EAO translations for download
ENGLISH: STRENNA 2016 - Presentation-ENG.docx
ITALIANO: STRENNA 2016 - Presentazione ITA.doc
PORTOGHESE: STRENNA 2016 - Presentazione POR BRA.doc
STRENNA 2016 - Presentazione POR POR.odt
KOREAN: Strenna2016_KOR outlines.doc
STRENNA 2016
WITH JESUS, let us adventure in the Spirit together!
A brief summary of some ideas that will be developed later on:
* Life is where we find ourselves at the crossroads. We are all familiar with this experience, confronted as we are by a variety of paths and options. And it is precisely along the path of life that the Spirit operates and, in all freedom, knocks on the door of every human heart.
* In one way or another we all have the experience of being travellers, and there are days when we have travelled long distances. This experience of journeying sheds light on what it means to engage in an adventure with the Spirit.
* Why? What does it mean to “adventure in the Spirit”?
→ In the first place, it is an INTERIOR journey.
→ But, an interior journey is not only an exercise of entering into our inmost self, however good such an exercise may be. For us who are believers, it is a journey of SPIRITUALITY, a spirituality that is cultivated and expressed in ways we shall speak of later.
* Jesus himself lived an authentic “adventure” of openness to the Spirit. He always sought the Will of the Father who in His Spirit inspired, accompanied, moved and guided Him…
* Don Bosco himself lived his entire life, open to the Spirit, because it was his desire to respond to what God asked of him, with regard to himself and for the sake of his boys. The path he followed at Chieri and his continual searching were a truly adventurous journey, as he allowed himself to be guided by the Spirit. This journey led him down the years to that harmony and personal unity that were far removed from any kind of fragmentation.
* It was the same thing with the Lord Jesus, with Mary of Nazareth - they lived an adventure of the Spirit that meant trusting in God without knowing the point of arrival - and with Don Bosco, whose yes to the Spirit was a real life adventure with incredible challenges. And this is the invitation we receive each day to go deeper along the path of the Spirit, allowing ourselves to be accompanied, led and surprised by Him. It is a path that holds a lot of "adventure": in it there are no certainties, but the point of arrival is fascinating.
* How do we express and manifest this path of interiority and spirituality that enables us to let the Spirit accompany our lives?
→ It is expressed in a profound experience of faith.
→ In cultivating the community dimension of this same faith.
→ By growing in mercy and in the fraternal dimension of our life.
* Finally, we would like to ask you, dear young people, to allow us to make this voyage of discovery together. Let us walk this journey together! Let us learn together, let us experience together, because this will do a lot of good to all of us. And, in this "all" we include the Salesian Family in all its various manifestations for whom this Strenna is primarily intended. But, we also think of you, the many thousands and thousands of young people who in various countries, cultures and Salesian presences are the animators of other young people, accompanying them on this adventurous journey, accompanied along the way by Him, the Spirit of God, who, as we said, surprises, stimulates, provokes, inspires, fascinates and accompanies ...
Ángel Fernández Artime
(A brief summary, outlining how the Strenna for 2016 will be developed in October)
