Happy New Year! I am very excited for 2015. This is the
bicentennial year of the founder of the Salesians. St. John Bosco was born in
Italy on August 16th 1815. Our church celebrates his feast day on
Jan 31st each year, the day he entered the kingdom of God in Heaven.
The kids start school in February. We had a 2 week back to
school camp for the kids at our church Maria Auxiliadora. The camp was called
“Villa Feliz.” The theme of Villa Feliz this year was on the life of Don Bosco.
I had a group that consisted of 11 year old boys and girls. In a meeting with
some of my teenage helpers, we planned on presenting the histories and lessons
of St. John Bosco through skits, games, and magic tricks. One of the days
involved me trying to impersonate John Bosco by dressing up in priestly
vestments, sorry I have no picture of that to show you.
In the second week of camp we had a boys and girls soccer
competition with the other groups in the camp. We split the girls into one team
and the boys into another. Before the girls had their first game and the boys
had their first game, we prayed like little saints that no one would get hurt
and that God would help us to do our best.
So determined to be successful, the girls and boys of
my group both happened to win in their respective “leagues”. Their rewards from
me were encouraging words, some hugs, coca cola, and cookies.
In preparing for this camp I thought it would be good for me
to restudy the biography of St. John Bosco. His life as a young boy serves as a
good model for the kids to emulate especially when it comes to working hard in
school and helping the family at home. St. John Bosco completed 3 years of high
school in 1 scholastic school year and 1 summer.1 He made an effort
to balance his school work with his farm work at home. St. John Bosco was a
husky little boy because of all the farm work he did to help support his mother
and the rest of his family (he was fatherless after the age of two). One
teacher, on finding the husky farm lad in his class, almost dwarfing the
smaller town boys, remarked, “ What are you, a giant moron or a genius?” John’s
ready answer was “Somewhere in between,.. just a pupil who is determined to
study hard and learn.”1 When Saint John Bosco became a priest, he
taught the kids that the road to sanctity was easy. Simply do your horizontal duties in school
and in society but also live out your vertical duties to God, offering your
life to Jesus wherever you are. I think for most of us God does not want us to
be a Blessed Mother Teresa and open orphanages around the world or to be a doctor
of the church like Saint Thomas Aquinas. The canonized saints are important
witnesses to our faith, who show and teach us a great deal of living out our
vocations awakened by our desires. For most of us our roads to heaven are much quieter,
humbler, and littler than the roads of the canonized saints. Jesus simply wants
us to be the fullest we can be with Him. Fully as in giving him Lordship over
all our desires and areas of our life, generously offering our lives to Him where
we live… Wow that sounds crazy!, God is asking for way too much! How can you
expect an eleven year old bolivian kid to give such a commitment to Christ? ..Its
ok though, the point is to trust in God to make up for what you lack. Sincerely
try and try and try to live a holy life and be confident that God’s infinite
mercy will fill in the gaps to make you a Saint. Trying is what matters to God,
being “determined” like John Bosco.
As this month comes to end and we draw nearer to the feast
day of St. John Bosco, I tip my hat to Don Bosco in thanks. I’m very thankful for his life
and his inspiring example of tirelessly serving God here on earth. I mean if it
was not for him, I would not be here in Bolivia right now. So thank you St.
John Bosco, I’m very happy to be a part of the Salesian family here in Bolivia.
A picture after praying a Rosary with our new Rosary beads. Thank you Mrs. Elaine Dudash from Greenbrook, N.J for the Rosary Beads!
For more information on Don Bosco, you can click on the
patrons saints tab in my blog. http://www.donboscowest.org/saints/donbosco1
also provides a nice easy read of the Don Bosco. Much of that information was
placed in this blog. In putting together the topics to teach the kids that I
discussed in this blog, I often turned back to the books My Life with the Saints
by Fr. James Martin and Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Fr. Michael Gaitley.
These are additional good reads about how God wants us to be and act before Him.
Here is a video made by my site partner of the Christmas camp in December that was posted as a commerical on T.V in our small city https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZbb4VJ6en0&feature=youtu.be
