Don Bosco in the spiritual context of his time31

Two principle historical factors are especially relevant to 19th century spirituality³². On the one hand the romantic sensitivity pervading the general cultural climate and with its implications for piety; on the other hand socio-political events which prepared for and studded the entire 19^th century: the French Revolution, the Napoleonic period, liberal movements, restoration wars, anticlerical governments, laws harmful to the Church's rights, suppression of religious congregations and confiscation of their goods, the collapse of the Popes' temporal powers, systematic campaigns by the press denigrating the Church and the gradual exclusion of Catholics from the spheres of politics and culture.

These circumstances of a general nature undoubtedly had implications for 19^th century spirituality. As a consequence they had an impact on Don Bosco's inner life and in part motivated his choices and emphases. But these alone are not enough to full explain the important features of his personality and charism that make him one of the most significant figures in the panorama of holiness and spirituality in the 19^th century. For this other aspects need to be taken into consideration, maybe of less historical resonance, but equally important: the environments he was formed in, the cultural substratum and popular religious thinking that he came out of, the mindset and yearnings of the young people amongst whom he ministered, but above all certain unmistakeable features of him as a human being and certain things that happened to him.
a. The spiritual climate of the early 19^th century

Trusting in the light of reason and scientific progress, the tendency to exult the rights and duties of the citizen, mistrust of the traditional and mystical spirituality of the preceding century, the 18^th century emphasised phenomenological subjectivism, reduced religion to symbolic rituals and Christian spirituality to moral and virtuous effort, and rational conduct. At the beginning of the 19^th century, reflecting on the dramatic results of the revolution and its reverberations at a European level, there was a reaction. Revolutionary ferment was interpreted as general corruption of the heart, the obscuring of reason and weakening of the will; Jacobean excesses were the perverse result of human pride when detached from faith. The need was felt, then, to reaffirm whatever had been obscured or denied. Religion as the basis for civil society and the 'cement' in society was declared to be an irreplaceable value, including from a civil and political perspective. Since its elimination, Louis de Bonald (1754-1840) said, had led to the destruction of society, the moral and spiritual reconstruction of Europe must begin by recovering the transcendent and ethical values of Catholicism, from a strong and ardent love for religion and virtue. Through a careful reinterpretation of preceding centuries, François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) arrived at identifying the history of civilisation with the history of religion and presented the best conquests of the intellect, arts and progress as the result of the “genius of Christianity” (1802).

The religious conscience perceived the revolution as the incarnation of divisive infernal powers attacking the Church to the detriment of souls; recurring famines, epidemics, economic crises and wars were God's punishment, calling people to conversion, asking them to return to sincere religious practice based on inwardness and reverent submission to the divine.

This sensitivity, already in the Napoleonic period, gave rise to a first Catholic recovery through initiatives of spiritual formation limited to small groups, such as the Amicizie, who from Piedmont spread to Savoy, Lombardy, Tuscany, Rome and Austria, and like the youth associations in Brescia promoted by ex-Jesuit Luigi Mozzi dei Capitani (1746-1813). These had an effect on the educational vocation of Ludovico Pavoni (1784-1849) and the noble Venetian brothers Antonio Angelo (1774-1853) and Marco Antonio Cavanis (1772-1858). The Amicizie produced zealous priests like Pio Brunone Lanteri (1759-1830), founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, and Fr Luigi Guala (1775-1848) who started the Pastoral Institute, a breeding ground for holy and zealous priests, and a decisive environment for the young Don Bosco's spiritual leanings and choices. The works and writings of Ludovico Pavoni and Cavanis brothers would also influence him. This spiritual recovery amongst the best of the clergy generated, in Piedmont as elsewhere, a relaunching of pastoral care to uplift the people morally and spiritually.

