M. S. Pine

“ And, besides, Don Bosco never wasted time. St. Liguori, whose voluminous works are the treasure of the Church, made a vow which might well frighten the most saintly, never to waste a minute of time; and I have often thought that vow was like the fiery chariot of Elias, which bore his soul up to heaven to witness the "Glories" of divine love, and then, returning to earth, sped him over its vast spaces scattering his pages—so many sparks of fire to kindle heavenly love in the hearts of men. ”

“ Some one has said and truly: "If in creatures there is any spark of goodness, it comes from an intimate participation of God's abundance." Baptism brings to every Christian soul this abundance of God, since from the moment of the pouring of the waters He dwells there, One God in the Three Divine Persons, as in His palace, His temple, filling it with the Light Invisible before which angels bow in reverence. But the soul must be active, must be trained to know its heavenly dignity, and to love the Eternal Creator and Sovereign who is living there within it. ”

“ O Mary, Mother of God, how happy it is to die your servant! Yet, Father, one thought troubles me. When my soul separates from my body, and enters the eternal kingdom, what shall I do?
"'Do not be afraid', I answered, 'the Blessed Virgin will accompany you before the Sovereign Judge; leave all to her. ”

“ Give it all up, in the name of God!"
"God's mercy has sent me these boys," answered Don Bosco heroically; "I shall not give one up; if I cannot hire a house I shall build one; and I tell you that one day, with God's help and the protection of His Blessed Mother, these children and a great many more will have a house, workshops, a college, a church and their own professors," and his eyes glowed with a supernatural light as he raised his hands toward Heaven. ”

“ As years elapsed and vocations multiplied, Don Bosco, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, saw a society of priests shaping itself almost unconsciously under his very eyes into a sacerdotal phalanx destined to make war upon sin and worldliness, to conquer Christ's enemies, wrest from them their young captives, and bring thousands of them to fight under His divine standard. For the youthful Levites would not leave the dear Father and apostle who had saved them, who had led their footsteps into this new world of spiritual beauty, of glory, of undreamed-of possibilities of good ”

“ And they built on solid rock, secure that he whose heart was a fountain of love, of pity, of refreshment for all the weak and indigent when on earth, whose prevailing prayer ever brought Heaven-sent resources to his redeeming work, was now a still more powerful and loving advocate, his soul immersed in the splendors of the Heart of Jesus, the divine furnace of charity. ”

“ In all your hearts is the answer, Nature's own answer—the mother!
And such a mission did John Bosco's mother accomplish. Upright, religious, a truly holy woman, she participated in that abundance of God that I have told you of, and by continual prayer sweetened her hard life of toil and poverty. She must have married when very young, for at nineteen she was a widow with two children of her own, Joseph and John, and a step-son, Anthony, John, the youngest, was two years old when his father died. ”

“ The interior life of our founder, in all the booklets about him, as far as I can see, has not been touched upon, because exterior deeds are what impress the world. Yet these marvelous feats of Don Bosco would absolutely have been unattainable had it not been for the divine fire that burnt in his simple heart. ”

“ Having pronounced his perpetual vows before Don Bosco, November 10, 1865, he was elected Director of the College of Lanzo, where he shone in every Salesian virtue. All under his charge, confreres, young clerics, students, and the youthful artisans, felt his perfect and universal spirit of love and devotedness, for he had an art all his own in guiding souls. The "past-pupils", from every social class, set no bounds in their manifestations of gratitude and appreciation of his great heart and heavenly virtues. ”

“ And she went, the brave woman, and never flinched or failed Don Bosco during the ten years that she lived in dire poverty, in toils and sacrifices, the extent of which even Don Bosco's passionate love did not suspect—she was too skillful in hiding her sufferings. Five hundred children, think of it! Margaret washed and ironed for them, made and repaired their clothes, cooked, swept and did the menial work of the house, besides cultivating a vegetable garden and keeping a poultry yard. She was never idle and no religious was ever poorer. ”

“ Hardly any story of the formation of a religious order could be more interesting, touching, thrilling in its details; and to indulge in the cumulative evidence of detail, of anecdote, of conversations, is the momentary temptation of any author who would write of Don Bosco. But space limits me; and my readers may well await, in this as in all the other circumstances of this mysterious life, the filial revelations of Father Lemoyne in his wonderful fifteen-volumed biography of the Apostle of Turin. ”

“ Don Bosco had the gift of genius which might have put him on a par with the finest prose writers of Italy, had literature been his ambition. But all his beloved classics, in collegiate days so profoundly studied, so carefully imitated, were now disregarded, art for art's sake spurned, before the world's crying need of instruction and his own powerful convictions, fairly burning themselves into the paper. ”

“ In other foreign missions, in Palestine, in Alexandria, Egypt, in Algiers and Cape Town, Africa, in Macao, China, in Tanjore and Calcutta, India, the same exalted ideals of sanctity and self-sacrifice dominate the Salesian; his mission is everywhere founded on the meekness and humility of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—the fullness of the interior life passing into outer activities of zeal, to win hearts and bow minds to the sweet yoke of Christ. ”

“ April 3, 1874, was a day of benediction, a day of sacred and perpetual memorial to the sons of Don Bosco, for on that day Pope Pius IX solemnly approved the Rules and Constitutions which the founder, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, had framed for his Society of St. Francis of Sales. The members who thus dedicate themselves to God are "to study to acquire Christian perfection; to devote their lives to works of charity, spiritual and temporal, especially among children and youth, and to the education of scholars. Destitute children are to receive the preference." ”

