138. An oratory for girls, 1885
On July 17, I dreamed that I went out into the street with my mother Margarita and my brother José, and that we went into a church to pray. Then we arrived at the big square called Victor Manuel and there was a large group of girls playing. Then a personage said to me: - Here you must found an Oratory or College for poor girls.
- Excuse me - I told him - but this is not possible, because we already have many Oratories and there is not enough personnel to found new ones.
The personage added: “But here we need an oratory or school for poor girls.
And at that moment all those girls stopped their games and approached me and began to say to me in supplication: - Oh Don Bosco: receive us in your Oratory. We are spiritually unprotected and the enemy of souls can do us a great deal of harm. Please help us! Open for us a College and Oratory where we can be instructed and saved.
I told them: “Pray to the Lord and He will take care of this.
- Yes, we will pray, we will pray. But help us. Take us too to take shelter under the mantle of Mary Help of Christians.
Note: This is not the first time that Don Bosco felt that the girls asked him to found religious works and houses to protect them and instruct them in religion. The Supreme Pontiff Pius IX himself, when he advised him to found a community of nuns to instruct young girls, told him: “Jesus also died for the girls! Remember that they are more inclined to piety and that by instructing them in religion great spiritual progress can be achieved.
Like the school for poor girls that was asked of him in this dream, the Salesian Sisters, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, now have 1,300 schools to educate girls in 75 countries. And Mary Help of Christians admirably protects them.
139. Work, work, work, work, 1885.
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In the month of September (1885) I dreamed that I was traveling to Castelnuovo and that on the road a venerable old man approached me and said to me: “Work, work, work! This must be the goal and the glory of a priest. How many souls would be saved if priests would work more! How many things would be done for the glory of God! Oh, if the missionary would truly fulfill his missionary duties and if the parish priest would dedicate himself with all his soul to fulfill his parish priestly duties! What prodigies of holiness would be seen everywhere! But unfortunately many are afraid of work and prefer to devote themselves to a comfortable and restful life.
I told him that the shortage of priests was a real pity and he told me: - It is true that there is a shortage of priests, but if every priest were to fulfill exactly his own duties, there would almost be enough priests. How many priests there are who do very little of what they are obliged in conscience to do as priests! Some remain only attending to their families. Others, out of shyness, remain idle. If they were to devote themselves to hearing confessions, teaching catechism, propagating religion, they would fill a great void in the Church. God provides vocations according to the needs that arise in the Church. When the government made military service obligatory for seminarians, many pessimists believed that vocations were going to end, and that is when vocations increased the most.
- And what will we have to do to get more vocations? - I asked him.
- First of all, that morality and purity be cultivated and preserved among the young. Morality is like a seedbed from which many vocations are born.
- And what does each priest have to do so that his own vocation produces more spiritual fruits? - First of all what St. Paul says: “Let each one learn to rule and sanctify his own house very well” (1 Tim. 5:8). Let each one be an example of holiness in the place where he works and for the people with whom he deals. Let them be very careful not to let themselves be dominated by gluttony in eating or drinking, and not to devote themselves too eagerly to material things. Let each one be first of all a model of holiness for those who live close to him. After that, he will be for others.
The venerable priest said goodbye to me and... I woke up.