At the dawning of the 19^th century spiritual works of a deeper religious inspiration saw the light of day. One example was The way to holiness shown us by Jesus through devotion to his Most Sacred Heart (1795) by Agostino Albergotti (1755-1825)—inspired by the Imitation of Christ and the spirituality of St Francis de Sales—written in the form of an affectionate colloquy between Jesus and reader, where it was said that holiness is a way open to all the faithful and consisting essentially in “becoming like Jesus”, his virtues, his obedience to the movement of the Holy Spirit, the “gentle sparks of his divine fire” that moved one “with gentle force to love and want to love the highest Good even more.”³³ This style of intimate colloquy could also be found in other spiritual works of the time, such as Jesus at the heart of the priest by Bartolomeo del Monte (1726-1778)—often reprinted in the 19^th century—Jesus at the heart of the young person by Giuseppe Zama-Mellini (1788-1838)—recommended by Don Bosco himself in the Companion of Youth—and Mary at the heart of the young person (1843) by Vincentian Pietro Biancheri. Also a result of this reawakening were works by the Jesuit from Ferrara, Alfonso Muzzarelli (1749-1813), a keen polemicist who rejected Rousseau's pedagogical thinking, and was the author of works aimed at arousing spiritual fervour, amongst which the May, or Month of Mary (Ferrara 1795). It would be very popular throughout the 19^th century, along with Practical instruction on devotion to the heart of Jesus. Very often reprinted through the century were Documents for the instruction and tranquillity of souls (Turin 1785) by the Barnabite Carlo Giuseppe Quadrupani (1758-1807). These, like many other small works by spiritual writers reacting against the “evils” and aridity of the century of the Enlightenment, brought to the level of the common faithful essential elements of asceticism, devotion to the Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady, through simple meditations which encouraged fervour. A specific literary genre thus came into being, an amalgam of religious instruction, meditation, devote emotions and resolutions that would see further development right up to the early 20^th century, in the context of a thirst for culture and inwardness establishing itself amongst the people. Don Bosco, nurtured by such “spiritual readings", would make them an effective tool in his educational activity, reformulating them and adapting them to the needs and tastes of his boys.

During the Renaissance, the triumphant return of Pius VII to Rome after the fall of Napoleon's Empire became a symbol of the Church's triumph over the powers of evil, thanks to God's extraordinary intervention. It was a time for religious revival, and an effort to re-Christianise society through pastoral activity amongst the people. The invitation to conversion and reform of behaviour took place especially through preaching missions, culminating in a general confession and the whole community going to Communion. The mission preachers insisted on compunction of heart, daily prayer, regularly receiving the sacraments, keeping Sundays and Feast Days holy; they emphasised the value of daily virtues, fulfilling one's duty, temperance and moral behaviour. A religious sentiment of repentance and expiation was an urge to prayer and devout practices. The mysteries of Christ's life, devotion to his passion, the practice of the Via crucis (Stations of the Cross) and saying the Rosary together were all attractive. Greater importance was given in parishes to preparing and celebrating first Communion; the Easter Duty was made more solemn by having extraordinary confessors and giving out Easter tickets; the Forty Hours took on grander importance.

Parish ministry gained strength, thanks to better formed and motivated clergy. Catechetics for children was relaunched, along with Sunday religious instruction for adults. Confraternities and pious unions of men and women gained new life with help from parish priests. Traditional rites gained new impetus: rogation days, processions, devotion to the dead; new devout practices were introduced, novenas and triduums, Marian months, garlands. Even in the more remote villages, through preaching and the ministry of the confessional, the clergy promoted the spiritual life of the humble folk; they formed them to a more substantial piety, animated by love, inspired by confidence in God; they spurred them on to practical exercise of virtues and active faith; parents were sensitised to the Christian upbringing of their children.

