities in him complemented each other. Third such perfect combination of opposites enabled him to serve the young as he did. In the same manner of Don Bosco we too could be more effective shepherds of love for the young if we too would be able to combine the human and divine elements in our own selves.

Let us now first speak of the first element, the divine in Saint John Bosco.

Since I was an aspirant I had always been a fan of Don Bosco. Thanks to the salesians who told us endlessly stories of Don Bosco, I was perpetually mesmerized by his supernatural side: the dreams he had, the miracles he performed, the predictions he uttered. Let us recall a few.

In 1849 he multiplied hosts for about 600 oratory lads as the sacristan Joseph Buzzetti forgot to place a second ciborium on the altar. BM III, 311f.

During the same year he raised the boy Charles back to life, an event backed up by no less than 10 witnesses. BM III, 349-355.

1853 saw for the first time the many instances in which Don Bosco’s life was saved by the Grigio - that dog which heaven sent. BM IV, 495-502.

After the Rattazzi Bill - or the bill which provided for the confiscation of monasteries and convents in Italy- was introduced in 1854, Don Bosco dreamt of a messenger announcing solemn funerals at Court unless the said bill was retracted from Parliament. Five days later, the dream was repeated in a slightly different form and notice was given to King Victor Emmanuel II. However the warnings went unheeded. In January 1855 the Queen Mother Maria Theresa died. A little later also the Queen Consort Maria Adelaide, her young son Prince Victor Emannuel Leopold and Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa died. BM V, 115-123.

In 1854 Don Bosco related the Dream of the Twenty Two Moons predicting the death of Secundus Gurgo to the boarders including John Cagliero, John Turchi, John Baptist Anfossi, Felix Reviglio, Joseph Buzzetti. Gurgo died before Christmas in 1855. BM V, 246f. Fr. John Baptist Lemoyne prefaces this story with these words: “The Oratory boys were firmly convinced that God had given Don Bosco extraordinary gifts, because, among other things, he had predicted several deaths and other events that were totally unforeseeable.”

Don Bosco was constantly aware too of his boys’ spiritual condition. Fr. Michael Rua testifies: “Someone may think that, in manifesting his pupils’ conduct and personal secrets, Don Bosco was availing himself of information he had received from the boys themselves of from the young clerics supervising them. I can state with absolute certainty that this was not the case. The belief that Don Bosco could read our sins on our foreheads was so common that, when anyone committed a sin, he shied away from Don Bosco until he had gone to confession.” BM VI, 478-482.

On October 14, 1878 Don Bosco was most certainly in Turin. Yet that very day an unknown French-speaking priest who refused to give his name was the guest of Adele Clement at Saint-Rambert d’Albon, in the department of Drome. Giving in to the lady’s insistent questions as to his identity, he replied, “A few years from now my name will be printed in books, and these books will come into your hands. Then you will know who I am.” This was just one of the instances that Don Bosco was granted the gift of bilocation. Before disappearing mysteriously, Don Bosco cured the lady’s son who couldn’t hear, see or speak. BM XIV, 552-554.

Dreams , miracles, cures, predictions, bilocations... indeed since the beginning many had already been admiring Don Bosco’s supernatural gifts - some of which we have just recounted. I am one of them.

But as of late, impressed and awed as I am of the divine aura around Don Bosco, I couldn’t help but admire him more for his human qualities. Allow me now to speak of the second element: Don Bosco’s marvelous humanity.

Of his equally admirable human side, due to time constraint, I pick out only one which for me is most outstanding. I select Don Bosco’s gentle kindness, his patience, his self-control especially in the midst of trying situations.

For some to be kind might be very natural and thus an easy thing to do. But for a passionate character as Don Bosco, it had always been a heroic challenge. Just recall the instance he lost hold of himself when some of his classmates ganged on his weak friend Louis Comollo. In his personal account he wrote: “At that I completely forgot myself. Brute force and not reason was now moving me. I could not grab a stick or chair because there were none and so I gripped one of them by the shoulders and used him as a battering ram against those bullies. I knocked four of them to the floor and the others lost no time in taking to their heels.”BM I, 249f.

