Laura's lesson

January 22 is the commemoration day of Blessed Laura Vicuña, but since this year January 22 is a Sunday, we celebrate it today. Laura was a pupil at one of our schools in Argentina in the early 1900s.
By all standards, Laura didn't have an easy life. Some might even say that, as a young girl, she had a lot on her plate. The factors for a "successful" life weren't "in her cards". So why is she remembered and held as a model for adolescents and youth?
As I remember this amazing adolescent who, at such a tender age, had understood that to love is to offer one's life so that the beloved may have true life, I cannot help but ask myself, what does Laura's life teach me as a Salesian educator?
What lessons do I learn from Laura Vicuña's life?
Lesson number 1: I do not educate alone. Education is more efficacious when done in synergy and when the environment itself offers a space where education is possible. Our educational settings must be places where young people feel that they matter, that they are accepted with their limits and possibilities, but with trust in the presence of good in each one.
Lesson number 2: I should have the guts to show them to strive for something more. Young people have great hearts capable of aiming high. We don't do them justice when what we offer is mediocre.
Lesson number 3: Simple and ordinary are exciting, too. We have practices and traditions that some might think outdated, but in reality, they help to form convictions and habits. Our Salesian spirituality offers a view of life that is positive and full of hope. We do not need big events to have an exciting life. What makes us happy is not when we are focused on ourselves but when we share and when we serve others. Looking at Jesus, listening to His Word and being nourished by the Eucharist will help me become a "person for other", and this is the secret of joy. We need idols, people whose lives show us that yes, aiming high is possible, being good is cool, because, in the end, it lasts. Mother Mary is for us not only a mother, but an all-time-model.
Laura Vicuña reminds me to believe in the young. They have good hearts. They desire to have meaningful lives.
With young people, we are called to be missionaries of hope and of joy.

The heart of the matter

Today is an important day in the Salesian world. We celebrate the 175th anniversary of the first meeting of Don Bosco and Bartholomew Garelli. We consider it the birth of the Salesian mission.
Yes, the Salesian mission did not start as a structure. It started as an encounter, a meeting of hearts: a young boy in search of welcome and a priest who saw a friend in that boy.
I guess it is an invitation to us all Salesians. The renewal that we need is to go back to what is essential: we are sent by God to be His heart for the young.

Vox populi

Today, as I was browsing over the news on the internet, I was amazed at how there was not even one article on the ongoing World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. I am not thinking of conspiracy. I am just a little sad that a gathering of people from the whole world, with a number that is not indifferent, we speak of more than two million, is not considered newsworthy.
I am sad that a gathering that shows people from different countries and walks of life, filling the streets and plazas with their joyful and enthusiastic spirit, isn't given a space.
I am sad that an experience that will surely revive joy and hope for the whole world is just disregarded.
Then I don't wonder why we find it difficult to be people of hospitality. If all we ever see and our minds are fed with are fighting, violence, aggression, and threats, then, of course, the only reaction is defense and prejudice.
Thank God for social networks. Otherwise, with the way traditional news outlets are doing their reporting now, we wouldn't even hear anything about the World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow.

Maria's message

And one of them, a doctor of the law, questioned him, to test him: "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him: "You shall love the Lord your God from all your heart, and with all your soul and with allyour mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. But the second is similar to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments the entire law depends, and also the prophets." (Mt 22:35-40)

Today we celebrate the holiness of Maria Goretti, an Italian girl who, at twelve years of age, chose to die rather than to compromise her purity. Perhaps in our present context this doesn't make sense to a lot of people. She could have just allowed "it", so she could save her life. Some people might even resort to ridiculing her choice, saying that she was such a prude.
For me it goes beyond protecting something that was a part of her. Maria defended, upholded a choice, the choice of her life. Her martyrdom was an expression that her choice for God was non-negotiable. It was the most significant choice of her life and she was not willing to compromise, even if it meant losing her life. Indeed, hers was the beatitude of the single-hearted. That is what purity means. Jesus said that the pure of heart will see God.
But what makes Maria Goretti's life more incredible was that she died forgiving the person who did her harm.
Yes, she really put Jesus' words into practice.
To love God is not something that is only between God and me. Loving God is verified by our love of neighbor. The more difficult it is to do that, the more we need the help of God. And when we are able to do so, we are truly daughters and sons of God.

Sacraments of God's love

Today is the feast of Don Bosco, founder of the Salesian Family whose mission is to be signs and bearers of God's love for young people.
May Don Bosco's life and example inspire us to believe in the "goodness" of each young person.
Our priest this morning mentioned that through us, God wants to reach the young. Yes, our humanity, despite its limitations, is a privileged channel through which God wants to express to young people His love and care. So nothing is small, nothing is insignificant. We are sacraments of God's love for the young.