News

Don Bosco based his approach to prayer on St Francis de Sales' vision of a loving and saving God. He modelled his prayer in a down to earth, loving kindness for the young, which reflected his deep faith in God's presence. Six words capture this style.

Moving

Salesian prayer engages the heart as well as the head. It also moves a person towards change and to see things differently.

Youthful

There is an energy... Read More »

Don Bosco asked Salesians to treat the young as their teachers. To learn the needs, hopes, and insecurities of young people should be paramount in the minds and the hearts of Salesians. This attitude of reverence is rooted in the recognition of God's unfolding presence in every young life. The Salesian serves this inner spirit in the young by growing into the Gospel image of the Good Shepherd who lays... Read More »

INTRODUCTION

Because of who we are, our backgrounds, our experiences etc. we all look at things or approach things differently. It is like looking at the world through our own inner window.

Don Bosco approached his work with young people, by looking through his window; for him his work involved four different window panes - SCHOOL, CHURCH, PLAYGROUND and HOME. The vital part of all this fourfold pattern... Read More »

My belief is that in every young person there is an individual goodness, and where I cannot yet see it, then I am challenged find it. "You are young, you are precious, you are loved."

It all starts with my attitude to young people, my belief, value system and my spiritual development. My values, beliefs, spirituality, are "caught", by my being a role model for the young person.

I want to be engaged with... Read More »

More than a name

We look to Jesus in order to know God and how God is towards us. That's why Jesus could say "Learn from me." He asked us to learn especially that he is "gentle and humble of heart." (Mt 11:29). St Francis de Sales is one who learned and lived the gentle love of Christ to such an extent that those who knew him would say that if Jesus were to appear at any time, they would know him because... Read More »

Don Bosco has left us some substantial monuments in the great Churches which he built during his lifetime: the Church of St Francis de Sales in the Oratory (1852), that of St John the Evangelist, Turin (1882), on which our Salesian Church of the Sacred Heart in Battersea (1894) was based and the crowning glories of the Basilicas of Mary Help of Christians, Turin (1868) and that of the Sacred Heart... Read More »

On 8th December 1841, four months after his priestly Ordination, Don Bosco met an orphan called Bartholomew Garelli who was sheltering from the cold in Church. After spending some time with him, Don Bosco invited him to return the following Sunday with some of his friends. So began the special youth club or Oratory which met every Sunday and Feast day. There were games, religious instruction, access... Read More »

John Melchior Bosco was born on 16th August 1815 in a little hamlet called "the Becchi" in the Parish of Castelnuovo d'Asti, twenty miles from Turin, Northern Italy. He was the youngest of a family that consisted of his mother and father, his brother Joseph, stepbrother Anthony and his grandmother. They were poor farmers and lived a very hard, frugal life.

When John was two years old, his father died,... Read More »

Mary Mazzarello had no intention of starting a religious congregation. Young and single by choice, she wanted to do something worthwhile with her life. She became aware of a specific need in her village which she could address. There were a number of girls who were at a loose end, once their meagre schooling was over, and household chores were finished.

With the co-operation of her closest friend, Petronilla,... Read More »

Born in 1837, Mary Mazzarello grew up in a hard-working, God-fearing peasant family in northern Italy. She was a normal teenager of her times-intelligent, enterprising, hard-working, fun-loving and always in the height of local fashion.

As she grew into young adulthood, she began to sense that God was calling her to belong totally to Himself and she responded by consecrating herself completely to Him.... Read More »