It was because of such temperament of his that Don Bosco took St. Francis of Sales, the gentle bishop of Geneva, as his patron and even that of his entire congregation starting with his first oratory at Valdoco. Don Bosco decided to put all his works under the protection of St. Francis after getting the approval of his confessor Don Cafasso and his collaborator Don Borel.

One may asked what are the real reasons that urged Don Bosco to select this holy bishop as patron. Is it simply for personal ascetical reasons?

In the Biographical Memoirs, Fr. Lemoyne attests to at least three reasons which Don Bosco himself gave.

First, because Marchioness Barolo herself planned to found at the Rifugio a congregation of priests under the title of St. Francis of Sales. In fact it was for this reason that she had a mural of the saint painted above the entrance hall of the priests’ residence at the Rifugio.

Second, the work for the welfare of boys required unruffled calm and forbearance. Don Bosco therefore had wished to place himself under the special protection of a saint who had been a perfect model of these virtues.

Third, at Don Bosco’s time Protestantism was insidiously infiltrating Piedmont’s poorer classes particularly in Turin. Don Bosco had intended to obtain through St. Francis’ intercession knowledge and fortitude to combat the same enemies whom the saintly bishop had so splendidly triumphed over during his lifetime. BM II, 196-197.

Did Don Bosco’s decision for St. Francis helped him? Yes, we all know that it did. Don Bosco had totally departed from his younger impetuous self. He had been very patient in disappointments BM V, 174; in putting up with long conversations BM V, 206; in dealing with some benefactors BM V, 207; with difficult boys BM V, 236f.; in disputes and audiences BM VI, 90, 246, 380f; in interviews BM VII, 17, 22; in letter writing BM VII, 24f.; in bearing ailments BM VII, 133, 403; in trying circumstances BM VIII, 167f., 177f., 182, 219f., 268; with callers BM VII, 272; with convicts, in working for the approval of his society, with his own bishop, in listening to people and admonishing them BM IV, 132, 386f;, in bearing with insults and threats BM VII, 189; BM IV, 437;. The volumes of the Biographical Memoirs are filled with accounts of his ability to remain calm in the most turbulent upheaval. Let us narrate one such account.

In 1857 he admitted a boy to the Oratory. The police found him in a corner of Piazza Castello, huddled up and shivering. A few days later Don Bosco got him a job with a good blacksmith in town and personalty took him there. The boy did well for a couple of weeks but then he became so unruly that the blacksmith fired him. With his customary patience Don Bosco found him another job. Within a week he had been fired again. Don Bosco continued to find jobs for him at various shops for some two years. It is no exaggeration to say that this boy made the rounds of all the shops in town wearing out everybody’s patience.

When his last employer dismissed him, the boy came back to the Oratory. It so happened that it was lunch time. Therefore he went straight to the dining room and told Don Bosco to find him another job.

“How about some lunch?” Don Bosco asked him.

“I’ve already eaten,” the boy answered.

“Well then let me finish and then we’ll take care of it.”

“I can’t wait. Come right away.”

Despite the boy’s rudeness, Don Bosco replied calmly, “Don’t you realize that you can’t hold a job because you drive everybody crazy? Do you know how many times you’ve been fired? You’d better change your ways or you’ll never be able to earn a living!”

The boy stalked out of the dining room in a huff and a few days later he left the Oratory for good without a word to anyone. He then tried to make a living as best as he could, drifting from job to job, even abroad. Finally he returned to Turin and felt ill. One day during a temporary improvement in his health, he called on Don Bosco and beg his pardon for all the troubles he had caused him. Delighted to see him after so many years, Don Bosco comforted the young man and assured him that he still cared for him and that he had always prayed for him. He then added: “Remember that the Oratory is still your home. If you wish to return when you feel better, Don Bosco is always your friend. All he seeks is the salvation of your soul!” The young man was greatly moved at Don Bosco’s words and cheerfully thanked him saying: “Now I have to go back to the hospital. If God willing I recover, I’ll return to make up for all my misdoing. ” Don Bosco blessed him. It was the last blessing that the young man received from Don Bosco. He died a few weeks later, resigned and repentant. BM V, 491-492.

