First vocational day in Savaii-Samoa
Savaii, Samoa, 20 October 2018 -- To help young boys take a closer glance at Salesian life and find vocations for the Congregation, specifically for the Pacific Delegation, the Salelologa SDB community held a vocational day called “Come and See”.
The Come and See event started at 6:30 pm on Friday 19 October and finished at 1:30 p.m. the next day, Saturday. There were five participants from Don Bosco College and it was really a good day. After welcoming the participants, we had evening prayers together and then Fr Visesio Tovia, the Rector of the community, explained the meaning of the day to them. The program continued by learning about Don Bosco and the Salesians through a movie at night after saying the rosary. The next day, Fr Nick Casteljns, in his homily, inspired in participants a generous spirit to serve others with Don Bosco’s spirit. He introduce them to some specific people around them such as the fathers (priests), the brothers in the community and also the volunteers from other countries.
The sharing section impressed them indeed. From Fr Rector to us young Salesians in formation, we shared our own vocation history with them. They were interested because each of us has a special vocation story, totally different from the others. And our words were a friendly way of sharing. After that we played table tennis together. The day closed with thanks and good advice from Fr Rector.
This was a short and small program compared with other Salesian communities but it was really very meaningful for our community. This was the very first time for us and especially all of us worked together as one in this event. The famous saying “If you do not start, you will not get anywhere”. Yes, starting is a condition for continuing and reach out to a goal ahead. We were happy with this start and we also are aware that the journey of responding to a vocation (call of God) is a long one and has to have a good accompaniment, and be planned with prayer and good example.
