Don Bosco Bicentenary Tour: Stop 1- Tour de Gator

I was fortunate to travel last week on the first leg of the vocation tour to celebrate the bicentenary of Don Bosco’s birth was with the Gators at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The environment at the Catholic Center at U of F, given its formative character and its missionary outreach, was very welcoming and energetic. It definitely prepares the students to be agents of discipleship and to discern their prospective future vocation. What a great place to begin! 

A viewing of the vocation video followed by a Don Bosco skit was performed at a discernment house and at the Catholic Center.   Three Salesian alumni: Francis Mijares (Immaculata-LaSalle), Eddy Neret (Immaculata-LaSalle, and Jimmy Sebesta (St. Pete Catholic) were on hand to help with the skit and give witness talks on how the Salesian charism had impacted their lives.  For sure, the reunion with these alumni was a highlight of the entire experience.

Of the 50,000 students presently at the University of Florida, 10,000 are Catholic.  The goal of the Catholic Student Center at St. Augustine, headed by Father David Ruchinski, is to reach all Catholic students on campus by offering various programs and ministries to help in their growth and formation.  We were fortunate enough to have new participants gather with us on January 14 at the Catholic Student Center for a late evening of ministry formation geared to empower students to appropriate their faith, and bring it to the larger campus environment. 

That is essentially the goal of this two-year program.  This tour consists of prayer, evangelization, and salvation history so as to bring awareness of our own calls and vocations. With continued prayer and determination, I’m off onto the next stop on the tour. Stay tuned!!

              

Consecration Series - Part 1

Pope Francis’ apostolic letter to “All Consecrated People” provides us with the way to view how consecrated members of religious institutes are to embrace their relationship with God and live the Gospel more fully.  The letter was written in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Vatican II.  In Perfectae Caritatis, article five identifies virtue as the key for living the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience.  For the next series of blogs, we will explore how the theological and spiritual foundation of religious life disposes the Salesians to live the counsels.  By probing the internal sorts of Salesian consecrated life, the hoped-for outcome is to gain a better understanding and appreciation of religious life while learning how to embrace this life more fully in a contemporary setting.

Perfectae Caritatis expresses how religious are to respond to God’s call by living for God alone.  Religious dedicate the whole of their lives to a special consecration rooted in their baptismal consecration to live their baptism to the full.  Seeking God in this manner is always rooted in virtue.  For St. John Bosco, the whole of his life journey was a continuum to seek God which was influenced through the accompaniment of his mother Margaret, who taught him common sense and how pray three times a day; his friendship with Louis Comollo, who modeled to John how to keep one’s gaze on paradise; and his mentor Father Cafasso, who taught John how to use charity to win over the hearts of young men in prison.

Through these influences, John Bosco set up the environment of life in the oratory as a system of virtue such that learning was always rooted in reason, fairness, and charity.  Further, to be a disciple in this setting meant that everyone had to be open to share and give life to promote the virtue in others.  St. Dominic Savio was clearly a product of the system of virtue.  The exemplary way he modeled zeal for being available to his peers resulted from growing daily in his personal relationship with God through ardent prayer, peer relations, and loving service.  

With the models of St. John Bosco, St. Dominic Savio and countless others in our Salesian history, we embrace this call to "wake up the world" and pray for the consecrated in our community, for our fellow brothers and sisters around the world, and  those who have heard God's call to "Come, follow me" and are discerning.