Journey of 150 years
Pope St. John Paul II emphasised that Don Bosco is “the promoter of a special devotion to Mary, Help of Christians and Mother of the Church (...). He is, in a sublime way, the exemplar of a preferential love for the young, especially the needy.”
Our beloved founder responded to God’s call to give rise to new forms of apostolate. So, exactly ten years after the birth of the Salesian Congregation, on 18th April 1869, he founded the Association of Devotees of Mary Help of Christians.
The words that Don Bosco wrote are beautiful: “Mary continues from heaven with great success, the mission that she had begun on earth as Mother of the Church and Help of Christians. It speaks to us of a present mother, alive among us, who continues her maternal mission as mediatrix of grace for all her children throughout the centuries.”
Don Bosco lived his life and brought his work to fruition in the certainty of the ‘personal’, daily and concrete presence of Mary. Several times, he affirmed that she is the ‘Foundress’ and ‘Sustainer’ of the Salesian Congregation.
The Rector Major, in describing Don Bosco’s awareness of being an instrument of God through the mediation of Mary, offers us some traits of the journey of faith that he himself experienced.
In 1862, Don Bosco felt the need to have a bigger church because the original one of St. Francis de Sales was too small for the Salesians and the boys of Valdocco; in the same year, his meeting with Mother Mazzarello paved way for the beginning of the expansion of the Salesian charism to the world of women. Later ‘ADMA’ and the ‘Salesian Cooperators’ were born.
With the construction of the Basilica, Don Bosco experienced the active presence of Mary who, despite adverse situations, built ‘her House’.
It is moving to read the narration of these events: Don Bosco, as a good Piedmontese, had secured the financial commitment of some influential people who, as often happens, did not honour their promises. On that occasion too, Don Bosco was left alone but, at that point, the spontaneous offerings of the faithful alone made something unimaginable possible.
Don Egidio Viganò, Don Bosco’s seventh successor, summarises:
“From the existence of this Shrine onwards, ‘Mary Help of Christians’ is the Marian expression that will always characterise Don Bosco’s spirit and apostolate. His apostolic vocation will all appear to him as Mary Help of Christians’ work, and his many and great initiatives, particularly the Society of St. Francis de Sales, the Institute of the FMA and the great Salesian Family, will be seen by him as a foundation desired and cared for by Mary Help of Christians”.
Andrea and Maria Adele Damiani