This was the kind of atmosphere in which the young John Bosco's Christian initiation as a child took place, wisely looked after by his mother who got him used to saying his morning and evening prayers, got him ready for his first confession, gave importance to his first communion, and crating the conditions which helped the boy understand the spiritual importance of the event (MO, 68-69). His early literacy was the result of the work of a priest teacher at Capriglio, who “was very good to him” and “most willingly” helped him with instruction and his Christian upbringing (MO, 61). The topics he heard in the preaching at the missions also had an impact on John Bosco as a boy: reminders of the Last Things, intended to arous a sense of guilt, the resolve to be converted so as not to be caught out in sin by death, and the decision to give oneself irrevocably to God. It was a spirituality sensitive to the “great affair” of the salvation of ones soul, emphasising God's love for mankind, the Divine Saviour's redeeming passion, but also the inexorable nature of his judgement, awareness of human weakness and the power of temptation. This spirituality encouraged prayer of supplication, insisted on frequenting the sacraments, inspired examination of conscience and good resolutions, urged people to penance and mortification. And it was precisely in the context of a popular mission proclaiming the “need to give oneself to God in time and not put off conversion”, that brought about the encounter with Fr John Calosso, his first and very effective spiritual director, whom the teenager trusted: “It was then that I came to realise what it was to have a regular spiritual director, a faithful friend of one's soul. I had not had one up till then. Amongst other things he forbade a penance I used to practise: he deemed it unsuited to my age and circumstances. He encouraged frequent confession and communion. He taught me how to make a short daily meditation, or more accurately, a spiritual reading … From then on I began to savour the spiritual life.” (MO, 71).

18^th century apologetics had reacted against representation of religious practice as sad, boring, contrary to the spirit of freedom. At the beginning of the 19^th century, re-evaluation of “the beauty of Christianity” led to a joyful view of the life of grace. At the same time, riding on the wave of the beatification (1816) and canonisation (1836) of Alphonsus Liguori, a more benign ethics came into force compared with rigorist positions, and some of the lesser spiritual works of the Saint were rediscovered—full of emotion, and responding to the emotional nature of the romantic era. Other than beauty, they also proclaimed the “good things” of faith, helping people to love and desire “Christian perfection”, divine intimacy, and to work for the eternal joys of heaven. It was a time when religious sentiment felt itself in profound harmony with Saints who represented the gentle Christ: Francis of Assisi, Philip Neri, Francis de Sales, Vincent de Paul. Their life and writings were interpreted from a romantic perspective. This attention to sentiment and the heart encouraged a devout psychologism, focus on inwardness, constant monitoring of one's awareness. To avoid the danger of sentimentalism St Alphonsus’ advice on the need to “move to practice” was repeated, the need to translate fervour into detachment of the heart from sin, into mortification of the senses, life commitment, virtuous acts, works of charity. Some of the saint’s smaller works, his Eternal maxims, his Practice loving Jesus Christ, his Preparation for death, were amongst the most widely disseminated and best loved devout publications of the 19^th century at every level of society.

Alphonsus' writings and the piety they presented had a basis in austerity which the romantic soul succeeded in tempering by recovering the devout humanism of St Francis de Sales. He exercised a powerful fascination in the 19^th century amongst clergy and laity. Throughout the century, other than the frequent reprinting of his complete works, pocketbook versions of the Introduction to the Devout Life were enormously successful, even amongst simple folk, along with collections of his maxims. Also reprinted was the Spirit of St Francis de Sales, by bishop Pierre Camus, in a digest version by Pierre Collot, offering a loving and kind picture of the Saint from Savoy,along with his irrepressible pastoral zeal which had him exclaim “Da mihi animas, caetera tolle”. The spirit of St Francis de Sales pervaded the life and spiritual literature of the 19^th century and greatly influenced the direction of romantic piety, equal to his figure which became the symbol of apostolic zeal and pastoral approach for the clergy in these new times.

