Fr Maravilla affirms in his reflection, entrusted to the bulletin of Salesian Missionary Animation “Cagliero11”: Through the Sacrament of Baptism, all Christians are people of God and share in the mission of the Church. The Second Vatican Council emphasised in a special way that every baptized person and all Christian communities share in the Church’s missionary task of extending the frontiers of the faith (Ad Gentes, 2, 6).
Therefore, every disciple and every Christian community is challenged and invited to be missionary by making its own the mandate entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles, to be his "witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1 , 8). Thus, Pope Francis insists that for every baptized member of the Church "we no longer say that we are 'disciples' and 'missionaries', but that we are always 'missionary disciples'" (Evangelii Gaudium, 120).
As consecrated persons, our Salesian religious profession is a unique and fruitful deepening of our baptismal consecration in view of our particular mission in the Church. As Salesians, we are, everywhere, true missionaries of the young and the youth is our mission land. We live our identity of missionary disciples by living Don Bosco’s missionary spirit. This missionary spirit – summed up in the 'Da mihi animas' - is the heart of our pastoral charity, which manifests itself in the 'oratorian heart', fervour, drive and the capacity for intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. It is the passion for evangelization, especially of young people, and the willingness to be sent wherever there is a need, expressed in ‘Io ci vado - I'll go there, that Fr Alberto Caviglia considered as being the 'Salesian motto'. In short, the missionary spirit is typical of every Salesian, because its roots are in Don Bosco’s charism itself. It is this missionary spirit that makes us live the Salesian consecrated life "in a permanent state of mission".
To learn more about what it means to be a disciple and how to accept the proposal of Jesus when he says: “Follow me”, the video of October CaglieroLIFE is also available.
