After the welcome, from the Provincial of the Province of Mary Help of Christians (ICP) of the Salesians, Fr Leonardo Mancini, and of the Vicar of the Province of Mary Help of Christians (IPI) of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sr. Maria Torre, the participants listened to the talk by Fr Roberto Carelli, professor of Theological Anthropology at the Faculty of Theology of the UPS of Turin-Crocetta and spiritual animator of the Primary ADMA of Turin, entitled “The family, our family, my family”.
In the year of the "Amoris Laetitia Family" that Pope Francis proposed to the universal Church to bear witness to family love – which opened last March and which will end on 26 June 2022 in Rome with the 10th World Meeting of Families, Fr Carelli took into consideration the reality and challenges of the family, starting with Pope Francis' Encyclical Amoris Laetitiae (AL 32-37). He invited everyone "to live and witness, taste and let taste, the beauty of faithful, fruitful, social, affectionate and intimate family ties, while avoiding close mindedness and judgments that contradict family as a place of maturation of freedom and of love."
A Salesian Cooperator and a couple belonging to the Contemplative Fraternity of Nazareth, the 31st group of the Salesian Family, then brought their testimony, underlining the Marian dimension lived in their respective areas. Fr Alejandro Guevara Rodríguez, world spiritual animator of ADMA, concluded the first session with a pastoral reflection, starting from the experience of the pandemic, on the path of growth in communion with others, as a family, as a Salesian Family and as a local Church.
A second session was a prayer moment in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians with the prayer of the Rosary, a time of Eucharistic Adoration and the finally the Eucharistic Celebration presided over by the Vicar of the Rector Major, Fr Stefano Martoglio who, on World Mission Day, highlighted the aspect of being missionary in the experience of the ADMA Association: spreading devotion to Mary Help of Christians and the Eucharist.
Sister Lucrecia Uribe, FMA, ADMA world animator, finally greeted the participants of the Marian Day 2021 taking as a starting point the theme of the Synod of Bishops currently underway, namely synodality, proposing three attitudes to be privileged: becoming experts in the art of meeting, listening with the heart and discerning. She pointed also to three risks to be avoided: formalism, self-reference and immobility. To conclude, she indicated three opportunities to strengthen synodality in the ADMA Group: to be what Don Bosco thought of for all devotees of Mary, that is, an association with an ecclesial breath; take time to listen to people close by; and become an Association that practices closeness to each other.
The Marian Day was also an opportunity to proceed with the renewal of the Turin ADMA Presidency Council for the next four years.