When he entered the seminary at Chieri, the cleric Bosco found an exacting environment focused completely on ethical behaviour, scrupulous fidelity to the rule and exact fulfilment of duty, daily practices of piety, humble submission. When he asked his philosophy professor for “some rules for life”, he got the response: “Just one thing, exact fulfilment of your duties.” (MO, 104). Seminary life was austere, characterised by strong spiritual effort, guided by chosen formators with whom John always had a good relationship, despite their reserve and distance from the clerics. The priestly ideal was nurtured by abundant reading, in community and personally, from meditation books on the good priest, little manuals of piety which nurtured affections during visits to the chapel. The cleric Bosco preferred the lives of the saints, biblical and historical material³⁴. His formators insisted in respect for the rules, the need to be "obedient to discipline" not out of fear or formality, but out of an ""inner spirit", "with the right intention of pleasing God alone"³⁵. In his talks to the seminarians Archbishop Chiaveroti, read publicly in the refectory, John could also note the strong insistence on the pastoral aim of his studies: God calls a young man to the ecclesiastical state principally for a service of “sanctification of one's neighbour ...; whence one does not sufficiently satisfy one's duty by attending to one's own sanctification to the point where he does not see to the sanctification of others.”³⁶ Apostolic zeal must characterise the spiritual journey of the seminarians from the outset, motivate their every activity inward and outward, since they are called to become pastors dedicated exclusively to their ministry to the people, suitable for exercising the care of souls, which is the“art of arts and the most difficult of all.”³⁷ A good pastor must be inflamed by the desire to save his brothers and sisters: “What else is the pastor of souls if not a victim of the love he must show to God and his neighbour?”³⁸ The ideal priest as presented by Archbishop Chiaveroti is characterised by pastoral holocaust: he has no peaceful dreams or days, no time for himself, everything goes into his ministry. “I beg you, brothers: you have not yet resisted to the point of your blood, nor give your life for your sheep, as a good pastor must do”³⁹.

Romantic modulations are clearly seen in the Life of Louis Comollo (1844), republished with significant additions in 1854⁴⁰. It is a valuable document for understanding the evolution of spiritual sensitivity between the first and second half of the 19^th century: in an intensely emotion, intimate and fervent atmosphere in which the young Bosco was immersed in his years at the seminary and in the practical, apostolic, charitable and social direction that romantic spirituality took after 1848, under the pressure of events.
c. Spiritual life at the Pastoral Institute

After his priestly ordination, Don Bosco found at the Pastoral Institute an setting which was just as demanding, but more open and sensitive to the spiritual and pastoral circumstances of the moment. Here, as well as study, recollection and prayer, he came across the moral and spiritual example of his formators, their extraordinary pastoral zeal. The Rector, Louis Guala, tutor Felix Golzio, but especially the spiritual director, Joseph Cafasso, like other zealous apostles of the 19^th century, aimed at intimately harmonising the “moment of contemplation with affection for the Lord, translating the sweetness of these affections into religious activity” and pastoral activity; “their elevation to God in faith and charity turned into apostolic activity of compassion and redemption.”⁴¹ Don Bosco writes of his formators: “The prisons, hospitals, pulpits, charitable institutes, the sick in their homes, the cities, the villages, and we might add, the mansions of the rich and the hovels of the poor felt the salutary effects of the zeal of these three luminaries of the Turinese clergy. These were the three models placed in my path by Divine Providence. It was just up to me to follow their example, their teaching, their virtues.” (MO, 126). This was a determining experience for his future mission, which set him on the path of apostolic ascesis which would be the basis of the spirituality of his Congregations.

