129. A preaching and a mass, 1884
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I dreamed that I met a group of people who invited me to preach to them and that I entered a Temple and gave them a sermon about how dangerous it is to have bad habits. And I told them how the universal flood was a punishment because people had become very impure, and how the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by a rain of fire was because they had very bad habits.
Then they asked me to celebrate mass for them but I found neither chalice, nor host, nor sacristan and then... I woke up.
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130. The famous “Letter from Rome”, 1884
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In May 1884 Don Bosco sent a letter from Rome to his Salesians and pupils in which he told them about a very important dream he had had. This letter had a great effect on the Saint's disciples. Father Miguel Rúa read it to all the staff of the Oratory, gathered expressly to listen to it. As Don Bosco said there that he had seen the state of conscience of many of his disciples, when he returned from Rome, many came to him to ask him in what state he had seen them in his dream. The letter reads as follows: My dearest children in Jesus Christ: My great desire is that you all achieve happiness in this life and attain happiness for eternity. To this end, I am telling you about a dream I had a short time ago.
A former student who is now dead appeared to me. He said to me: - Don Bosco, do you know me? - Of course I do, you are Valfré, a pupil of our Oratory some 14 years ago.
- Don Bosco, do you want to see what life was like in your school in those days of 1870? - Yes, yes, let me see what it was like, because this will bring me much joy.
Then Valfré made me see the students of those old days. It seemed to me that I was in the old Oratory at recess time. What movement, what joy! Some were running, others were jumping. Some were in very exciting sports competitions. In one place there was a group of young students listening to the lips of a priest who was telling them a story. Beyond was a clergyman playing an exciting game with a group of boys. There was singing, laughing all around.
There were priests and clergymen everywhere mingling with the pupils, who were shouting and making a joyful noise. I was delighted to see all that, and Valfré said to me: “Look: familiarity, healthy trust, produces affection and affection opens hearts and so the students show themselves sincerely to the assistants and superiors. And they easily accept whatever they want to send them, because they realize that the superiors love them.
Then another former student, Giuseppe Buzzetti, with a completely white beard, came up to me and said: “Don Bosco, would you like to see what the students in your school are like now? - Yes, yes, I haven't seen them for a month.
And he introduced me to the schoolyard. The students were there at recess. But now there were no longer the shouts of joy or the songs, nor was there the movement of other times.
In the gestures and gestures, and in the faces of some of the young people, one could see a listlessness, a sadness, a distrust that filled my heart with anguish. It is true that I saw many who played, who ran, who moved with pleasant unconcern. But others, and there were quite a few, were leaning against the columns, as if filled with discouraging thoughts. Others lingered on the stairs and took no part in the common recreation. Some were walking around in groups and talking in low voices among themselves, casting suspicious and malicious glances at each other. Some were smiling, but with a smile accompanied by such gestures that one would have thought that St. Louis' face would have filled with color when he heard what they were saying there. And even among those who played, some were so listless that they clearly showed that they did not find any pleasure in that recreation.
And the former student said to me: “Do you see this recess, what a difference from the ones we had! - Oh yes, I see it,” I answered, sighing sadly, ”What a reluctance in this recreation! And the personage continued saying: - and from there comes the reluctance of many to approach the Holy Sacraments, the neglect in the practices of piety in the tempo and elsewhere. From this comes that they are unwillingly in the school where the Divine Providence of God grants them so many spiritual and intellectual goods. From this comes that many are not attracted by the vocation to the apostolate. Hence also the ingratitude towards the superiors, and the secrets and murmurings with all the bad consequences that all this will bring them.
- I understand - I answered - but how can we encourage our young people to return to the old joy and healthy expansion? - With charity.
- With charity? But aren't my young people loved enough? You know how much I love them. You know how much I have suffered for them and how much I have endured for 40 years and how many sacrifices I have to suffer today to do them good. How many labors, how many humiliations, how many setbacks, how many persecutions to get them food, room and board, good teachers and especially to seek the salvation of their souls. I have done everything I could and everything I knew, because they are the great affection and love of my whole life.
- I do not mean you.
- Who are you talking about then, those who replace me, the assistants, the directors, the teachers? Don't you see how they are martyrs of study and work, don't you see how they spend their lives and their health and their youth in favor of these young people who are like an inheritance that Divine Providence left us to take care of? - I see it and I feel it. But it is not enough. The best is missing.
- What is missing then? - What is missing is for young people not only to be loved, but to realize that they are truly loved.
- But don't they have eyes in their faces, don't they have the intelligence to understand, don't they see that everything that is done is for their love? - No. I repeat, that is not enough.
- But then what is needed? - It is necessary that they be loved in the things that please them; that they participate in their childish inclinations and tastes, and thus they will also see love in many things that they do not like very much, such as discipline, study, self-control, mortification and that they learn to act with generosity and love.
