austraLasia 1399
A momentous day for family, for the Salesian Family
ROME: 20th January 2006 -- It is evening still as this is being written, and the writer has just slipped away from translating the Rector Major as he spoke to a crowded aula magna filled with hundreds of members of the Salesian Family from around the world. It was tonight, in the context of talks, interventions and group discussion on the Strenna, that the Rector Major chose to let slip what he has kept a close-guarded secret since visiting Pope Benedict XVI privately some days ago. In fact, as he said, much of that conversation will remain private, but he could tell us that the Pope renewed his insistence that 'Your mother, the mother of your family, must be glorified soon'. The discussion had included the fact that back in July, at Le Combe in the Italian Alps, the Rector Major had met Benedict to welcome him there for a few days rest. The Pope there had indicated that Mamma Margaret 'is a saint' and that not even the whole process would be required to state that formally. The Rector Major asked that the process not be shortened as such, but that the crucial step of setting up the theological commission might be taken soon (apparently all the historical work has been completed). This most recent encounter between Pope and Fr Pascual confirmed that on that very evening the Pope would personally invite that step to be taken. All other things being equal, we should see the process move quickly.
The last 24 hours has produced a number of remarkable presentations. They were translated 'on the run', and for the moment a hard copy English version is not available. Two Salesians, Fr Juan Jose Bartolomé, the Rector Major's personal secretary, and Fr Aldo Giraudo, offered insights into family life from two very different perspectives.
Fr Bartolomé is a biblical scholar - his presentation of the Holy Family of Nazareth was strikingly new. Beyond Incarnation, a theologically well studied belief, God went in search of a family in which to learn to be human, a much less studied aspect, according to the speaker. As for us, so it was for Jesus, he explains: God too, chose to learn to be human, to be educated and brought up. The speaker compared and contrasted the two forms of 'annunciation', to Mary in dialogue and to Joseph in a dream, two rather different ways of letting God's will be known which meant different things for the respondents. Was much more, in fact, being asked of Joseph? For all kinds of reasons he had far less say in what was happening around him! Fr Bartolomé also explored the price the couple had to pay for accepting God in their midst. There were some fascinating reflections on the Mother-Son relationship....as Jesus grew in his humanity, his clarity about being the Son of God, his 'distance' from his mother grew too; what did that do to Mary?
Fr Giraudo is a 'new breed' Salesian scholar, solidly based on the old, but fresh and unassumingly evocative in his knowledge and presentation of Don Bosco. It is he who has so strongly expressed the narrative strength of Don Bosco's writings, and today he drew out from a wide range of these texts the way Don Bosco has highlighted, often through narrative, his own core experience of family, where Mamma Margaret is so central. The material was enlightening, historically thorough, but handled with the same narrative warmth as its subject.
This gathering of the Salesian Family may go down as one of the better ones. The Rector Major said as much, and 'signed' it with his own acknowledgment that the choice of the family as this year's Strenna has proven an 'indovinata scelta', meaning, in context, that it has been an inspired choice.
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
A momentous day for family, for the Salesian Family
ROME: 20th January 2006 -- It is evening still as this is being written, and the writer has just slipped away from translating the Rector Major as he spoke to a crowded aula magna filled with hundreds of members of the Salesian Family from around the world. It was tonight, in the context of talks, interventions and group discussion on the Strenna, that the Rector Major chose to let slip what he has kept a close-guarded secret since visiting Pope Benedict XVI privately some days ago. In fact, as he said, much of that conversation will remain private, but he could tell us that the Pope renewed his insistence that 'Your mother, the mother of your family, must be glorified soon'. The discussion had included the fact that back in July, at Le Combe in the Italian Alps, the Rector Major had met Benedict to welcome him there for a few days rest. The Pope there had indicated that Mamma Margaret 'is a saint' and that not even the whole process would be required to state that formally. The Rector Major asked that the process not be shortened as such, but that the crucial step of setting up the theological commission might be taken soon (apparently all the historical work has been completed). This most recent encounter between Pope and Fr Pascual confirmed that on that very evening the Pope would personally invite that step to be taken. All other things being equal, we should see the process move quickly.
The last 24 hours has produced a number of remarkable presentations. They were translated 'on the run', and for the moment a hard copy English version is not available. Two Salesians, Fr Juan Jose Bartolomé, the Rector Major's personal secretary, and Fr Aldo Giraudo, offered insights into family life from two very different perspectives.
Fr Bartolomé is a biblical scholar - his presentation of the Holy Family of Nazareth was strikingly new. Beyond Incarnation, a theologically well studied belief, God went in search of a family in which to learn to be human, a much less studied aspect, according to the speaker. As for us, so it was for Jesus, he explains: God too, chose to learn to be human, to be educated and brought up. The speaker compared and contrasted the two forms of 'annunciation', to Mary in dialogue and to Joseph in a dream, two rather different ways of letting God's will be known which meant different things for the respondents. Was much more, in fact, being asked of Joseph? For all kinds of reasons he had far less say in what was happening around him! Fr Bartolomé also explored the price the couple had to pay for accepting God in their midst. There were some fascinating reflections on the Mother-Son relationship....as Jesus grew in his humanity, his clarity about being the Son of God, his 'distance' from his mother grew too; what did that do to Mary?
Fr Giraudo is a 'new breed' Salesian scholar, solidly based on the old, but fresh and unassumingly evocative in his knowledge and presentation of Don Bosco. It is he who has so strongly expressed the narrative strength of Don Bosco's writings, and today he drew out from a wide range of these texts the way Don Bosco has highlighted, often through narrative, his own core experience of family, where Mamma Margaret is so central. The material was enlightening, historically thorough, but handled with the same narrative warmth as its subject.
This gathering of the Salesian Family may go down as one of the better ones. The Rector Major said as much, and 'signed' it with his own acknowledgment that the choice of the family as this year's Strenna has proven an 'indovinata scelta', meaning, in context, that it has been an inspired choice.
_____________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