“The spirituality of the Pastoral Institute was based on the teaching of St Francis de Sales and St Alphonsus Liguori. It did not form to holiness or for holiness like a monastic community; it did not educate to mystical experience; it did not invite one to abandon everyone and everything to see that one was only of God and in God. It limited itself to making young priests aware that they were living in a spiritually perturbed world; it had them see that from the Christian angle everything had to be done; it prepared its priest members for tireless activity on behalf of souls to be saved, offering them the comfort of charitable apostolic acceptance. The Pastoral Institute sought to convince priests that whatever they offered to or required of the faithful (orthodox doctrine, spirit of prayer and mortification, ethical and canonical observance) necessarily required testimony in their own lives. The Pastoral Institute did not inculcate in priests or laity a new spiritual doctrine, but an ascetic and virtuous voluntarism within faithful practice of piety.”⁴²
The teaching at the Pastoral Institute, inspired by St Alphonsus Liguori, gave Don Bosco a unified vision of things: moral theology, Scripture, liturgy, ascetic and mystical theology were above all meant to nurture an interior life and so were fundamental elements in his ministry, in the historical context of a society undergoing complete transformation.

The model of the priest offered in the teaching and practice of the Pastoral Institute harmonised the Salesian view with the apostolic spiritual activity of the Jesuits. According to Francis de Sales devotion essentially consists in loving God and generating a gradual ascetic commitment to purifying the heart, an ever more intense practice of prayer and sacraments, daily exercise of virtue. and since Christian perfection is the common vocation of all Christians, in caring for souls the pastor must adapt devotion to the circumstances, strengths, occupations and duties of each one in particular. Jesuit inspiration adds to devotion the apostolic commitment to spreading the kingdom of God through tireless dedication and work, and in battle style, however always maintaining in this active life, a contemplative attitude within.

“It was onto this Salesian and Jesuit doctrinal trunk that the spirituality of the 19^th century developed its own ascetic experience. It maintained that given the presence of the grace of the Spirit of the Lord (Jn. 15:5), one could engage in perfection oneself. It was his belief that spiritual perfection "in the habitual effort of good will, a vigilant and persevering moral tension of conscience over the domain of one's actions, a normal attitude of self-government, self-mastery, with the intention of unifying the complex psychological mechanism of one's instincts, passions, interests, sentiments, inward and outward reactions, thoughts, under a single directive command, love of God and neighbour, the supreme and vital norm of the Christian personality.”⁴³
These are precisely the features which connote the spiritual stature of Fr Cafasso effectively outlined by Don Bosco at his funeral,along with an exasperated asceticism (“rigid penitence”) with a pastoral intent⁴⁴. In his eyes the teacher is the successful synthesis of apostolic holiness: “I can tell you that I have found many [Saints] who have stood out heroically some for this, some for some other virtue, but I believe it would be truly rare to find someone who united in himself such wisdom, so much practical humanity, so much prudence, fortitude, temperance, zeal for things to do with the glory of God and the salvation of souls that we see in Cafasso the priest.”⁴⁵
Other preferred issues in the spiritual and cultural climate of the century were Providence and Divine mercy, confidence in and abandonment to God, inner peace. In Turin, St Joseph Benedict Cottolengo (1786-1842) called his work The Little Home of Divine Providence; Marchionness Giulia di Barolo (1785-1864) founded the Sisters of St Anne and Providence; Don Bosco himself wrote and published an Exercise of devotion to God's mercy (1847). Abandonment to God seems to be one of the characteristic features of 19^th century piety. It is an invitation we find in the Memoirs of the Oratory, in various works of Don Bosco and in his collection of letters, both in the broad sense of confident trust, spiritual dependence and offering of self, and in his trust in the material help he needed for life's practical necessities. But for Don Bosco confidence and abandonment to God are not passive attitudes, but are accompanied by a readiness for action, the intelligent search for solutions and opportunities, unconditional dedication to the given mission, to his boys and the confreres.
d. Don Bosco's ascetic emphasis

“Don Bosco educated at the Pastoral Institute to tireless apostolic ascesis, considered it appropriate to offer the clerics who were helping him a spiritual formation that differed from the formation practised in seminaries and novitiates. These formed clerics and novices by separating them totally from the world, with a view to creating in them a mindset and behaviours that were opposite to those of lay people. On the contrary Don Bosco immersed his clerics amongst young people so they could share their piety and duties with them. He maintained that apostolic dedication was not only an impregnable bulwark of morality, but certainly a highly formative ascetics of charitable spirit.”⁴⁶

