Today we celebrated the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux or also known as St. Theresa of the Child Jesus or the Little Flower.\u00a0\u00a0 She entered the Carmelite convent at 15, with special permission from the Pope, and died when she was 24 years of age in 1897.\u00a0\u00a0 She lived a secluded, cloistered life as a Carmelite nun.\u00a0 But, she always longed to go to the missions.\u00a0\u00a0 She wrote her autobiography, The Story of a Soul,<\/u> urging all to follow \u201cthe little way.\u201d\u00a0 After her death, her autobiography became public and she became widely popular, even to this day.\u00a0\u00a0 Although she never went to the missions, she was declared patroness of the missions and later declared doctor of the Church.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is amazing (God\u2019s ways) that this nun, living in a cloistered monastery, would be declared patroness of the missions.\u00a0\u00a0 But, her love for the missions and for spreading the love of God, even in small and little ways, made her great.<\/p>\n
This last Sunday, September 29th<\/sup>, the Rector Major, Angel Fernandez Artime, presented the missionary cross to 36 SDB\u2019s and 13 FMA\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0 This was the 150 anniversary of the Salesian missionary expeditions.\u00a0\u00a0 Since these missionaries expeditions started, over 10,000 missionaries have been commissioned, given their missionary cross and sent out to different parts of the world.\u00a0\u00a0 We Salesians are a missionary congregation.\u00a0\u00a0 Unlike, Therese of the Child Jesus who could not leave her convent, Salesians actively go out to bring God\u2019s love and message to the world.\u00a0\u00a0 And in a way,\u00a0 we are connected\u2014St. Therese and the Salesians.\u00a0\u00a0 Both love the missions and both pray and work to spread the Gospel throughout the world.\u00a0\u00a0 St. Therese did it through prayer and her writings which have touched hundreds and thousands of people and inspired them to live holy lives.\u00a0\u00a0 That is really what being missionary is all about.\u00a0\u00a0 We are all called to be missionaries\u2014either actively going out or praying and being a witness of God\u2019s love to others.\u00a0 More converts are made through witness than through teaching.\u00a0\u00a0 The Popes have often said this.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Witness is powerful.\u00a0 As St. Francis of Assisi once said, preach and preach often\u2026and, use words if necessary!\u00a0 We preach powerfully with our lives!<\/p>\n Last Sunday, the Church celebrated World Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees.\u00a0\u00a0 A beautiful bronze and clay sculpture was presented to the Pope.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a life size sculpture of refugees and migrants in a boat, escaping to safety.\u00a0\u00a0 And, in the middle there appears wings.\u00a0 The name of the sculpture is \u201cAngels Unawares.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the midst of that crowd of refugees, the Divine is present, God is present, Angels are present.\u00a0 \u00a0God is found in the midst of those fleeing and seeking a new life.\u00a0 We Salesians are missionaries who are called to go out and be that divine presence to others.\u00a0\u00a0 Therese of Lisieux discovered the presence of the divine inside her convent in the little things and activities that filled her day.\u00a0\u00a0 We too are called to do likewise wherever we are.<\/p>\n I am in Los Angeles these days attending different meetings.\u00a0 Today, I was present at Don Bosco Tech\u2019s Board of Directors meetings.\u00a0 This coming Saturday, St. Bridget\u2019s Parish in Los Angeles China Town, is celebrating its 80th<\/sup> anniversary.\u00a0\u00a0 A special fundraiser and banquet is being hosted by the parish.\u00a0 The Provincial of Hong Kong will be present.\u00a0\u00a0 I also plan to attend.\u00a0 The Parish of St. Bridget\u2019s is a very active parish and very Salesian.\u00a0 At the moment they are working on raising funds to build a multimillion dollar building which would house offices, a youth center and a gathering place for parishioners.\u00a0 Please keep St. Bridget\u2019s parish in your prayers.\u00a0\u00a0 They have much for which to be thankful to God! \u00a0And, we are thankful for their contribution to the Chinese community, the Church and the Salesians, especially, in the Los Angeles Diocese.\u00a0\u00a0 They have been very generous and continue to do so.\u00a0 They have a large number of Salesian Cooperators which points to the fact that they love the Salesians and wish to continue Don Bosco\u2019s spirit and work with the young.\u00a0\u00a0 We CONGRATULATE ST. BRIDGET\u2019S PARISH and promise them our prayers.<\/p>\n This coming Sunday, we are celebrating anniversaries of Ordination and Profession.\u00a0\u00a0 Thirteen Salesians are celebrating anniversaries.\u00a0 Congratulations to our jubilarians!\u00a0 We wish to thank them for their many years of service and dedication to the Church and the Salesian mission to the young.\u00a0 \u00a0A Mass will be celebrated at St. Dominic Savio Parish at 3pm, followed by a reception for invited guests.\u00a0\u00a0 We honor those who are celebrating and accompany them with our prayers.<\/p>\n Next week, the provincial council will be traveling to San Antonio and Laredo, Texas for provincial council meetings and joint meetings with the provincial council of the Salesian Sisters.\u00a0\u00a0 Please keep us in your prayers.<\/p>\n With warm regards and gratitude,<\/p>\n Fr. Ted<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Salesian Sisters and Brothers, Today we celebrated the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux or also known as St. Theresa of the Child Jesus or the Little Flower.\u00a0\u00a0 She entered the Carmelite convent at 15, with special permission from the Pope, and died when she was 24 years of age in 1897.\u00a0\u00a0 She lived a secluded, cloistered life as a Carmelite nun.\u00a0 But, she … Continuar leyendo Provincial Letter: October 1st, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20310044,69785],"tags":[686820593,100143],"class_list":["post-2248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-province-news","category-provincial","tag-provincial-letter","tag-sdb"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-Ag","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2248"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2250,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions\/2250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}