{"id":9198,"date":"2024-01-13T08:25:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T16:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=9198"},"modified":"2025-04-22T18:31:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T01:31:58","slug":"a-year-of-dreams-from-on-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2024\/01\/13\/a-year-of-dreams-from-on-high\/","title":{"rendered":"A Year of Dreams from on High"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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THE RECTOR MAJOR\u2019S MESSAGE, <\/strong>Card. \u00c1ngel Fern\u00e1ndez Artime, SDB<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear friends: we are at the threshold of a new year, 2024, a truly special year because we remember the bicentennial of Don Bosco\u2019s dream at age nine. This dream was much more than a pleasant episode in the life of a nine-year-old boy; it was like a dream-vision and a premonition of what he was to do in the course of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty-two years later, while celebrating his first and last Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome, which had been consecrated two days earlier, Don Bosco burst into tears more than fifteen times because he saw all the scenes of his life unfold, in quick succession as though as in a movie. He understood that he had always been guided by Divine Providence and, in particular, led by the hand of Her, the Help of Christians, to the point that he said, \u201cIt is She who has done everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That New Year\u2019s Day of 1862<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This commemoration leads me to think of a significant New Year in Don Bosco\u2019s life. It is the first of January, 1862.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biographical Memoirs<\/em> tell us that Don Bosco, who had been ill until that first day of the year, announced that he had important news to give to everyone living at the Oratory, both big and small. \u201cThe excitement caused by Don Bosco\u2019s promise [of a personal strenna] defies description. How slowly the hours dragged that night of December 31 and all the next day. How eagerly the youngsters awaited evening to hear what their good father had to tell them,\u201d Fr. Lemoyne writes. \u201cAt last, night prayers were over and the boys, perfectly silent, stood waiting for Don Bosco. He mounted the little platform and unveiled the mystery, saying, \u2018The strenna I am about to give you is not my own. What would you say if the Madonna herself were to come in person and say something to each one of you \u2014 if she herself had prepared a little note for each of you to tell you what you most need or what she desires from you? Well, that\u2019s exactly what has happened. The Madonna gives a strenna to each of you\u2026. I foresee that some will want to know more and will ask, \u2018How did this happen?\u2019 \u2018Did the Madonna write the notes herself?\u2019 \u2018Did she speak to Don Bosco in person?\u2019 \u2018Is Don Bosco our Lady\u2019s secretary?\u2019 I shall not add anything to what I have already said. I wrote the notes myself, but I am not free to disclose how it all came about. Nor should anyone take it upon himself to question me, for this would place me in a very awkward position. Be satisfied with the assurance that each note comes from our Lady\u2026. It\u2019s an amazing thing! For several years I have been praying for this grace and have at last obtained it. Let each of you, then, take this advice as coming from our Lady\u2019s very lips. Come, therefore, to my room, and I shall give each of you your note.\u2019\u201d Don Bosco could say this because he himself had received from our Lady, at the age of nine, the message that would mark the entire course of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, continuing the narrative of that same evening, \u201cThose mentioned [the Salesians] followed Don Bosco to his room and that evening or the next received the first of those precious New Year\u2019s messages. John Bonetti\u2019s read as follows: \u2018Increase the number of my sons.\u2019 He at once recorded it in his chronicle, adding: \u2018My loving Mother, along with this dear advice, give me also the means to carry it out. Grant me grace to succeed in this and to be included among your sons.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Rua\u2019s said, \u201cIn your spiritual needs put your trust in Me.\u201d (The Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco,<\/em> VII, 1-7.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning on the following morning, the young men crowded to the door of Don Bosco\u2019s room to receive their notes. I can easily imagine how Don Bosco knew how to reach the heart of every Salesian and every boy in the Oratory, not by means of some invention of his, but with the deep conviction of what our Lady wanted for each of them. At the same time, he managed to do so in the way characteristic of Don Bosco: always as a true teacher and a true genius. Here, I am referring to the art of personal encounter, of dialogue, and of the gaze that reaches the depths of the heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I read this, I wondered whether it would not be possible for this to happen also to us. We have sent greeting cards to many people. If Mary Most Holy had sent a greeting card to the Salesian Congregation, to each one of us, and to the beautiful and great Salesian Family, the family of Don Bosco, what would She have written?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking the way of Don Bosco<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is beautiful to imagine this. I assure you that in my imagination there are many beautiful things that our Lady would ask of us, both personally and as Don Bosco\u2019s Family, which was raised up to accompany the boys and girls of the world \u2013 especially the poorest and neediest \u2013 in their process of growth, maturation, and transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mystery of the new year, which ultimately develops the mystery of Christmas, tells us: \u201cYou are not conditioned by the past. Today you can start anew because there is something new in you. Take into your arms the Divine Child, who brings you into contact with all the newness that is available there, genuine and intact, in your soul. Start over again with the little ones, the teens, and the young adults. Trust the newness in you! Each day is the first day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it would suffice to make our own the words that Mary says to John Bosco in his dream: \u201c\u2018This is your field; this is where you must work,\u2019 the Lady told me. \u2018Make yourself humble, steadfast, and strong.\u2019\u201d Perhaps advice that was a little more \u201cspiritual\u201d was expected, but only those who are humble can be kind because they are able to enjoy the presence of others. Humility is the gate of love to those who are little, defenseless, and wounded by life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only one who is steadfast and strong can follow Jesus today, in spite of everything, because we want to see the prisoners free and the oppressed no longer oppressed, and to know what message the poor can still believe in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is listening to the voice of the burning bush that will never be consumed: \u201cI will break your chains and make you walk with your heads held high.\u201d Mary wants the Salesians, and all her Family, the beautiful family of Don Bosco in every age, to walk the way of Don Bosco. The best guarantee of this will always be to have her as the true Teacher who is first and foremost a Mother. This is a true grace for our Family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how the Rectors Major have expressed it throughout our history, as my predecessor, Fr. Renato Ziggiotti, did: \u201cI will give you a Teacher, under whose guidance you can become wise and without whom all wisdom becomes foolishness.\u201d These are the fateful words of that first dream pronounced by the mysterious personage, \u201cthe Son of Her whom your mother has taught you to greet three times a day.\u201d (The Biographical Memoirs of St. John <\/em>Bosco, I, 95) It is, therefore, Jesus who gives Don Bosco His Mother as his Teacher and infallible guide along the demanding path of his entire life. How can we give enough thanks for this extraordinary gift that was given by Heaven to our Family?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy New Year 2024, with my best wishes for each of you and your families. May it be a beautiful year for all of us and a year of peace for this humanity that is still suffering so much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE RECTOR MAJOR\u2019S MESSAGE, Card. \u00c1ngel Fern\u00e1ndez Artime, SDB Dear friends: we are at the threshold of a new year, 2024, a truly special year because we remember the bicentennial of Don Bosco\u2019s dream at age nine. This dream was much more than a pleasant episode in the life of a nine-year-old boy; it was like a dream-vision and a premonition of what he was to do in … Continuar leyendo A Year of Dreams from on High<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":9250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[782003447,516714022],"tags":[35890],"class_list":["post-9198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rector-major","category-salesian-world-news","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/b76db998b40b3eb7570c439640174ea5_l-1.jpg?fit=655%2C523&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-2om","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9198","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=9198"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9254,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9198\/revisions\/9254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}