84. The nightingale: we are ten, 1872
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THERE ARE TEN OF US, THERE ARE TEN OF US!
From July 3 to 7, 1872, the young people of the Oratory made the Spiritual Exercises or Retreats, and after having asked Our Lord very much to enlighten me as to whether they had all made this Retreat, I had the following dream.
I dreamt that I was in a large courtyard full of trees and that in the trees there were nests of small birds.
Suddenly from one of those nests a little nightingale fell to the ground, whose song was very beautiful but whose wings had not yet grown long enough to be able to fly far enough. I thought to myself, "If you have fallen out of the nest, then you are not yet able to fly.
I will take you back to your nest where you will be safe. But as soon as I approached him, he gave a little flight and flew away from me.
I tried again to approach him to take him to the safety of his nest, and as soon as he saw me near, he gave a strong jump and would not let me catch him. I seriously intended to reach him and take him to the safety of his nest, but as soon as he saw me approaching to help him, he gathered all his strength and flew about twenty meters. I followed him with my eyes saddened to see that he did not want to let me help him, but at that moment a tremendous sparrow hawk appeared in the air and grabbed him with its sharp claws and took him away to destroy and devour him: I thought: - I wanted to help you and you refused to let me help you. Three times you walked away from me when I tried to take you to safety and you paid dearly for your whims.
And the poor nightingale, before being devoured, cried three times: "We are ten!", "We are ten!", "We are ten!".
Then the terrible sparrowhawk appeared again with a fierce look and eyes full of blood.
I scolded him for having been so cruel to that little animal and tried to throw a stone at him. He fled full of fear, but before walking away, he threw a piece of paper at me on which was written the names of ten students who did not want to do the Spiritual Retreats properly.
When I woke up I realized that several of them, instead of settling their accounts with God with a good confession and returning to his holy friendship and making good resolutions, preferred to give themselves to the devil and be destroyed by him. I thanked Mary Help of Christians for having revealed to me those who did not want to make peace with God and I promised Her to do everything possible to bring those sheep back to the flock of the Good Shepherd.
Note: Father Berto, Don Bosco's secretary, affirmed many years later: I remember that those 10 young men were warned in a timely manner. One of them did not want to give up his bad behavior and was removed from the school.
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85. Returning from vacation 1872
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Unexemplary death. I dreamed that the young people came to school after vacation and that I met one of the pupils and we had the following dialogue: - How was your vacation? Did you follow the good advice we recommended to you to behave well? - I did well on vacation, but I didn't practice your advice, it was too difficult.
- And now that you are back, do you really want to settle the affairs of your soul? - The soul? The affairs of the soul? Ah, there will be time for that later! And so saying, he walked away from me without wanting to pay any attention. I continued saying to him: - Why behave like that, listen to me and you will recover the joy of your soul! He went away. I followed him with a look full of sadness and it occurred to me to say: - Poor boy! He has sought his spiritual ruin and does not realize that a pit, a grave has opened up at his feet to receive him.
After a few moments, I saw two gravediggers entering the school gate. And we began the following conversation with them: - Who are you looking for? - A boy who has died.
- No, no one has died here. You have the wrong door.
- We didn't go to the wrong door. Isn't this Don Bosco's house? Well, they sent word that a dead man had to be taken from here to this house, and that we had to bury him.
I went with them through the corridors and we found a coffin on which was written the name of a young man destined to die very soon. And on the coffin was written the name of this year in which we are, and this terrible sentence: "His vices will go down with him to the grave".
The gravediggers began to struggle to take the young man away in the coffin and I began to oppose so that they would not take him away, and while they were struggling, one of them hit the coffin so hard that it broke and... I woke up.
Don Bosco gathered all the students and told them about the dream, warning them that the death of this young man would serve as a lesson and a warning to many, but that it would not be something worthy of imitation.
A month later the pupil died, and on the day Don Bosco told the dream he was in perfect health. Several priests wanted to get him to go to confession before he died, but he refused (thus fulfilling the phrase that the Saint saw written on the coffin: "His vices will go down with him to the grave").
When the young man died, Don Bosco was in another city. The boy suddenly became ill. Father Cagliero recommended him in the kindest of ways to go to confession and prepare to die well, but he replied that he was only 15 years old and that at that age he was not going to die; and that he did not feel like going to confession and to leave him alone.
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Father Cagliero came to visit him again and to prepare him to go to confession, he began to ask him about his past life, but he turned to the corner and would not answer another word. Shortly afterwards he died. That afternoon Don Bosco arrived but the other was already dead.
The impression of terror that this sad death left among all his companions lasted for a long time. They all saw realized there, to the letter, the dream they had heard narrated a month before. Thus was fulfilled the phrase of St. Augustine: "As life has been, so will be death".