43. The collaborators of Don Bosco, 1862
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Albera, the second successor of St. John Bosco, says: "In 1862 he gathered those of us who collaborated with him in his educational work and told us the following dream: I had a dream in which I saw myself surrounded by young people and priests. I proposed to them that we climb a mountain and they all accepted. At the top of the mountain were tables prepared for a magnificent banquet that was to be celebrated with music and splendid feasts.
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We all set out on our way. The climb was steep and difficult and there were various obstacles that made the ascent more difficult. As all this was annoying for those who were already tired, at a certain point everyone sat down.
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I also sat down to rest for a while and then, encouraging them all to continue climbing with all enthusiasm, I started again at a light pace.
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But soon after I looked back to see where my followers were and noticed that they had all turned back and that I was left all alone.
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And I began to think: "I must climb to those heights and I cannot climb alone. How am I going to do it? My mission is to reach that high mountain but surrounded by many companions. How will I fulfill that mission? And an idea occurred to me: My first collaborators were good, pious, of excellent will, but they were not prepared for this work of educating abandoned youth.
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Neither I nor anyone else had trained them for this and they were not bound to each other and to me by vows or oaths of obedience, and so they abandoned me.
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And I kept thinking: Now I have to remedy my failure. My disappointment was too bitter. Now I see clearly what I must do: I cannot count on those I have not trained for this mission. I will return to the base of the mountain. I will gather many youths. I will make them love me. I will train them to know how to endure with enthusiasm the sufferings that exist in the task of educating youth, and they will learn to endure trials and sacrifices. They will obey me most willingly. And we will go up together to the Mount of the Lord.
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Explanation: At the end of the narration of this dream, Don Bosco said to his collaborators, the young Salesians of his community (which had only been founded three years earlier): "I have placed in you all my trust and all my hope". And then for an hour he spoke to them with enthusiasm about the many spiritual goods that those who dedicate themselves to religious life and to the education of youth obtain for this life and for eternity. And he promised them that the Blessed Virgin will obtain immense rewards for those who devote themselves to educating abandoned youth.
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Don Bosco had been working since 1841 in favor of abandoned children. Many priests and lay Apostles came to collaborate with him, but after a few months or years, they withdrew because it seemed to them that the work was too difficult and thankless.
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Until finally, by Heaven's illumination, the Saint decided to form as educators of poor children, those same poor children, and so he formed from among his best students a small group that collaborated with him, and in 1859 he founded with 18 of them the Salesian Community that is now in 105 countries with 1,300 schools for people of working classes and with 17,000 Salesians.
All the first Salesians of Don Bosco were poor children that he collected and educated in his "Oratories" and whom through his excellent examples and wise advice he turned into Apostles of the youth.
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44. Assistance to a dying child 1862
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On Saturday, December 20, 1862, Don Bosco told the students: "On Christmas Day, one of us will have traveled to paradise. The young people went to the infirmary to see if there were any sick, but there were none. On the 21st they also went to observe and there was no one sick there.
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But on December 22 the very good youth, Joseph Blangino, ten years old, began to feel ill and was taken to the infirmary. As the illness worsened the doctor was called, who declared that the illness was mortal. On December 23 he received Viaticum and on the 24th at 2:30 a.m. he died a saintly death.
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Then that day Don Bosco narrated the dream he had had the previous week: "I dreamt that together with Father Alassonatti and my mother (who died 6 years ago) we were assisting the young man: "He has died". I asked her: "Has he really died?". And she answered: "Yes, he has died, and what time is it? It's about three in the morning! Then Father Alassonatti exclaimed: "May God grant that all our young people may die like this, with such tranquility and peace.
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Early this morning I heard a loud bang as if someone had hit with a sign on the wall. I woke up and exclaimed: - Blangino has departed to eternity! Then I said a prayer for his blessed soul, and immediately the tower clock struck 2:30 in the morning.
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Explanation: On the 23rd at ten o'clock in the evening Don Bosco was in the infirmary visiting the sick little Blangino. Father Rua said to him: "If you want, I will stay here all night, to assist the child at the hour of his death.
And Don Bosco replied: "It is not necessary for you to stay all night. Go to sleep and order that at two o'clock in the morning they call you to come and assist him in his last moments.
At two o'clock in the morning they called Father Rúa. He came immediately to assist the Blangino child spiritually and he died a saintly death at 2:30 a.m.