“ Don Rua, in a few broken sentences of filial veneration, found strength to allude to the simplicity of this death crowning a noble life. Msgr. Cagliero entoned the Subvenite, sancti Dei, in a voice trembling with emotion, then blessed the venerated remains, praying for the repose of his soul. He took off his stole and put it on the dead body, placing the crucifix, which had so often been pressed with unspeakable fervor to the lips of the dying, in the clasped hands. ”

“ Don Bosco answered with cheerful satisfaction. And in his last moments the Venerable Superior-General reiterated solemnly to his successor what he had often predicted relative to the expansion of the Society after his departure to another life. He bade Don Rua look forward to the future with confidence and hope, but to prepare for far greater things than even the remarkable achievements which had made his own life so eventful.
The inherent vitality of the Society, indeed, was not even yet realized by those who had watched its progress and taken an active part in it from its inception ”

“ So close to the invisible world from childhood, the favored disciple of Mary, Seat of Wisdom, who unfolded to him secrets of the future, we may conjecture that God revealed Himself to that chaste soul—the indwelling of the Adorable Trinity was made manifest to his spiritual sight, the Divine Generation of the Word, the Procession of the Holy Ghost, that immanent life of infinite Being which is ever going on in the pure soul after Baptism, though, alas! material things obscure the vision. ”

“ Trial—yes, for God's works are built on a foundation of pain. It was in keeping with the divine plan that harsh and severe criticisms of Don Bosco and his work began to be circulated; the clergy of Turin complained; the civil authorities saw danger lurking in those large gatherings; persecution set in from all sides; and Don Bosco's friends at last said: "Give up the boys! You can't fight against all this prejudice and opposition; no one will rent you a house for them; the authorities are against you; even good people are down on you. ”

“ I hold, too, that this should not only be a rule for the Salesians and their Co-operators, but for all the faithful and especially for the clergy; for besides the duty of a son toward a Father, besides the duty which all Christians have of veneration for the Vicar of Christ, the Holy Father has a special claim upon our fidelity and deference, as being chosen from among the most enlightened and prudent, and the most conspicuous for virtue, and because in directing the Church he is guided by the light of the Holy Ghost. ”

“ Yes, at this moment I feel as well as if I had never been sick at all. If any one were to ask the reason why, you might answer thus: Quod Deus imperio, tu prece Virgo potes! (What God does by His power, Thou obtainest, Virgin! by Thy intercession) . This is certainly not my hour yet; it may be ere long but not now.'
"This unexpected respite in Don Bosco's illness was beyond doubt the result of many prayers offered up through Our Lady in many parts of the world. ”

“ Francis of Sales should never swerve from the principles of our Patron, which firuided his conduct toward the Holy See: that they should accept readily, respectfully and with simplicity of mind and heart not only the decisions of the Pope concerning dogma and discipline, but that in controverted and open questions they should accept his opinion as a private Doctor of the Church, rather than that of any theologian in the world. ”

“ In October 1864, Don Bosco first met him and seeing in a brief time the beauty of his soul he took him to Turin as one of his chosen boys. Upon the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 he formed an association in honor of Mary Immaculate and drew up a rule for its members, the chief maxim of which was "Serve ye the Lord with joy." He used to say: "He who seeks before all things the will of God is on the road to sanctity." ”

“ Francis of Sales as Co-operators, or we should not see these religious priests, destined for such extensive, boy-saving enterprises, scattered, as they are, in a few parishes, without even a novitiate to shelter aspirants to the Saint-forming rule of Don Bosco: without a House of Studies, where their youthful clerics may pursue amid the quiet scenes of nature their final course of philosophy and theology, urged on daily more and more to the attainment of heroic virtue by the holy examples of their predecessors. ”

“ Music, the first, the most beloved, and the most universal of the arts, was one of the great factors of Don Bosco in the renewal and enlightenment of these young souls. Himself a musician with an insuperable devotion to the sacred harmonies of the Church, he made choral singing, from the first, a beautiful and attractive feature of the Oratory: all were able to sing, and some superb voices were found among these minstrels of the South, so that with training they became leaders in the liturgical functions. ”

“ Therefore, if the Salesian Co-operators exclude no work which concerns the material good, particularly of the working classes, and of the young, from the sphere of their activity; if, indeed, they seem to have for these a special impulse, the chief object must ever be the spiritual and moral elevation of the people, particularly of the most neglected, to make of them truly the people of God, to form of them the gens sancta, of whom the Holy Spirit speaks."
Don Bosco submitted the revised rule to Pope Pius IX in 1874. ”

“ Let the people living in these irreligious days, see what a poor, helpless priest accomplished with the help of the Most High, and of Mary, Help of Christians. Would to God there were a Don Bosco in every large city throughout the world at the present time! What an amazing transformation we should then see! Would to God we could quickly get the means to have a good Novitiate here in the United States. We need help from the public in every possible way ”

“ As the large hall could not accommodate all the pilgrims, Don Bosco seated himself in front of the hotel entrance, and having given them and their families a fervent benediction, he deputed Don Rua to address them in his behalf. Each of the pilgrims then knelt to kiss Don Bosco's hand and receive from him a medal of Our Lady, Help of Christians—a function that lasted nearly an hour, during which the venerable patriarch softly spoke his good wishes: "May the Blessed Virgin protect you and guide you to Heaven!" ”

“ Vincent of Paul is you, Reverend Father; with your religious family, half Italian, half French, you will accomplish better than any other, the necessary work of peace and conciliation. Your place is waiting for you...... Father of Italian orphans, I appeal to your heart. You have already responded to Europe and America; here is Africa presenting desolate children whom your heart is large enough to contain." Don Bosco could not resist this appeal. ”