austraLasia #3329
Don Bosco With God
TURIN: 13 December 2013 -- Ceria's 1946 classic, Don Bosco With God, comes back into the limelight with the 3rd and final year of preparation for the Bicentenary. A 2008 English edition, translated by Fr Michael Smyth and produced by St Paul Communications, was published in Nairobi and has almost certainly made its way into most English-speaking Salesian communities, but requests often come in for a digital version of this text. There has been a digital text floating around, a 1942 translation of the original 1930 and first edition by Ceria. But it was a scanned copy of what was possibly an Indian-published version, and had many scanning errors, making it at times difficult and often annoying to attempt to read.
There is now a corrected pdf copy of this 1942 translation available in SDL, so feel free to take a copy.
The translation is generally good and where it went wrong, such as the famous 'genial' for 'geniale' or 'whisper' for what we now always know as 'Word in the ear' and similar, that too has now been corrected, so overall the 1942 translation, while not as fluent as Michael Smyth's (and we are unlikley to be able to have that in digital form since it would be with St Paul's Communication and not 'in-house') is a worthy one.
Just as a reminder to the reader of what this item is all about, I quote from parts of the presentation of the 2008 edition by Fr Joaquim D'Souza, since the comments are also relevant in this case:
The author, Eugenio Ceria (1870-1957) is well known in Salesian circles for having published, together with Giovanni Battista Lemoyne, the monumental nineteen-volume work, The Biographical Memoirs of St John Bosco. In 1929, Fr Ceria was appointed to take up and complete the work interrupted with the death of Fr Lemoyne in 1916. In the Preface to Don Bosco with God, dated 31 January 1946, Ceria states that the idea for the book came to him at the time of the beatification of Don Bosco in 1929. To quote his words (pp.15-16):
“[Don Bosco’s] contemporaries were so taken up in admiration of his immense activity and various triumphs that they overlooked the fact that all his glory came from within – omnis gloria eius ab intus. Even the generation that came after his death preferred to dwell on the works of Don Bosco without paying much attention to the animating principle, that which has always been the secret of the saints: the spirit of prayer and union with God”
This book, therefore, was meant to correct the rather one-sided perception of Don Bosco’s true greatness by attempting as it were, “to lift the hem of the veil that covered his inner life”. Its publication in 1930 was met immediately with success. It is said that Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster, the Archbishop of Milan, on reading the book, remarked, “Finally, the Salesians have begun to understand Don Bosco!”
The central quote from Ceria himself about the spirit of prayer and union with God, is precisely what the 3rd year of preparation for the Bicentenary, focusing on Don Bosco's spirituality, is all about. It is a good indication, then, that this text will be very useful indeed for the coming year.
Hopefully tomorrow we can have something to say about a second item along these lines which just arrived today.
Don Bosco With God
TURIN: 13 December 2013 -- Ceria's 1946 classic, Don Bosco With God, comes back into the limelight with the 3rd and final year of preparation for the Bicentenary. A 2008 English edition, translated by Fr Michael Smyth and produced by St Paul Communications, was published in Nairobi and has almost certainly made its way into most English-speaking Salesian communities, but requests often come in for a digital version of this text. There has been a digital text floating around, a 1942 translation of the original 1930 and first edition by Ceria. But it was a scanned copy of what was possibly an Indian-published version, and had many scanning errors, making it at times difficult and often annoying to attempt to read.
There is now a corrected pdf copy of this 1942 translation available in SDL, so feel free to take a copy.
The translation is generally good and where it went wrong, such as the famous 'genial' for 'geniale' or 'whisper' for what we now always know as 'Word in the ear' and similar, that too has now been corrected, so overall the 1942 translation, while not as fluent as Michael Smyth's (and we are unlikley to be able to have that in digital form since it would be with St Paul's Communication and not 'in-house') is a worthy one.
Just as a reminder to the reader of what this item is all about, I quote from parts of the presentation of the 2008 edition by Fr Joaquim D'Souza, since the comments are also relevant in this case:
The author, Eugenio Ceria (1870-1957) is well known in Salesian circles for having published, together with Giovanni Battista Lemoyne, the monumental nineteen-volume work, The Biographical Memoirs of St John Bosco. In 1929, Fr Ceria was appointed to take up and complete the work interrupted with the death of Fr Lemoyne in 1916. In the Preface to Don Bosco with God, dated 31 January 1946, Ceria states that the idea for the book came to him at the time of the beatification of Don Bosco in 1929. To quote his words (pp.15-16):
“[Don Bosco’s] contemporaries were so taken up in admiration of his immense activity and various triumphs that they overlooked the fact that all his glory came from within – omnis gloria eius ab intus. Even the generation that came after his death preferred to dwell on the works of Don Bosco without paying much attention to the animating principle, that which has always been the secret of the saints: the spirit of prayer and union with God”
This book, therefore, was meant to correct the rather one-sided perception of Don Bosco’s true greatness by attempting as it were, “to lift the hem of the veil that covered his inner life”. Its publication in 1930 was met immediately with success. It is said that Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster, the Archbishop of Milan, on reading the book, remarked, “Finally, the Salesians have begun to understand Don Bosco!”
The central quote from Ceria himself about the spirit of prayer and union with God, is precisely what the 3rd year of preparation for the Bicentenary, focusing on Don Bosco's spirituality, is all about. It is a good indication, then, that this text will be very useful indeed for the coming year.
Hopefully tomorrow we can have something to say about a second item along these lines which just arrived today.