I said before that I pick out Don Bosco’s self-control as outstanding for me in his human side. The reason for this choice is simple, like Don Bosco at his young years, I too need self-control.

Every year I used to ask for an evaluation from my students about myself as well as my teaching. And without fail every time I get these same remarks.

“He is a good friend but I tremble with fear when he gets angry.”

“Sometimes strict, very serious and sometimes not joyful”

“Fr. Nioret could sometimes be a ‘pain in the ass’ when he is mad.”

“His face is quite scary.”

“He easily gets angry.”

Of course, I also get other remarks in plenty like these ones.

“Stay as cute as you are!”

“Crush ng bayan!”

That’s me... like Don Bosco’s impetuous younger self. But not like him when he was older.

At this point, to aptly end this reflection let us once again share in threes on these following questions:

What do I want to imitate in Don Bosco?

What is something that Don Bosco excels in, which I admire?

What is something that Don Bosco excels in, which I could still work on in my person?

We might not equal Don Bosco in his supernatural feats, but if we work well enough on our human qualifications, our efforts might also be worthy to be considered miraculous.

Vocation

Retreat 2001

VOCATION

Fr. Honesto G. Geronimo Jr., SDB^[1]

Vocation comes from “vocare” - the Latin verb for call.

God calls some people to be special signs and bearers of his love for other people. Although he calls all of us to heaven, he does not call everyone to be bearers of his love to people. He selects only a few for this task. This means he chooses some but rejects the others to be his signs of love to people.

The choice is his. It is never ours.

“You did not choose me. I chose you” (cf. Jn 15,16).

If ever we are chosen, it is thus a privilege we could only be grateful for and not a right we could always claim to. Vocation therefore is more than a call. It is a gift. It is free. And though it is freely given it is not given to all but to just a few.

“Freely you have received, freely you give away. What you received freely as a gift, you must freely give away as a gift”(cf. Matt 10,8).

Vocation as any other gift is never bought but is always free. As a gift, it is also never deserved by the recipient. And as the gospel says, as any other gift it must only be shared in the same manner it was given - freely. It cannot be hoarded for one’s personal consumption. Vocation must always be passed on, handed down like any tradition.

Vocation is not a material gift that could be contained in a box, choked up with fancy ribbons, camouflaged under flashy wrappings. It is instead a living present. I repeat it is like our sacred traditions that remain through the passing of centuries because they are lived. Vocation must thus be likewise lived, if it has to pass on from generation to generation.

If it is God who calls and it is he too that chooses, it must also be he who puts the criteria in vocation.

The Church nonetheless recommends that we put rules for the admission of our candidates. There is nothing wrong with that. Not unless we forget that through these rules like our own ratio we are only trying to discern God’s choice. Is God calling this young man to be a sign and bearer of his love? That’s what we are trying to answer whenever we discern on the application of any candidate.

Fr. Houdek, SJ was my professor in the Art of Spiritual Direction, a course I took during my sabbatical year in Berkeley last 1995. Aside from being professor for many years, he had been novice master and spiritual director too for quite a time. What he told me once regarding discernment of vocations struck me. And this I’d like to share with you. He said that after years of spiritual direction particularly to novices he has only widened all the more his criteria in accepting candidates to the religious life. He did this after realizing that every vocation is after all God’s work. He shared that God could still be effective (maybe even more effective) in persons who according to his human perception might be less fit. In God’s plan the “more qualified" ones are also the more likely ones to meddle and muddle God's blueprint designs.

Working for vocation is like handing down one's life to another. It is like giving birth to another human life. Vocation thus also means communicating life. And life is not communicated simply through words. As someone said "life cannot be simply taught; it must be caught".

Take for instance the Preventive System of Don Bosco - which is in reality the very life of our father. Don Bosco never dared to write a treatise on his system of education. And when he was forced to finally write something, he could manage only 7 pages. Why is this so? It's because the preventive system is life, his life. And as such the only way to get to it is through actual contact with people who live that life.

"Get into the fever with Don Bosco forever" is a line from Fr. Ronel's song composed for the centenary of Don Bosco's death. Those words convey to us a similar message. Do you want to get contaminated with feverish excitement for Don Bosco? Get in contact with him.

