By our own correspondent

Valdocco, Turin, 4 December 2020 -- Like the first Salesians we are also called today, to 'FALL IN LOVE WITH DON BOSCO and WITH THE YOUNG'. The first Guideline of the Rector major, following the GC28 spells 'Salesian of Don Bosco for ever'. The five minute video talk by the Rector Major with the message of the first Guideline is already online on the YouTube ANS Channel.

Fr Angel F. Artime speaks to all Salesian confreres from the rooms of Don Bosco in Valdocco:

"With much humility and clarity of vision we need to recognise that the way out of the crises of religious life, of Salesian life, of the difficulties of each province, will not be found in new projects, nor in strategic plans, nor in a “planning 3.0”. Most of the time, in the face of disillusionment, existential fatigue, lack of motivation... it's a case of returning to Christ, to religious life, to Salesian consecrated life. Because, we can live by wrongly believing that everything makes sense when we are doing things. No, dear confreres: without Jesus Christ at the centre of our thinking, feeling, living, dreaming, working... there is no future, and we cannot offer anything that is significant. In the words of Pope Francis: “The Lord asks everything of us, and in return he offers us true life, the happiness for which we were created. He wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and mediocre existence.”

This video-message of the Rector major is intertwined with the voices of the young people, observers for one week during the General Chapter 28 at Valdocco. Their simple but strong call gives this video a special heart touching and strongly appealing tone. One young lady from Italy in the video speaks to 220 Salesian delegates:

“It is not enough for you to be formed, prepared, but you need to be in love. Loving is the only thing that gets you to do crazy things. We talk about being madly in love: I believe you have to be madly in love with the young. That is how Don Bosco loved them! And the only person capable of really acting madly out of love was Jesus, so long ago. I think this is all we ask for in the end: presence, love, accompaniment. We are asking you, always, for the total gift of your life. We too, among ourselves, have told each other: our whole life seeks to be of service like yours. We too want to be in love and we are. It is thanks to you that we are so much in love with Don Bosco, with the young. Because as young people we are for the young and are part of the Salesian Family.”

We hope many confreres from the EAO region will get soon this video with subtitles in their own languages, thanks to our hard-working translators.

• Rector Majors' video: GC28 First Guideline (ANS Channel, ENG: 5minutes)
• Guidelines of the RM for 6 years period - full text

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