austraLasia 1614
[apologies for break in service of a week - was out of email contact and often 'on foot' through Don Bosco's places in Piedmont.  There will be similar interruptions throughout July-August just depending on email availability. Also a request for a prayer for AUL and also for the person concerned and his family - Paul Coxhill, prenovice and a young man, died suddenly in Melbourne of heart failure at the weekend.  He was helping conduct a retreat for youngsters at the time]

East Timor - two newly professed offer hope in difficult times

DILI: 24th July 2006 -- Today in the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Fatumaca, Baucau, East Timor, Fr. Andres Calleja, the Superior of the Vice-Province of St. Callistus Caravario, received in the name of the Rector Major the vows of two young Salesians: Bro. Camilo Boavida and Bro. Venancio Fatima Freitas. They made their first profession  in the presence of their happy families, friends and Salesian confreres. Responding to God's call, specially in the difficult times they're living in Timor today, is not easy, but they were ready to offer themselves completely to God even if, in accordance to the church's disposition, they're only making their profession for one year. One does not give one's self to God on a "trial" basis, so they have began to give themselves totally to God. It is interesting to note the motto of these new Salesians: "If you save a soul, you save everything; if you lose a soul, you lose everything." It reminds us of Don Bosco himself who, as Don Rua said, "took no step, said no word, took up no task that was not directed to the saving of the young ... Truly the only concern of his heart was for souls." (C. 21).

    Camilo and Venancio came from simple Christian families and both were educated in a real Salesian environment. They have suffered together with their own people in a nation dominated by foreign powers for so many yars, and now are beginning to track the difficult road to real freedom. From the Salesian pioneers they have learned the value of work, prayer and evangelical poverty. Now they are ready to plunge themselves to the Salesian mission which sets the tenor of the Salesian's whole life. (Art. 3 C).

    After their profession, these new Salesians are now ready to go to the new Salesian postnovitiate in Dili as candidates to Salesian priesthood and continue their initial formation.

    Meanwhile, 10 new novices enter the Novitiate in Fatumaca to begin their Salesian religious experience.
    
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