80. Visit to Lanzo college, 1871
--
Letter of Don Bosco to the students of the Salesian College of Lanzo, Italy, dated February 11, 1872.
Dearest disciples: I went to visit you without the young people or the superiors being aware of it. I went in a dream. When I arrived at the entrance of the school, I saw a monster, truly horrible. It had very large eyes that were blazing with flames. It had a thick, flat nose. Wide mouth, ears like those of a dog, and two horns like those of a deer protruded from his head. He laughed and joked with some of his companions and they jumped around happily. I asked him: "What are you doing here, you infernal monster? Why don't you enter the school, have you decided to leave the students of the school alone? He answered: "I am having fun here happily because in the school there are some who replace me in doing evil to others. I have a group of students who help me to the thousand marvels.
And accompanying me to the church where the priests were hearing confessions, he said to me: "There are some who do me a lot of harm: they are the ones who confess well and change their behavior. But there are others who are my collaborators: they are those who confess badly, those who always confess the same thing and do not improve their behavior at all.
--
Then he pointed out as his friends some people who, during mass, were dedicated to having bad thoughts and who did not like going to church at all, and pointing to a student, he said to me: "This one was already in danger of death. Then he made a thousand resolutions to behave well. But as soon as he recovered his health, he continued to behave worse than before.
Then he accompanied me to different places in the school and made me see things that I never imagined were happening there. Those I do not tell here. I will tell those interested personally when I go there.
I then asked the monster: "What is it that helps the enemy of souls the most in young people? - Conversations, conversations, bad conversations - he said excitedly - and he added: Every bad word or double meaning produces important fruits against the souls.
- And who are the greatest enemies of the enemy of souls? - Those who frequently receive communion.
- And what do you dislike the most? - What I dislike most is devotion to Mary and....
And he fell silent and did not want to continue. I insisted: - What is the other thing that you dislike so much? Then he shuddered. He looked like a dog, a cat, a bear, a wolf. It appeared three horns, five, ten... three heads, five, seven heads... It was trying to run away but I was trying hard not to let it go away without it telling me its secret. Then I said to him: "In the name of God the Creator, I command you to tell me what is the other thing that you dislike so much.
At that moment he and the other monsters that accompanied him twisted and took forms that I would never want to see again. They began to make a great noise, making fearful shrieks, and ended with these words: - What displeases us most, what gives us most defeats, what we fear most is that they fulfill well the purposes they make in the confession.
And when they said this, they made such a frightful noise with their shrieks that I woke up.
I will personally tell you later on there in the school some explanations of what I saw and heard in this dream.
Affmo. in Jc. John Bosco
---------
81. The funeral banner, 1871
--
At the beginning of November 1871, Don Bosco announced that before the end of the year, one of his disciples would pass into eternity. He said it this way: It seemed to me that I saw in a dream a banner unfurled in the wind, carried by some who seemed to be angels. On one side of the banner appeared the image of death, a skeleton with a scythe or sharp instrument, and ready to cut off the life of someone. On the other side of the banner appeared the name of one of our students and the year 1871, which indicated that the death of this young man would be before the end of this year.
Note: Before the end of the year Eugenio Lechi died.