This date was chosen because it marks the simple yet fruitful beginning of our existence and our calling as Salesians. On that day in 1854, Rua, Cagliero, Artiglia and Rocchietti gathered in Don Bosco’s room. The minutes of that meeting, written by 16-year-old Michael Rua, were recorded in a 12 cm by 5 cm notebook, the first document that can be found today in the Don Bosco House Museum, if you enter his room through the original entrance, which was from the external balcony.
On the evening of 26 January 1854 we gathered in Don Bosco’s room: Don Bosco, Rocchietti, Artiglia, Cagliero and Rua; we were invited to engage, with the help of God and of St Francis de Sales, in an experiment in the practical exercise of charity towards our neighbour, in order eventually to make a promise and later, if possible and appropriate, a vow of it to the Lord. From that evening the name Salesians was given to those who chose and would in the future choose to engage in such an exercise.
As Fr Fabio states in the interview he gave on this occasion, which can be accessed via this links, that promulgating the Ratio on the same date means giving the whole process the right direction from the outset. Indeed it is a journey that begins with a renewed fidelity to the Salesian vocation and mission for our times, with its challenges and opportunities. This is what the Rector Major says: ‘“The name Salesians was given”...As we approach the Feast of Don Bosco, let us think about what came from those humble beginnings, and how the lives of millions of young people have been touched and transformed by that “practical exercise of charity towards our neighbour”, which then became a promise and vow to the Lord, at the school of our father and teacher. There are many more young people looking to Don Bosco today, and there will be many more tomorrow. The more we are creatively faithful to the vocation and mission entrusted to us, the more the young people who enter our houses and meet those who continue the exercise of charity begun by Rua and Cagliero today “will be happy in time and in eternity”, which is the only desire of Don Bosco’s heart, as he assured us in his letter from Rome, written from this very house in 1884. Put simply, the Ratio is all of this: let us not let this gift of conversion and renewal that the Lord gives us slip through our fingers.’
The decree of promulgation is available at the bottom of the page, and the full text of the document will be available in digital format as soon as the official translations are completed, by the end of February. The printed edition will also be published shortly thereafter.
Audio-visual materials and other aids for learning about and making this fifth edition of the Ratio your own will be distributed, focusing above all on the first five chapters (60 pages in total, of the approved text), which bring together the fundamental themes that inspire the whole process, before moving on to more specific aspects such as structures, initial stages of formation, admissions, study plans...
This year, audio-visual aids and reading guides for each of the first chapters will be released every two months (Chapter 1 in early March, Chapter 2 in early May, Chapter 3 in early July, Chapter 4 in early September, and Chapter 5 in early November). They can be used for community animation as well as for personal formation. Those who wish to receive them at their email address and/or WhatsApp can indicate this via this link.
A hundred young Salesians from various regions are working to offer proposals for involving confreres and communities in the initial stages of formation, to make this new journey an interactive process, using language familiar to the younger generations.
