By Raymond Callo, SDB

Sacred Heart, Rome, 23 July 2024 -- I am sharing a few notes regarding the annual retreat because it is something precious in our life as Salesians and during this time of the year many of us are doing our annual retreat. It is also good to go back to our origins and reclaim its value and what was lost along the way. If someone wants to read the whole book of Fr. Giuseppe Buccellato, I also make it available here.

From 1842 to 1872 (32 years), Don Bosco would walk for 7 hours from Turin to Saint Ignatius at Lanzo to do his annual spiritual exercises. This was a practice he learned at the Convitto with Fr. Cafassso.

It profited Don Bosco so much in his spiritual growth that he wanted to enter the Oblates of the Virgin Mary and devote his whole life to giving the spiritual exercises. But Fr. Cafasso would not permit him.

So that in the year (1848), Don Bosco started offering the spiritual exercise at the Oratory to his boys, about 50 of them. He adapted the spiritual exercises according to their age.

And in the foundation of our Congregation, he would include in our Constitutions of 1875 article 6, that one of our ministries is to zealously endeavour to preach the spiritual exercises to confirm and direct in piety those who, moved by the desire to change their lives, and come to listen to them.

And in the minutes of the first general chapter of 1877, it is written, "We have seen that here the Congregation can be said to have taken a somewhat marked development only from the time when they began to make the Spiritual Exercises specifically”.

What does our father Don Bosco recommend to his boys to make the spiritual exercises well? He recommends 3 things:

1. Strict observance of silence except during times of recreation. He adapted it to their age, so recreation was included in the program.

2. Diligence in taking part in the practices of piety.

3. To reflect on what grace(s) our Lord is giving in this spiritual exercises.

From the Minutes of the First General Chapter of 1877, it is written: During the time of the exercises, one should observe perfect silence from the external world to speak only with God. Therefore, one should speak to no one except one's director, leave all tasks or correspondence, love solitude and retreat, and keep all the senses, especially the eyes, guarded. The more solitary the soul, the more it will speak to God and hear his voice. Meditation is to be done with reverence, with integrity and with fervour, following the norms outlined by St. Ignatius for doing meditation well. With reverence as to the position, with integrity as to the time allotted, with fervour as to the application.

Constitutions article 91 says, our will for conversion is strengthened in the monthly recollection and in the annual retreat. These are occasions of spiritual renewal which Don Bosco considered the fundamental part and the synthesis of all the practices of piety.

For the community and for every Salesian these are privileged moments for listening to the Word of God, discerning his will and purifying our hearts.

These times of grace restore to our spirit a deep unity in the Lord Jesus and keep alive in us the expectation of his return. Then in our Regulations article 72, every year the members will make a retreat of six days in the manner laid down by the provincial chapter, which they will conclude with the renewal of the commitments assumed at religious profession.

References:

Buccellato, G. (2008). Appunti per una 'storia spirituale' del sacerdote Gio Bosco. (I. Coelho, Trans.) Leumann - Turin: ElleDici. 

Attached file: Notes for a Spiritual History of Father John Bosco.pdf

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