- Please explain better.
- Look, look at that recreation.
I observed and saw that there were very few priests and teachers who were mixed among the young people, much less those who took part in their games. The superiors were no longer the soul of the recess. Most of them walked around chatting among themselves, without worrying about what the students were doing; one or the other corrected those who misbehaved, but with threats, and this rarely. I saw that one or another Salesian was trying to get into a group of young people, but the boys were looking for ways to get away from their teachers and superiors.
Then my friend said to me: - In the early days of the Oratory, were you not always in the midst of the young people, especially at recreation time? Do you remember those beautiful years? It was a joy of paradise. A time that we always remember with emotion because love governed everything and we had no secrets from you.
- That's true. In those days it was a real joy for me to be among my boys, and they would come to me with great enthusiasm, and they would talk to me with confidence and there was a real desire to listen to my advice and put it into practice. Now, on the other hand, the continuous audiences, my many occupations and my poor health prevent me from doing so.
- Well, well; but if you cannot, why don't your Salesians become your imitators? Why don't you insist more and demand that they treat young people as you treated them? - I talk to them, I insist until I get tired, but many are not determined to take the trouble to treat them as we used to treat them.
- And so, neglecting the less, they lose the more, and this more is the fruit of their labors. Tell them to love what pleases the young, and so the young will love what pleases the superiors. And thus the work of education will be much softer and more bearable. The cause of the present coldness and reluctance is that many young people do not trust their superiors. Formerly the hearts of the young people were open to the superiors, and that is why the pupils loved and obeyed readily. But now the superiors are considered only as superiors and not as brothers, nor as fathers, nor as friends; and therefore they are more feared than loved. Therefore, if we want to become one heart and one soul, for the love of Jesus, we must break down that fatal barrier of distrust and replace it with a cordial trust between superiors and students. Those who demand obedience must treat the pupil as a mother treats her little child, and then peace and joy will reign in the school.
- And how can this barrier of distrust be broken? - Familiarity with young people, especially at recess. Without familiarity we cannot show them the affection we have for them and without this demonstration we cannot gain trust. Whoever wants to be loved must show that he truly loves. Jesus Christ made himself little with the little ones and bore our weaknesses. He is the teacher and the model of familiarity.
The teacher who is only seen in the classroom teaching, is a teacher and a professor and nothing more. But if at recess he approaches the young people and participates with them, then he becomes their brother.
If a priest is only seen at Mass celebrating and preaching, they will say that he is fulfilling his duty as a priest. But if they see him at recess mingling among the young people, saying a good word to them, then they will realize that he is truly a person who loves them.
Remember how many conversations were the effect of one of those little words you said in the ear of the youngsters while they were having fun at recess. If the youngster realizes that the educator really loves him, he will return your love. And the educator who is loved gets everything from his students. And those who feel trust towards the superior let him know what they need and even tell him their defects so that he can help them to correct them.
Love for the disciples makes the educator capable of bearing the fatigues, the annoyances, the ingratitude, the lack of discipline, the lightness, the negligence of the young people. Jesus Christ, when He saw a half-broken reed, did not break it, and when He saw a lamp going out, He did not extinguish it. He is the true model of every educator.
If one works with true love for young people, there will be no one who works to show off and to please his pride, nor will there be anyone who punishes to avenge his offended self-esteem. There will be no one who withdraws from the apostolate of educating for fear that others will be more successful than he is. If one truly loves oneself, there will be no one who will dedicate himself to murmuring against other educators in order to be loved and esteemed by the young to the exclusion of other superiors. Whoever does this will only reap scorn and hypocritical flattery.
If one truly loves the pupils, it will not happen that the educator lets his heart be stolen by a child and that in order to prefer this one he neglects the other youngsters; nor will it happen that for love of their own comfort the educators stop assisting and accompanying the youngsters in the recreations; nor will it happen that for human respect and to obtain a false popularity they stop calling the attention of those who commit faults.
If what one has is an effective and true love, the educator will seek only the glory of God and the good of souls. It is when this love begins to weaken that things do not begin to go well.
Why do we want to replace charity and fraternal love with the coldness of a regulation? Why do educators stop fulfilling those educational details that Don Bosco recommended to them? Why do they want to replace the system of preventing them from committing faults and of watching over and kindly correcting disorders, with that other system more convenient for the one in charge, which consists in promulgating the law and then enforcing it with punishments that fill the heart of the student with antipathy and cause him displeasure? Or with the worse system of neglecting to enforce the regulations and thus attracting contempt for the superiors and bringing about very serious disorders? And all these evils happen if there is a lack of familiarity, a lack of kindness between educators and students. If it is desired that happiness reigns in the school as it did in the past, it is necessary that those who are superiors be all things to all, always ready to listen to any doubt or observation of the boys; all eyes to watch paternally and thus prevent disorders and evils; all heart to seek the spiritual good of the students and the material welfare of these little people that Divine Providence has entrusted to them.
