Dear confrere,
Cordial greetings from the Generalate, the house of the Successor of
Don Bosco.
I want to say to you, also on behalf of the Rector Major, a sincere thank you for your closeness and for your affection, but above all, for your fraternal prayer for Fr Ángel Fernández, for the whole Congregation and in particular, for all the missions and all the missionaries of the world.
Since GC27 chose me to be Councillor for the Missions, I have relied frequently on the prayers of so many confreres who are elderly, sick or who are unable to be involved in direct educational missionary work. You know that our Constitutions ask the Councillor for the Missions “to promote throughout the Society the missionary spirit and commitment” (C 138). This also requires much prayer! […]
The seventh successor of Don Bosco taught us in hisbeautiful letter “Martyrdom and passion” (Fr Egidio Viganò, in ACS 308): “Sick confreres were for Don Bosco, a kind of ‘paschal mediation’, for obtaining the blessings of the Lord on the apostolic activities of the community. Sufferings accepted in the spirit of the ‘da mihi animas’, do not exclude the confrere from the pastoral campaign; in fact they place him in the very front trenches and invest him with a distinctive role. […]”.
Dear confrere, with these few words and powerful thoughts, finally, with all my heart I wanted to tell you two things: a big thank you and also, that we count on you! A big thank you for your fidelity and for your testimony, for your patience and for your generous daily contribution to the Congregation and its mission, for all the souls whom you have helped and still help to save. And at the same time, to tell you that we rely so much on you, on your prayers and on your patient daily offering, especially with Jesus in the Eucharist. Through your prayer and offering, I entrust to you this year two special intentions:
- First, for all the novices of the Congregation , […] so that they may not be afraid to give themselves to the Lord once and for all and to place themselves at the disposal of the Rector Major to go as missionaries ;
- And then for our missionary presence in the Americas, especially among the indigenous peoples who are the poorest and most abandoned. […]
May Mary's maternal consolation be your inspiration and your support every day of your Salesian life. Thank you!
