Vocation Awareness Week--Responding to the Needs of the Times

     National vocation awareness week is an opportunity to recognize how we are to respond to the needs of our times by developing our particular skills and placing them at the service of others. John Bosco identified with disadvantaged young people while studying at the Pastoral Institute in Turin, Italy.  This experience prepared him for helping young people migrate from peasant farming communities to urban life.  Joseph Cafasso, a professor at the Pastoral Institute showed John Bosco the ropes on how to sharpen his skills to meet the needs of youth in prison. 

     John learned from Cafasso how to develop the proper “life skills” to win over the hearts of these  street-wise youth.  Initially youth would treat Cafasso with disdain and ridicule, however, through patient endurance Cafasso won their hearts over with genial affection and Christian zeal.  He connected with the young by handing out fruit and rolls to the young inmates while challenging them to deepen their faith so that they would look to a life beyond their incarceration.  This style of being there for youth enabled them to yearn for a life better lived.