Today, the Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint John Bosco, a priest who lived in the nineteenth century, mostly in the city of Turin (Italy). Don (Father) Bosco - as he was most well known - was born 16 August 1815 in the hillside village of Becchi (Italy). John's family were farmhands and since the early 1800s was a time of great shortage and famine in the Piedmonte region, this meant that he and his family had to work very hard to earn their living. This resolve was strengthened even more when John's father died and left his mother a widow with still-young children.
Poverty prevented John from any serious attempt at schooling. Rather he was a shepherd and received his early training from a priest. John left home at the tender age of 12 and went in search of work as a farm-servant. At first he begged unsuccessfully but eventually he ended up working on a wine farm. Finally, in 1830, John met a priest who identified some talent and supported his first attempt at formal schooling. He went on to study at the seminary in Chieri and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Turin in 1841.
Having known the effects of poverty as a child, John had a particular concern for helping street children, juvenile delinquents and other disadvantaged youth in the metropolitan city to overcome poverty through education. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment: something quite revolutionary for his time. Don Bosco's legacy lives on today in the presence of the Salesians of Don Bosco; the Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians; the Association of Mary, Help of Christians; and the lay movement known as the Association of Salesian Cooperators.
His ingenuity and ability to find techniques to teach children using unconventional methods made Don Bosco all the more like Jesus who also found ways to reach out to people's hearts and to help them come to believe in themselves by first believing that God truly loves us. Jesus always believed that others could learn new things, even if they themselves found it difficult to accept his words because they could only see him as the carpenter's son (Mk 6:3).
Today, ask Saint John Bosco to pray with you, to help you to see the potential that is possible when children learn to believe in themselves. Ask him to help us - even though we may be children with many years of experience - and to encourage our hearts so that we can be living examples of love for others today.
Have a great day.
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