Our Founder assures us that the salesian vocation cannot be explained either in its birth or in its continuing development without the continual and maternal guidance of Mary. Often he himself claimed that the Madonna was its “foundress” and its “support”, and he assures us that "our Congregation is destined to do great things and to spread all over the world, if the salesians remain faithful to the Rule given to them by Mary.”
He even allowed the following exclamation to escape him: "Mary loves us too much!” Don Rua, the great “continuer” of the vocation of Don Bosco who “teaches salesians to remain salesians” - as Paul VI has said to us – continually stressed the close relationship that exists between the salesian vocation and devotion to the Help of Christians.
It seems particularly evocative to emphasize the interesting observation he made at the coronation of the Madonna at Valdocco on 17th May 1903. After describing the ceremony with joyful effusion, he adds: “I have no doubt that an increase among salesians of devotion to Mary Help of Christians will also lead to an increase of esteem and affection for Don Bosco, as well as a greater dedication to the preservation of his spirit and imitation of his virtues.”
There is here a very clear intuition of the close and vital relationship that exists between devotion to the Help of Christians and our spirituality. Don Albera too, with his delicate sensitivity for the more spiritual aspects of our vocation, insists on the continual presence of Mary. He writes: “Whi1e speaking to his spiritual sons, (Don Bosco) never tired of repeating that the work he had undertaken was inspired by Mary, that Mary was its strong support, and that in consequence it need fear nothing from the opposition of its enemies.”
Particularly significant, to conclude this argument, is an allusion to St Francis of Sales, in so far as he is the “master of salesianity” in the history of the spiritual life. Describing the almost imprudent magnanimity of our Founder, particularly in the construction of the basilica at Valdocco, Don Albera sees in this extraordinary courage an element of “salesianity”. He affirms: “He shows himself a disciple of our St Francis of Sales who once wrote, ‘I am fully aware of the great blessing of being a son of such a glorious Mother, even though I am quite unworthy of it. Confiding in her protection, we can take on quite extraordinary enterprises. If we love her with deep affection she will obtain for us all we desire’.”
Without doubt it would be of great benefit to study in depth the significance and function of devotion to the Help of Christians in our salesian spirituality, but suffice it to outline briefly a few suggestions in the hope that they may provide inspiration for our Marian renewal.
We know that a spirituality is worthy of the name only if it forms an organic whole, where each element has its precise place and function. To displace, to fail to consider, or to suppress this or that element would be to begin the ruination of the whole. Now devotion to the Help of Christians is, as we have seen, an integral part of the “salesian phenomenon” in the Church because it forms a vital part of its totality. It would be senseless and even detructive to try to separate our spirituality from devotion to Mary Help of Chtistians, just as it is impossible to separate Don Bosco from the Madonna; that would be an absurdity. Devotion to the Help of Christians is therefore an essential part of our charism. It permeates its whole structure and gives life to the various component parts.
Without a healthy Marian life our spirituality would suffer in its vigour and fruitfulness, while on the other hand a timely effort towards a profound Marian renewal will give freshness to the whole of the salesian vocation.
Let it suffice to note how our devotion to the Help of Christians is closely and vitally connected with the salesian "mission" and with the "spirit" of our own particular charism.
First, its intimate link with the salesian mission: Mary is the shepherd girl of the dreams, who plans the exact nature of our mission and indicates those for whom we are to work, handing over to us the field of “youth apostolate”. It is her characteristic as the Helper of Christians which opens the mission of the salesians to the wide horizons of modern social and religious problems, along with a definite choice to serve the whole Church and its pastors. It is her maternal goodness which also inspires our pastoral criteria and teaches us a way in which we must approach those for whom we work.
Secondly, her profound relationship with the salesian spirit which finds in Mary, seen as the Help of Christians, its inspiration and its model. It is a spirit centred on “pastoral love”, inspired by the maternal love of the Madonna and rooted in the maternal love of the Church. All this implies a careful listening for the promptings of God, a total adhesion to Christ and a complete openness to his ways. It is a spirit full of hope (sure of “help” from above) in an interior attitude of basic optimism towards the natural and supernatural resources of man. It is a spirit of apostolic fruitfulness vivified by zeal for the Church, a spirit of courageous inventiveness and an adaptability appropriate to the vicissitudes of created things. It is a spirit of goodness and of familiar behaviour, full of the richness and simplicity of attitude which flows from sincerity of heart. It is a spirit of magnanimity (as in the Magnificat) which humbly desires to do all the good that it can, even when this seems imprudent, allowing itself to be guided by courage, faith and common sense, and avoiding all extremes.
We can conclude these few ideas by saying that just as in the life of Don Bosco the devotion to the Help of Christians, which was worked out in the full maturity of his vocation, was at the same time the point of arrival of a long period of growth and the departure point for his whole vast apostolic programme, so in the same way it constitutes in salesian spirituality the concrete synthesis of its various parts and is the life-giving source for its dynamism and fruitfulness. Hence what this devotion was at the foundation of our spirituality it must also be at every moment of its renewal.
Source: E. Viganò, Our devotion to Mary Help of Christians, in «Acts of Superior Council» 59 (1978) 289, 27-30