Here we have one of the cornerstones of the Saint's proposal. He considers a wide range of duties, all stemming from one's real circumstances: “duties of piety, respect for and obedience to parents and charity to everyone.”⁴⁸ As a result he suggests to his young pupils not fasts and penances they would themselves choose, but “diligence in study, paying attention at school, obeying superiors, putting up with the inconveniences of life like heat, cold, wind, hunger, thirst”, overcoming their seeing it as “necessary” greater forces from outside and accepting them calmly out of “love for God”⁴⁹. He places the duties coming from the Gospel precept of charity at the same level: exercising “much kindness and charity” for one's neighbour, putting up with their faults, “giving good advice and counsel”; “doing things for your friends, bringing them water, cleaning their shoes, also serving at table …, sweeping the refectory, the dormitory, carrying out the rubbish, bringing in the wood, trunks.” All these things according to Don Bosco, need to be done “joyfully” and with “satisfaction”. In fact, “real penance consists not in doing what pleases us but in doing what pleases the Lord, and serves to promote his glory.”⁵⁰ The spiritual value of these existential situations is guaranteed by the intention with which they are done and the purpose we give them: “What you need to put up with out of necessity," he reminds Dominic Savio —offer it to God, and it becomes a virtue and merit for your soul.”⁵¹

Exemplary in this sense is the experience of Michael Magone, as told by Don Bosco: his “frank and resolute” conversion generated a new perception of himself and his daily life. If earlier on he had unwillingly withdrawn from his beloved recreation to do his duties, which he saw as a weight⁵⁵, he would then be seen “running to be first where duty called him”, wanting to regulate himself “constantly well ... with application and diligence”. We see him mature inwardly in an important way, accompanied by a “total change both physical and moral”, interpreted by his teachers as an evident sign of his “wanting to give everything to piety ... stripped of the old Adam.”⁵⁶ In the Life of Francis Besucco, Don Bosco expresses more explicitly the “mystical” orientation of ascesis. He outlines the commitment of the young shepherd and his diligence in his duties as expressing his choice of perfect conformation to the divine will: “He came to the Oratory with a prior purpose in mind; so in his behaviour he always looked at the point he was tending towards, that is, to dedicate himself to God in the ecclesiastical state. To this end he sought to progress in knowledge and virtue.”⁵⁷ His adherence to daily life, his practical intention, the intensity of his commitment and his efforts to be perfect (to “do more and better things”), which came from such a movement of love, marked the boy's whole life, shaping an attitude of detachment and loving completeness, of kenosis and ecstasy, similar to what is described by Francis de Sales as “ecstasy of life and works”, which is the summit of the journey of perfection⁵⁸.

Dominic Savio, strongly excited by the overwhelming mystical experience he had as a result of the sermon on holiness “which inflamed his heart with love for God”, and inwardly pressured by the “need” “to be completely the Lord's”, is led to “doing rigid penances, spending long hours in prayer.” Don Bosco instead encourages him “not to be worried,” and keep “constant and moderate cheerfulness”, “be persevering in his duties of piety and study,” “always take part in recreation with his companions.”⁵⁹ At the same time he guides him in the direction of the apostolic holiness had had learned at the Pastoral Institute: “The first thing he advised him for becoming a saint was to get busy winning over souls to God; this there is nothing more holy in the world than cooperating for the good of souls, for whose salvation Jesus Christ shed the last drop of his precious blood.”⁶⁰
Like others formed spiritually in the first half of the 19^th century, Don Bosco was convinced that the action of grace urges us to a personal ascetic way of life, rich in moral virtues, industrious holiness and works of charity. He had absorbed religious sentiment, affective devotion and lacked trust in mystical experience, because it seemed to him to be extraneous to daily duty and service of ones brothers, a misunderstood fuga mundi. He preferred willing commitment to doing good, being immersed in life, virtuous industry and cheerfulness, friendly and helpful relationships and above all apostolic charity: “solicitude for the good of souls” and zeal for “instructing children in the truths of the faith”, and “winning over to God” all of humankind. But it ought be noted that this ascetic and practical direction, this tendency to material and spiritual charity, to charitable activity according to the “need of the times”, this general insistence on involvement for the benefit of those who suffer and are excluded, this preference for pastoral and missionary fervour—all characteristic of 19^th century spirituality—is not opposed to inner union with God for Don Bosco. He never neglected the prayer of simple union, and indeed was ever responsive to the urgings of the Holy Spirit. “We could say that in the 19^th century every Saint was in fact necessarily a mystic, since his or her virtuous lives were rooted in and flourished in the determining grace and light of the Spirit. But if we pay attention to the explicit awareness he had of his spiritual status and how it was developing, he was an ascetic and not a mystic. In the 19^th century the spiritual was reduced to and identified with what was moral, asectic.”⁶¹


