Prevention, not repression
Books about the spiritual guidance of youth
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- 9. A teacher constantly ‘open to learning’
8. Books about the spiritual guidance of youthWhile studying the sources of the successful religious handbook Don Bosco wrote, The Companion of Youth, 1847, Pietro Stella discovered a distinctive style of writing for the Christian education of young people. This literature carries the distinctive marks of what would become Don Bosco’s formation program, practical, accompanied by rules and proposed by him both verbally and in writing. There is no doubt that the book was inspired and enriched by this literature and that it had no small impact on the Christian formation of not a few generations.535 An outstanding figure in the field of spiritual guidance for youth is Charles Gobinet (1613-1690): a priest from Paris; he was the author of a popular book l’instruction de la jeunesse en la pieté chretienne, tirée de le écriture sainte et de Ss. Péres, Divisée en cinq parties. (The instruction of youth in Christian piety, drawn from Sacred Scripture and from the Fathers of the Church divided into five parts).536 Many others who offer similar educational schemes, usually spiritual in content and all exclusively directed to the youth of a certain social and cultural level, follow Gobinet. The following are worth mentioning: Francesco Avondo’s Theotimus, namely, family-like instruction on the Christian duties of young people and especially young students. A booklet suited to all classes of people.537 Cardinal De La Luzerne’s A Booklet on the duties of the young538; Claudio Arvisenet’s An Address to Youth;539 A bouquet of flowers for boys and girls, namely a Christian antidote in defence of innocence.540 The basic themes are found more explicitly expressed in the model described by Charles Gobinet in The Instruction of Youth.541 The first volume describes, in five parts, the fundamental aspects of youth, a help towards their Christian salvation and the journey leading to the attainment of virtue, that is holiness: l) On the reasons and motives which justify a man’s duty to pursue virtue from his early years. 2) On the means needed to acquire virtue during youth. 3) On the obstacles which turn the young away from virtue. 4) On the virtues needed by the young. 5) On choosing one vocation in life.542 The crowning point is provided by a Treatise on meditation, namely, on mental prayer regarded as possible and necessary for the young also.543 The second volume, a bit less bulky, is entirely dedicated to the two sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist: Instruction on Penance and on the Means Needed to Return to God Through Real Conversion544 and Instruction on Holy Communion. 545 There is an initial exhortation to true conversion and to correcting of one’s life;546 it is followed by a treatise on the fundamental elements of the Sacrament of Penance, namely, sorrow, confession, and firm purpose of amendment. The concluding part of this section is a detailed introduction to an examination of one’s sins, condensed into three sections: the Commandments, the theological virtues together with the virtue of religion, examined in reference to the first commandment, and the seven deadly sins.547 The volume’s second section is dedicated to Holy Communion and divided into two parts: On the doctrine, namely, on truths we ought to know about the Sacrament of the Holy Communion548 and On the practice of going to Communion and on what is needed for a good Communion. This section constitutes a real plan designed for a Christian life, harmoniously modelled on the basic virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.549 The affinity which exists with not only The Companion of Youth but also with the entire framework of Don Bosco’s Christian educational system shows how much he owed to all of the above-mentioned authors or at least how much connection there is between praxis and pedagogical reflection and solid tradition, seriously committed to offering youth a solid, specific Christian spirituality.550
There is no doubt that Don Bosco, as a founder, had to learn everything involved in the juridical and spiritual structure of the religious institutions that he founded. He also had to learn things about the many publications, narrative, catechetical and apologetic, he was gradually issuing. The same went for his educational experience, especially when he had to express it in writing. We have already mentioned in previous chapters, and earlier in this chapter, the names of educators and pedagogues Don Bosco might have known, to some degree. A detailed analysis of his more significant pedagogical writings may eventually discover some probable sources Don Bosco may have relied on and drawn from. Don Bosco addressed a letter to Father Rua, at the end of October 1863, one which later became known as the Confidential Reminders for Rectors. In this letter we find the classical formula: make yourself loved before you make yourself feared, a formula which later was slightly modified. Instead of the word before, the words if you want, and, rather than. Don Bosco may have taken this formula from the monastic Rule of St Augustine or of St Benedict, but most probably from reading books which dealt with Greek and Roman history. The document as a whole may have drawn some kind of inspiration from a booklet written by the Jesuit father Binet, Quel est le meillieur gouvernement: le rigoureux ou le doux? (What is the best way to rule: strictly or with gentleness?). Don Bosco might have had the chance to read this booklet in its Italian edition provided by Jesuit Father Anthony Bresciani (1798-1862), who was director of the boarding school Of Mount Carmel and who later on became provincial, near the Convitto Ecclesiastico. The text which, had as title The art of leadership, was preceded by a note written by the translator, in which he displayed rather conservative ideas aimed at forewarning people against modern permissive and populist tendencies, and possibly or actually affecting family, society and even the world of politics.551 There appeared to be numerous suggestions and confirming proofs related to this overall pedagogical viewpoint which surfaced in the basic but significant pages of Don Bosco’s The Preventive System in the Education of Youth.552 Those pages contained many ideas which were the result of Don Bosco’s own experience, which in turn reflected reasons familiar to the Catholic pedagogical tradition: above all the evangelical method of love, gentleness, reasonableness, understanding, previously championed by Fenelon and Rollin and solidly boosted by Don Bosco’s encounter with the Brothers of the Christian Schools and perfectly in tune with the personalities and writings of the 19th century which were accessible to him.553 The most immediate and important source was probably a booklet by the Superior General of the Barnabites, Fr Alexander Teppa: Advice for Catholic educators of youth, a book we have already referred to. Don Bosco may have become aware of the two words preventive and repressive from his contacts with the judiciary, from people involved in prisons, from people involved in juridical and penal matters, and from correctional institutions. We have mentioned earlier, in particular the correctional institution called La Generala. A similar idea may have also come from knowing, at least in summary, the more demanding pedagogical work written by Bishop Felix Dupanloup On Education, again already mentioned.
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