ROME: 6th January 2005 --  In some parts of the world, the Feast of the Epiphany is the special time for giving gifts.

    It is some time since austraLasia offered you a gift!  This is now remedied.  IF you would like you own zipped copy of the Salesian Thesaurus, then reply to this email and I will see that it is attached by return email. The zipped format (thes.zip) is only 127 kb.  The full document is over 1,000 kb.

    What is A Salesian Thesaurus?  It contains some 700 terms most of which are in regular use by Salesians, some of which are of historical interest - the term is not in regular use, but would be known as part of the Salesian story.  The emphasis here is one the 'thesaurus'.  The item doubles as a translator's glossary - and translators will be interested in this aspect of it - but for all other users, the most valuable aspect will be the small 'bytes' of information concerning the words we use.

    Since you will be receiving it in digital form, the fact that the 'headword' of each term is in its original language, is not a problem.  The entire set of terms is easily searchable using Word's simple search facility.  For 90 percent of these terms that original language is Italian, but you will find English, Swahili, Spanish, French, Sanskrit....whenever a term has come into Salesian discourse via a language other than Italian, in other words.

    You should find this collection most valuable - as far as I know, nothing of its kind exists in the English-speaking world, and even in Italian, while there are collections of historical Salesian terms, and collections of terms for specific areas, there is no such compendium or thesaurus of our contemporary Salesian terminology.  Members of the Salesian Family too will find this helpful, I am sure.

    It may be that your favourite Salesian word is not there!  Chances are, of course, that it will be there - 700 terms is quite a lot, after all.  But if your term is not there, then please feel free to advise me of its absence and to offer a line or two in description of that term.  On the other hand of your term is there but you disagree strongly with what is said about it, then do write also to inform me of that - and again to offer your own thoughts on what it should be.  All views will be considered.  Where we disagree, I will seek the most authoritative viewpoint on the term to resolve the issue.

    In due course this will also be available on the web - and possibly in print, but it is in continual development, so not just yet.

    Happy Epiphany!

    JBF