There is always a need to invite young people to follow a religious or priestly vocation. Human as we are we tend not to see a lot of things huge as they may be unless someone points them to us. Like we might be standing or walking or even residing on top a huge whale without knowing it unless someone yells, "hey that's a huge whale you're stepping on!" Our daily and faithful living of our vocation could remain invisible forever. It needs always to be proclaimed like the gospel of Christ. After all our vocation is our gospel of Christ.

At this point allow me to share with you one of the many letters I got from my students in the past. It came to me in the morning I left Lawaan for a 3-month seminar in Bangalore. I quote here the whole letter.

02-02-97

Dear Fr. Nioret,

Peace!

It seems so hard to let go a person who is somewhat very close to you. You have been so good to us and to tell you "napamahal na kayo sa amin". If there is really a need for us not to let you leave "siguro hindi na kayo makakaalis". But somehow we got to leave our selfishness and let go. Just to let others experience what we experience, "your affection". We have encountered a lot of salesians "pero sa totoo lang kayo palang ang tunay na salesiano sa puso na nakita namin". Like what I told you last night, you are my "idol". I wish that I could serve boys the way you do. "In you I saw a true salesian, in you I saw a true father, in you I felt Don Bosco". Noong sinundo namin kayo sa airport the first thing I've said was "ayon ba si Fr. Nioret? Wow, kamukha niya si Don Bosco". And it somehow made me feel closer to you. I know you are studying for a reason and I know that you will be successful in it.

I think you have to go, so better end this letter immediately. Good-bye! Take care! You would always be a part of my intentions here in my heart. Thank you for once I have experience God in you. Thank you & I love you!!!

I remain,

KENT

P.S. Thank you sa drawings and signatures. Thanks a lot! Thanks for being a father. Sulat kayo ha!

In sharing this letter I only hope that you too have remembered the many times you also have inspired many boys to follow your example even to becoming salesians themselves all because they've come in contact with your life. We could best inspire the young only by living with them the salesian ideal.

In vocation proposal the community works best together and does not leave the task alone to the designated vocation promoter.

In our first Provincial Chapter here in the south I remember Fr. Andres Calleja^[2] sharing with us these thoughts in a good night. He said, "Where is Don Bosco now? Is Fr. Rector Don Bosco? No, Fr. Rector is not Don Bosco. But we see a little of Don Bosco in him. He is good and kind like Don Bosco. In the same manner we also see a little of Don Bosco in Bro. Economer and Fr. Catechist, in Bro. Assistant. We might not see the whole Don Bosco in each of them individually. But in all of them together we get in touch with the whole Don Bosco today!"

Vocation is a flowering of our community life. It is the fruition of living together as a salesians. Too often we have heard it said that if the youth see us happy living together despite of the simplicity and even the frugality of our life, then we'll never run out of vocation.

In the book Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco ^[3]published from Rome in 1986 we read the following section which I quote here in its entirety.

"One of the finest fruits of the family spirit is vocations. The history of the Congregation amply demonstrates the truth of this in the case of both Don Bosco and the first salesians. Inserted as they were in the heart of a salesian community made warm by family affection, many boys learned to model their own lives on those of their educators; they became progressively aware of the germ of a salesian vocation that God had placed in their heart, and the family atmosphere led them little by little to identify with the ideals and the style of life of their teachers; slowly their sense of belonging to the Congregation matured together with the desire to take part in its pastoral activity.

This is the dynamic growth process which is characteristic of the salesian way of life; the atmosphere is one in which vocations naturally appear and grow; they then mature in the family spirit and a gradual insertion into apostolic work follows almost automatically.

A precise task of our communities is to involve our youngsters in our family life, to enable them to experience for themselves how wonderful is the salesian mission and be attracted to follow the Lord Jesus and work for his Kingdom: 'Come and see' (cf. Jn 1,39).

But it should be kept in mind that this will be possible only if the family spirit shines forth in our communities, and especially in formation communities; it is possible only if all the members 'form a family founded on faith and enthusiasm for Christ, united in mutual esteem and common endeavor' (C103)."

