LETTER OF RECTOR MAJOR REV.FR. ANGEL FERNANDEZ ARTIME Introduction
“Entrust, confide, smile!” This is the title of the Letter addressed by the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, to the Salesians and to the whole Salesian Family on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA), founded by Don Bosco on 18th April 1869, one year after the consecration of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Valdocco.
The desire of our Rector Major is to renew the Marian dimension of the Salesian vocation, updating the appeal that Fr. Egidio Viganò made inviting us to “take Our Lady home”.
This Letter can help us to revive in our hearts the same love for the Mother of God which guided Don Bosco throughout his life:
“Without Mary Help of Christians, we would be anything else but certainly not Salesians and not Salesian Family!” (Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime).
With the ADMA, Don Bosco wished to offer the Christian people a simple itinerary of sanctification and apostolate accessible to all, with the intention of defending and promoting the faith of the people and valuing the contents of popular religiosity.
Pope Francis also recalls: “The memory of St. John Bosco is alive in the Church, as the founder of the Salesian Congregation, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Association of Salesian Cooperators and the Association of Mary Help of Christians and as the father of today's Salesian Family.”
In conclusion, the Rector Major expressed it this way: “While we give thanks for these 150 years of life of the Association of Mary Help of Christians, let us commit ourselves, faithful to the charism of our holy founder of the Salesian Family, to allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit for a renewed evangelising and educative thrust.... The essential aspect of this evangelising mission consists in renewing the Association with a privileged attention to the family and to the new generations.”
In the next articles, we will reflect on the contents of the Letter with the lively desire to strengthen the devotion to Mary Help of Christians and the adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Andrea and Maria Adele Damiani
