Italy – "Fine Fabric". For a craft of Salesian accompaniment

14 September 2018

(ANS - Rome) – At the end of a lengthy gestation, the volume "Buona Stoffa", which involved the Salesians of Italy, has finally come to fruition. The book was curated by the National Office of the Salesian Provinces Conference of Italy and the Salesian Center for Youth Ministry.

After the volumes "... Darei la Vita" (2009) and "Messis Multa ..." (2013), "Buona Stoffa" ends the series, not in the sense that it becomes the series or path is  finished or final, but in the awareness of having provided a multiplicity of instruments to venture into the art of vocational accompaniment.

The book "Buona stoffa, that is, fine fabric or good cloth, features the recovery and collection of the living experience of Salesian personal accompaniment, with the listening of various religious involved in this educational practice; throughout, it has kept and made constant reference to the narratives of Don Bosco, who delivered that special way of accompaniment being structured within the walls of Valdocco.

It is a text born more amid the noise and chatter of a courtyard or playground than in the silence of a library; a text that asks to be personalized in the experience of every educator-companion, and that does not offer pre-established recipes or formulae, but invites us all to well discern in order to grasp the voice of the Spirit.

There are three chapters in which this path unfolds, each starting from an episode in the life of Don Bosco: the dialogue with Cafasso, his spiritual guide; the meeting with Domenico Savio, the mature fruit of Salesian pedagogy; and the accompaniment with Michele Magone, the ringleader of a group of street children who at the oratory experiences the possibility of changing one's life.

Of the three icons that of Domenico Savio is certainly the most significant: the "fine fabric, or cloth" is the person of the young man who delivers himself into the hands of the one he has chosen as his guide. The educator, like a skilled tailor, is called to help the young person express all the riches that the fabric carries and is of itself.

In support of the text, the Vocations Office has produced other material, including three evocative videos, soon to be published, produced by "Ime Communication" (IME).

The text, published in "Note di Pastorale Giovanile" of March 2018, is currently being distributed in Salesian Italy in an edition edited by the CISI. The Salesian publisher "Edebé" has curated the translation and publication in Portuguese for the America South Cone region.

The book will soon be available for download on: www.donboscoitalia.it  

For further information, please write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

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