e. Prayer, sacraments and devotion to Mary

The core of the spirituality dominant in Don Bosco's century is summed up in the title of a small work by St Alphonsus: The great means of prayer for achieving eternal salvation. This was in fact the “basic individual and collective attitude we discover in 19^th century spirituality faced with the profound transformations marking the century.”⁶² In the Catholic world the perception of an incipient disaffection in the ordinary ranks of people with religious practice, and still more the increasingly virulent attacks on the Church, the Barque of Peter tossed by storms, against its institutions and its hierarchy, aroused recourse to supplicant prayer and together they nurtured an active and warrior-like spirit. Resolutions of faithfulness were renewed, sacramental practice and devotions increased, pastoral zeal multiplied, missionary activity was relaunched, and a huge variety of charitable activities were put in place, and they worked at a profound spiritual and moral renewal of the clergy and laity.

In such a way the saintly educator radically re-purposes the ancient precept of the fuga mundi in the context of modernity. Thanks to the spirit of prayer, distancing ourselves from the world and immersion in the world are brought together and harmonised in a projection of offering, responsibly taking on our experience in ways that are typically Christian. Prayer, apostolic fervour and mortification are but facets of a single attitude of the consecration of the heart. This is a lofty proposal made by Don Bosco to his disciples in consecrated life, but also to simple boys whom he encouraged with: “Courage then, let us begin in time working for the Lord, it is up to us to suffer something in this world, but then we will have an eternal reward in the other.”⁷¹

This formative concern gives substance and meaning to the emotional and effective aura with which Don Bosco imbues Eucharistic devotion. During the Offering at Mass for example, he invites his youngsters to take on Christ's thoughts: “I offer you my heart, my tongue, so that in the future I will desire nothing other than to speak only about what is to do with holy service.”⁷³ Thus during thanksgiving after communion he urges them towards consecration of themselves: “Ah if I could only have the heart of the Seraphim in heaven, so that my soul would burn ever more with love for my God! … I declare that in the future you will be always my hope, my comfort, you alone my wealth. … I offer you my whole self; I offer you my will so that I may want nothing else than what pleases you; I offer you my hands, my feet, my eyes, my tongue, my mouth, my mind, and my heart and everything of me; protect these sentiments of mine, so that every thought, every action may have no other purpose than your greater glory and the spiritual advantage of my soul.”⁷⁴

Don Bosco's Marian spirituality too had a marked pedagogical function, while keeping the typical features of romantic and 19^th century spirituality. As we can see, for example, in the biographical profile of Michael Magone, devotion to Mary culminates—as Fr Caviglia says—in a “pedagogy of adolescence, which is then and especially a pedagogy of chastity”, offered by Don Bosco to the simplest children of the people, “taken off the streets, from the perversion of slums and disorderly family life; or poor children from the country, bad or in danger of becoming so fro want of social correctives.”⁷⁵