Many of the first salesians were oratorians. This was the way Don Bosco proposed vocations. I believe it still is the way to promote vocations. The best youth that could ever become salesians would be our own bosconians - those who in their young formative years have continuously suck the milk of our salesian tradition.

While we work for college seminarians, let us not neglect those younger: the aspirants, the day boys, the boarders, the oratorians, the club members, the youth leaders.

Fr. Calleja shared with us once this vocation story. When he went back to Spain for his first masses immediately after his ordination just before going for the missions in Indonesia, he met a member of the knights of the altar. This youth caught his special attention because they had the same name "Andres". He gave the boy a rosary as a parting gift and asked the boy to pray it whenever he could. They however continued to communicate through letters even after that. Almost 15 years after the younger Andres is now a seminarian of theology.

And Fr. Calleja concluded his testimony by saying: "No one is too young to be called by God. Mary was a mere teenager when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would be Mother of God. Dominic Savio was barely 15. Laura Vicuna too was young, so also were Francis Bessuco, Mickey Magone, Zefferino Namuncura and the 5 polish beati. God calls anytime. And salesians should be ready to help the young answer God's call whenever it comes."

No one is too young to be a sign and bearer of God's love.

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^[1]Fr. Honesto Geronimo Jr. is now ending his first term as rector of St. Louis School - Don Bosco in Dumaguete City. He is better known by everybody as Fr. Nioret.

^[2]Fr. Andres Calleja is now the rector of the Post-Novitiate community in Jakarta.

^[3]The Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco, pp. 206-207.

Don Bosco at Dumaguete

RECTOR'S MESSAGE

Graduation Homily 25 March 2001

Dearest GRADUATES of Batch two thousand and one,

I've been here for 4 years, so have many of you. When you were just freshmen - new to the school - I was too. Now that you are leaving your alma mater, so will I. As you see we have so much in common.

When I arrived here (or even before coming here), I was very sad and lonely. I had been 11 years in Cebu and in coming over here I was going to miss my friends back there especially the Bosconians. Upon arriving here when I saw how different this school was from the other Don Bosco schools I had been assigned to in the past, the more I got depressed. And that depression lasted for half a year. For six months I was wrestling with my impending assignment as rector of this school.

But luckily I started to make friends - with the boarders first, then the few rondalla members I had, the choir members who were mostly from the senior class, and my students in Drafting 2 and Values Education 4. And this move I made reversed my initial decision to abandon my assignment in this place. By Christmas time I had decided to stay here.

I'm not good in constructing buildings. In fact in my first year as administrator here nothing changed in any of the school's physical structures. But I love Don Bosco very much and so I when I was already installed as rector in the following year I concentrated instead my efforts on the school's internal and less obvious structures. I decided to spend all my strength to make this school more Salesian, to make everyone here from students to teachers, workers and parents more Bosconian. This became my personal goal especially when I saw how little Don Bosco was known in St. Louis School. It was not surprising though for the Salesians had just arrived at Dumaguete in 1986. They were then only 11 years in St. Louis School.

Thus I tried my best to teach all of you who Don Bosco is - through the good morning talks, mass homilies, seminar on the Preventive System I gave to the new teachers and parents, through my classes with the second and fourth years. I employed my artistic talent too just to promote Don Bosco among you - through designs I made on the intrams and P.E. shirts even on the diary covers too. Remember the quotes from Don Bosco I emblazoned on your shirts.

"Love what the young love and they will love what you love."

"It is not enough to love the young. They must feel that they are loved."

"Run, jump, shout and do whatever you like as long as you do not sin."

"There is no such thing as a bad youth. You just have to touch the right cord and any youth will open wide a generous heart."

"What you see happening to these wild animals - turning into gentle lambs - you would also do to my children: the Young."

Every club meeting I had with the ACDC or artists' club and the BOSDAKS or rondalla always ended with a visit to the chapel. The chapel visit is a Bosconian practice so dear to Don Bosco. Whenever I could, I sat down for confession because Don Bosco believed in the strong power of the sacraments in the task of molding the young. Through the core meetings of the EPC or Educative Pastoral Community and the friendly talks I had with the teachers and workers, I tried to strengthen family bonds in our community here because Don Bosco taught about family spirit in all his institutions. This was again our purpose in having the recollections and festivities done common for our teachers and workers. At break time I tried my best to be at the reach of students because that's when, according to Don Bosco, salesian assistance - the help we extend to our young students - is most needed.

