5 AND SO THE STORY CONTINUES...

Salesian Youth Spirituality is contagious it creates a movement which attracts young people and renews the lives of those who commit themselves to it. We have recounted part of the story because we want that story to continue as a gift of life for all who believe and hope in life.

The cry of the young

It happened in the lives of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello. The same thing is happening today. We feel God is challenging us through the cries of many young people. They are crying out of their brokenness and restlessness, out of their solitude and their inability to communicate. They cry out in despair; unemployment leaves them on the margins of society or without means to further their studies. They cry out from the violence to which more and more young people succumb. They cry out against experiences which have them escape into drugs and alcohol. In a word, theirs is the cry for "life". It is the hunger which searches for bread, the oppression which seeks freedom, the loneliness which seeks communion, the degradation which seeks dignity, the bewilderment which seeks security, the absurdity which seeks meaning, the violence which seeks peace... (CC23 p. 88 and GC 19 pp. 18-19). This is the inner groaning of the Spirit which dwells in each person. It is at work to generate sons and daughters of the Father. The cry is essentially "the need for salvation". We believe that only Jesus the Lord is salvation. This cry becomes a challenge for us, an appeal, an invocation to be one with and responsible for others. The Pope reminded us of this with great force when he said, "Now it is up to you to continue the Salesian charism, to collaborate with and work towards an advent heralding a new flourishing of youth sanctity. Does the mission seem too great ? Certainly it is not an easy one. It needs generous dedication, a deep spirit of prayer, an openness to God's Word, an acceptance and trust that there is a divine presence at work and that there are some courageous and coherent responses on your part" (John Paul II). We are called to speak for those who have no voice, to become poor with the poor, to fight for justice for those who are unjustly treated and to work together to transform our world which is still a long way off from the kingdom of God (cf. GC23 SDB p. 88). "In the present historical moment of crisis for feminine and masculine identity we feel the urgency to educate young women so that they can be bearers not only of new needs, but also of new resources, and become conscientious protagonists for the building up of a society worthy of the human person" (GC19 - FMA p. 40).

We are people who have a good story to tell

We want to respond to this cry, this plea for help. How do we go about it?

Salesian Youth Spirituality suggests a way which is both strange and special. It is a story full of words, in much the same way as the pages of the document you are reading are full of words. But they are not only words. Behind each of these words there is a face, a person; Don Bosco, Mother Mazzarello, many Salesians and Sisters, many young people committed as lay people in the vocation of serving others, all who have filled their own lives and the lives of others with wonderful deeds, not just with words.

We, you and I, are also in this group, along with our friends. Maybe we are not as wonderful as some of those mentioned so far, but we too, in our own little way, have a limitless desire to continue to tell and re-tell this story which has really taken hold of us.

We discovered this while meditating on a page from the story of the Church's early origins:

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o'clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms.

Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us."

And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk."

And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him (Acts 3:1-10).

At first glance it reads like an account of a miraculous deed. Instead it is very important to read on.

The lame man cries out joyfully and with such energy that he is arrested for disturbance of the peace in a holy place! When the High Priests learn that Peter is behind the disturbance, they bring him in. This is where the heart of the episode lies.

Peter says, "Do you know why this lame man is cured and can walk? So that all might know that we live through Jesus, the one you crucified and buried, he whom the Father raised from the dead."

There is a profound connection between healing and confessing that Jesus is Lord. Healing resolves physical problems. Confessing one's faith in the risen Christ overcomes the barriers of physical death and secures an unthinkable fullness of life, despite death. The two moments are linked. They work for one another. The physical healing says something about how serious the problem is. The decision which gives that fullness of life, offered as mysterious gift and accepted in faith, goes beyond the healing. It is to do with freedom and love. It is a 'yes' to the mystery of God's closeness to us. Without this faith decision in the Lord Jesus there is no fullness of life, for without the free choice to believe, even healing and freedom from oppression will not prevent us from being prisoners of death.

To be a disciple of Jesus, then, means to proclaim him and his resurrection. This is not done with words alone. Our actions need to talk, and so do our lives. Only then can we multiply the words needed to continue to narrate the story of Jesus. Can we continue telling the Salesian Youth Spirituality story in this way?

Creating fragments of a living story

Each of us has been entrusted with the task of responding to that question. Three things can make the re-telling of the story of Salesian Youth Spirituality come alive.

First of all we need to be living witnesses of the story. It is not enough to know the story's plot by heart. Only women and men living their spirituality intensely can tell its story.

Secondly, we need to 'create' places where this story can be experienced and owned by others. We are moving towards this. Many remember the huge Youthgathers to celebrate "Confronto's" or "Don Bosco Camps". Don Bosco's Hill at Becchi has become the hill of the "beatitudes of the young" and the tiny, humble abode of Mornese speaks even more strongly today of Mother Mazzarello's spiritual experience.

These are all very important, but they are not enough. We need to multiply the places where we can breathe in Salesian Youth Spirituality, where prayer and sharing one's life with others are among the first and most important goods on offer.

We need to multiply places where it is possible to meet people who tell and re-tell the story that Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello began in those early days with such enthusiasm. Finally, it is important to work at a re-formulation of the story. These pages were born of an attempt to re-tell the spiritual experience of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello within the problems, hopes, and expectations of our present day. This is a new departure point. It is a task entrusted to a group of Salesians and Sisters, lay people and young people in different continents and different parts of the world. It can be a beautiful story of life and hope. It can fill the world with the hope and passion for life that living its message contains.

The story continues…

Only one thing really matters; life and hope in the name of the Lord. The story of our Salesian Youth Spirituality can encourage and re-enforce this life and hope. For this reason we have told our story. We offer it to our friends as a gift, hoping it inspires other story-tellers to take up the story.

Those who find energy in these pages will do what many members of the Salesian Family, what many young people are doing. They will tell what they have seen and discovered and understood. They tell the story with their lives and with their words in order to explain their work and ensure it is going in the right direction. We are aware that this kind of story telling is tiring and full of responsibilities. Nevertheless the story has to be told because it comes from a deep inner joy. It is not possible to suppress such a story. It is told with fear and trepidation because it is personal. It might be rejected but it cannot be silenced. The words of this story have the power of our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9) and the strength of many who have given their lives witnessing to the way that this story has fascinated them.

We tell this story with great enthusiasm. We tell it in the hope that people will re-discover the true life and real happiness which Jesus gave to the world. We tell the story about a good and welcoming father who is our God and we share our dream that all people will be one in hope and in living life to the full.