Why I Love Don Bosco

        I don’t know Don Bosco till May, 1998. I don’t even know whether he existed. I joined a Salesian house in June, 1998. When I heard the word Don Bosco for the first time, without being aware, I have drawn myself towards him. I love him not because he loved the young or gave his whole for the salvation of the young but I love him because of the pull or attraction that my heart has towards him. Being with Don Bosco more than 13 years (more than half of my age), I have always tried to imitate and emulate him for four reasons:

1. Passionate Human Being: Don Bosco was a passionate Human being. It means that he lived his human life fully for the glory of God and for the salvation of young people. When speaking of Don Bosco, Salesians often say ‘fully man and fully divine’. I don’t agree with the second part of the sentence because, it makes Don Bosco a God, which in real he is not. He is a man of God but He is not God. He was in passionately in love with everything; prayer, entertainment, recreation, picnics. He was never a man who cut himself from the realities of the world. He lived in the world and showed to young people, that it is in living in the world, that we can attain sanctity.

2. Passionate Dreamer: Don Bosco was not only the dreamer but he made his dreams actualities. His whole life plan was communicated to him through dreams. He lived his dreams, no matter, how many ever hardships that his life fetched. I can daringly and dangerously affirm, he became a Saint with and through his dreams.

3.  Passionate Love for the Young: He loved the young passionately. It is very clear when he said “For you I Study, for you I work, and for you even I am ready to give up my life”. It is the love that Don Bosco had towards the young people. His love was never partial. It always went equally to all the boys whether they are good or bad. His love had no restriction but only boundary that he created was that they should be young for him to love them.

4.  Passionate Madness: Don Bosco was passionately mad to start something new, to create new avenues for the church, to discover new horizons for/of the church, to creatively work and carry on the mission of the church. He started to work for all the poor and abandoned youth. Something new in his times and nobody thought about working for the youth. For this he was blamed as ‘mad priest.’ He never gave up and nothing discouraged him in working for the young people. He dedicated his whole life for young people, making them cause for his authentic existence.