And by God's grace all of the adults in this school cooperated in making this personal dream of mine almost a reality. This was because in the past 3 years many of your educators admitted that they too like the Salesians started to believe in Don Bosco. And because your educators believed in him, they begun to share my personal goal and even own it for themselves as a community aim. And you on your part as well as the rest of the student population responded to all your educators' efforts.

In fact all of us at SLS-Don Bosco did well. We have formed a family in our school among our students, pupils, Salesians, teachers, workers and parents. Many of the teachers confided to me that they found Don Bosco's system as very effective in dealing with students especially the more problematic ones. The idea to advertise about the Preventive System of Don Bosco and the Family Spirit existing in SLS-DB at the Tayada sa Plaza came from the teachers. Many of our employees at school started to be friendly with the students trusting what Don Bosco said to be true: "Education is a matter of the heart. If you have the confidence of the young, they will do anything for you."

Unfortunately not all understand the spirit in our school. Some commented that our students are wild. Even some past pupils said rather negatively that our present students are very different from the way they were before. Some of us here too might have remarked that our Bosconians are not at all disciplined.

But are they really undisciplined? Or do they just feel at home at school that they are just their real selves whenever they are here with us? When there was the concert by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in the Macias Auditorium two years ago, our Bosconians were seated closest to the performers because the organizers believed our students were well behaved. And behaved well they did. In fact one bass player was so impressed by our students' decorum that he couldn't resist asking them: "From which school do you come from?" When our students sponsored the dawn rosary procession to the cathedral last February of the Jubilee Year, were not the people enthused not only with the discipline but even more by the vivacity of our bosconians' participation in the mass? Inspite of criticisms we hear about our students, more people appreciate the way our Bosconians are formed here.

Definitely the young today are not anymore like the young of yesteryears. Definitely the way the Salesians educate the young is different from the way other schools do it. But in general Don Bosco's way works most effectively among the young better than any other system of other schools.

So my dear Graduates, as you take leave of SLS - Don Bosco, promise to keep the Bosconian Spirit alive in your hearts. As I've told the batches before you, so now I tell you too: you are Bosconians forever. You might enroll in Silliman University next year and be called a SIllimanian. But remember deep within you, you are still and always will be a Bosconian because your young and most formative years were spent here with us at Don Bosco. Nothing can change that. If ever you would be good in anything later on, it is because you had been well formed here at Don Bosco. The seeds had been planted here; the flowers and fruits will only blossom after you leave us.

To my dear teachers and non-teaching staff, including the workers and all those not directly involved in teaching - all of whom make up the educators at SLS-DB - my sincerest gratitude for your efforts in molding our Bosconians here would never be enough. I once more express my heartfelt thanks to you all on behalf of the Salesian community and the Bosconians themselves. For the coming years let us all be more like Don Bosco who, like the Good Shepherd who had looked after the lost sheep, always searched for the poor and needy youth. Let's do the same at school. Our mission is primarily to the wild animals and not so much to the gentle lambs - although the latter could always help us in our work with the former. Like Don Bosco, let us heed the Virgin's words in his dream at 9: "transform my young children from wild animals to gentle lambs".

To the Parents, thank you for trusting us with your children. Thank you for believing in Don Bosco. Thank you for sharing and owning for yourselves his dream. After your daughters and sons, you deserve our warmest congratulations. In all the past 16 years of your children's young lives, you were always there. You brought them to this graduation. Hopefully in the 4 years that we guided your children, we have also taught them to be grateful to you. God bless us all.

Don Bosco's Preventive System

A Look at Our System

Fr. Nioret, SDB

We are all very familiar with Don Bosco's dream at nine. But let's focus alone on the boys in the dream— the boys who were laughing, shouting and swearing — those young Johnny Bosco fearfully encountered. They were bad at the start. They were in fact represented as evil. Somewhere in the dream they turn into goats, dogs, cats, bears and other animals. But later on after a signal from the Blessed Virgin they turned into gentle lambs, jumping and bleating as if to welcome Johnny. This change from wild animals into meek lambs means that the bad boys in the end were converted into good boys. A sequel to that dream (DB had other dreams connected to this one) shows a hearty aftermath of the stages of the boys' transformation. Some of those boys turned into shepherds to mean that they became Salesians to guide other boys.