If this is done, then hearts will not remain closed and certain things that bring spiritual death to souls will not be hidden. Only in cases of immorality should superiors be inflexible. It is better to run the risk of removing an innocent person from the house than to make one who gives scandal and bad example remain in the house. Let the educators consider it a very grave duty of conscience to refer to the superior everything that could be an offense against God.
And my friend added: “The best dish in a meal is a good face.
I continued looking at the languid recess and felt such a great sadness that... I woke up.
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Second part.
The next night my old friend appeared to me again in a dream and said: “Tell the young people to recognize with gratitude all the sacrifices made for them by their teachers and superiors. Tell them to remember that humility is a source of tranquility. That they bear with patience the defects of others, for perfection is not to be found in this world, but only in paradise. That they stop murmuring and criticizing, for murmuring and criticism greatly extinguish charity and chill hearts. And above all, that they try to live in the grace of God, in friendship with God, without mortal sin in their souls. He who does not live in peace with God cannot have peace with himself or with others.
- But is it that among our students there are quite a few who are not at peace with God? - Yes, this is the main cause of the prevailing uneasiness and must be remedied. Only those who have secrets to hide, who fear that their secrets will be discovered and bring them great shame, are suspicious. Besides, if the heart is not at peace with God, he lives anxious, restless, rebellious to obedience, he gets angry and irritated for nothing, it seems to him that everything is going wrong, and since he does not love, he imagines that the superiors do not love him either.
- But in our school there are many confessions and communions.
- Yes, but many confess without making any serious intention of making amends. They confess, but always of the same faults, without making any progress. They expose themselves always to the same occasions of sin. More disobedience follows, with the same carelessness in the fulfillment of their duties, and they continue thus for months and months, and some until they finish their studies.
- And are there many who do not profit by their confessions? - Fortunately there are not many - and he showed them to me - I saw some very unpleasant things that I will not write here but that I will tell to those interested when I am back at school. For now it is time to pray to become better, and to strive to become like Dominic Savio and so many other young saints who have passed through our schools.
- And what other good advice should I send to my disciples? - Preach to them and recommend to all of them, old and young, to always remember that they are Sons of Mary Most Holy Helper. That She has gathered them in our schools to free them from the dangers of the world, to love each other as good brothers, and to give glory to God and to the Virgin Mary by their good conduct. Let them not forget that the Blessed Virgin intercedes to obtain food, clothing and study for them and that She works infinite wonders in favor of Her devotees and obtains from God innumerable graces and favors. That, with the help of the Virgin Mary, whose feast we will celebrate now in May, we can bring down the barrier of mistrust that the devil has raised between the young and the superiors, a barrier that the enemy takes advantage of to bring ruin to souls.
- And tell them that young and old alike must all be willing to suffer some small mortification for love of Mary and strive to put all these important messages into practice.
- At that moment I saw that some of our young people were marching towards eternal perdition and I felt such anguish that... I woke up.
He concluded: What does this poor old man who has wasted his whole life for the sake of youth want? May the happy days return again when there was affection and trust between superiors and students; the days when there was condescension and tolerance for the faults of others, and all for the love of Jesus Christ. The days when there was charity and joy in everyone. I assure you before God that it is enough for a young person to enter one of our schools, a Salesian House, for the Blessed Virgin to take him immediately under Her heavenly protection.
Let us all agree: the charity of those who command. The charity of those who have to obey, let the spirit of the gentle St. Francis de Sales reign among us.
The time is approaching when I will have to separate from my dear disciples (at this point Don Bosco stopped dictating and began to cry with emotion. Shortly afterwards he continued dictating). My greatest wish is that when I embark on my journey to eternity I will leave you all traveling on the path that Our Lord wants each one of you to follow. The next feast of Mary Helper that we will celebrate in a few days (which I wish the superiors to celebrate and the students, very solemnly and joyfully, also in the dining room), may that beautiful feast be like the preparation for the Eternal Feast that we will celebrate all together one day in paradise.
Rome, May 10, 1884. Aff. John Bosco.
Explanations: This letter has been considered by the Salesians as a true treasure of pedagogy. Together with the little treatise called: “The Preventive System” and with the “Regulations for the Houses”; they are the three most important and famous writings of pedagogy that our Saint wrote. They contain simple and very practical teachings that, if followed, turn schools into true families where joy, charity and peace reign. This has been experienced by the Salesians in many countries of the world for more than a hundred years.
It would do those involved in education a lot of good to read this letter and this dream and its wonderful teachings at least once a year.