Decisively, the Blessed Virgin Mary indicated to Don Bosco what was to be his mission in life: to save the young that were lost. "This is the field of your work. Make yourself humble, strong and energetic. And what you will see happening to these animals in a moment is what you must do for my children," the Blessed Mother said to the young John.

Salesians continue this same mission entrusted by our Lady to Don Bosco. But unfortunately the "wild animals" are yearly dropped or passed out from our school almost too easily because of strict rules and regulations. We almost seem helpless in front of our own rules. Progressively we are left only with the "gentle lambs" to care for. Still we are well aware that plenty of the times those who are left behind after the screening are those who least need our supervision as compared to the others we have dropped out or shoved away. We must confront the questions, "Is this not neglect if not abandonment of the bad boys so clearly indicated to us by the Blessed Mother as the primary recipients of our mission? Is this not an indication of giving up the life time task assigned to us through Don Bosco in his dream at nine?"

Don Bosco wanted our schools to function like a family. This is rightly so because as a true educator Don Bosco believed that education is a matter of the heart. Only in a climate of trust and confidence like in a home can a young person learn. Thus he trained his Salesians to make every school a home. Only quite recently do we hear pedagogues preaching that the best educators are still the parents and the best school is still the home. But in all our schools, faithful to our father and teacher who is Don Bosco, we are already doing that, forming one big happy family among our students, teachers and lay collaborators. For a long time we have taken pride of our heritage, our family spirit.

In the family we don't send anyone out of the house whenever they misbehave. We reprimand them and in the long run we also forgive them. That is what we do in a family. In the family our tolerance is always high because in spite of the rules, relationships are governed more by love, care and forgiveness. Should not our schools be likewise? Is this not the mind of Don Bo when he talked about family spirit?

Don Bosco sent out from his oratory boys who were likely to corrupt other boys. Like the bad apples that are apt to spoil the good ones, boys of bad influence were sent out of Don Bosco's oratory. Don Bosco asks us to do the same. But still like Don Bosco, let us be more hopeful and not give up too easily on erring kids because they are our primary "recipients."

Don Bosco was very optimistic about people especially the young. He believed in the supernatural and natural qualities of all without forgetting their weaknesses. His actions indicated the conviction that there is no such thing as a bad boy - but only a good boy doing bad. He took his cue from the Lord who did not see an adulterous woman but only a woman caught in adultery. He therefore condemned the sin but spared the sinner. Don Bosco was much like that. Shouldn't we strive to be likewise?

Return to Don Bosco

VITALITY OF

THE BEGINNING

Fr. Alfred Cogliandro SDB, our revered Novice Master, used to speak about the “Vitality of the Beginning.” He said that in the novitiate the novices should be full of life especially because they are at the very start of the religious life. Religious life, like all the rest, will soon wane in its energy. And when that happens, sometimes the only thing that could revive it back to its original zest is thro a return to its beginning – in order to capture once more the vitality of the beginning it one time had.

If that is true of the individual salesian, it is equally and even more true of all the Salesians taken together. The entire Salesian Congregation to get back its lost vigor has to return to Valdocco where it all started - to return to Don Bosco from whom everything originated.

This is not novelle. We have been hearing this clamor since Vatican II. From 1960 all of us were called by Mother Church to renew ourselves. And we were also given the way how: to go back to our origins.

Going back to our beginnings, does not mean to live in the past. It means rather to live in the present situation the spirit originating from the past. When we go back to Don Bosco, more than looking at what he did, we have to know why he did things, so that we can do what he would do now if he were in our place.

What would Don Bosco do here today? This is a question we all have to continually answer – in the 26^th General Chapter in Rome and everyday of our Salesian Life.

But in order to answer this question we would not only have to return to Don Bosco. We would have to contemplate once more the face of Jesus Christ.

Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa kanyang pinanggalingan,

hindi makararating sa kanyang paroroonan.