Let us all be missionaries! 9

The missions were the favourite topic of Don Bosco’s speeches, and he knew how to instil in hearts such a keen desire to become missionaries that it seemed to us the most natural thing in the world. When the consul of the Argentine Republic at Savona, amazed at what he saw at the Oratory, asked him for a similar institution for the province of Buenos Aires, he immediately accepted the plan to have the word of God heard all the way to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

Humanly speaking, this thought suggested tremendous rashness, because the missionaries who had previously tried to penetrate those vast, almost unexplored regions had been brutally slaughtered. Nevertheless, for Don Bosco the second aim of his Congregation had to be the missions, and nothing held him back from fully embracing that aim.

His project approved and strongly encouraged by His Holiness Pius IX, Don Bosco prepared the first expedition of some of his sons, under the

8 Editor’s note: There had recently been a national congress of festive oratories and schools of religion, which became the basis for a report that Fr. Albera had printed and widely distributed (Annali, 4:14-15).

9 From the circular letter “Festive Oratories, Missions, and Vocations” (31 May 1913), in LC, pp. 110-133, at 121-124.

leadership of Father John Cagliero, for 11 November 1875. He deprived himself of his best men; he underwent privations of every kind to prepare everything needed. He sketched the itinerary to the last detail and provided for the smallest eventualities, even material ones, for that long journey.

Who can repeat Don Bosco’s care and concern for this first expedition, which was soon followed by many others, always bringing a greater number of generous apostles among the uncivilized tribes? Who can tell how supremely content his heart was when he knew that they had reached their destination on American soil? Who can speak of his great jubilation when he saw his sons penetrate the Pampas and Patagonia and go fear-lessly through Tierra del Fuego to the southernmost point of the Strait of Magellan?

And when he saw Northern Patagonia erected into a vicariate apostolic with the episcopal consecration of its first bishop [John Cagliero], one whom he cherished, and when Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego became a prefecture apostolic, and when some of those poor uncivilized converts bowed before him to attest their gratitude, he felt such delight as no one will ever be able to describe here below, which consoled him abun-dantly for all the pains he had suffered!

From then on, the missions were the focus of his heart, and it seemed he lived longer only for them. Not that he neglected his many other works, but his preference was for the poor inhabitants of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. He talked about them with so much enthusiasm that people were amazed and very much edified by his most fervent ardour for souls.

Every beat of his heart repeated, Da mihi animas! Charmed by how he spoke of the missions, huge numbers of vocations to this apostolate were instantly aroused in the hearts of his sons, and our benefactors could not fail to cooperate effectively with generous offerings for this work of saving souls: Divinorum divinissimum est cooperari in salutem animarum (“The most godly of divine matters is to cooperate in the salvation of souls”), as Dionysius the Areopagite said.

The Lord abundantly blessed his ardent thirst for souls by giving his sons vast, numerous missions, thanks to his prayers, which in short order blossomed with the fruits of holiness and civilization.

In my visit to the houses and missions of America, completed ten years ago, I touched personally the reality I am speaking of. After the missions in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego came those among the Bororos of Mato Grosso in Brazil, then those among the Jivaros in eastern Ecuador, and lately the immense new missions of India and China.

This is the vast field into which our Congregation must pour out the sweat of our apostolic labours, in union with the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ, and, if it may happen as it did previously in Patagonia, also the blood of her sons.

It will not be difficult, therefore, for you, dear confreres, to understand the heavy weight that falls on your Rector Major to provide these missions with secure and zealous personnel and material means. The needs, both of personnel and of means, are seen more readily, and I feel the need to appeal to your hearts, good confreres, for help.

Yes, you too may want to share so great a burden with me, embracing our missions close to your hearts, first with prayer and then with work.

May prayer, which puts the power of God into our hands, rise incessantly to implore the grace of the apostolic vocation upon us and upon the young people entrusted to our care. Let us pray with intense faith and devotion for this purpose, beseeching the very powerful intercession of our dear Madonna and of our Venerable Father.

But prayer is not enough; it has to be combined with work. This can be foremost personal, by your making a particular effort to enrich yourselves with missionary virtues, which must include a profound piety and a noble spirit of sacrifice for the whole of your life and not just for a few years.

The enemy of souls seems to have found a way to prevent the missionary apostolate from bearing fruit by placing in the hearts of some of those called for the missions a thousand difficulties and even more to present the missions themselves under the aspect of a scientific and pleasure journey or only of a test: if one succeeds, good; otherwise he goes back. This fatal illusion dries up the missionary apostolate at its source and creates a multitude of mercenaries of souls! When the flame of the apostolate has been lit in a heart, it should no more be extinguished.

May your work, then, extend to others: by always speaking enthusias-tically about our missions and never repeating, “One can be a missionary everywhere” (this is absolutely false for those who are called to the missionary apostolate among unbelievers); by describing the beauty of this apostolate to the young people of our oratories; by saving money in order to set aside something for the missions; or by collecting the small offerings of our boys or the generous donations of the Cooperators.

Many houses lament not finding more donations. The real reason perhaps does not lie in the lack of benefactors, but in wanting to put all the alms to local needs, without worrying at all about the missions. Let directors who find themselves in this condition think about it a little; may they repair the

situation by reviving in their benefactors the desire to come to the aid of our missions, too; they comprise the greatest glory of our Congregation.

Yes, good confreres, work with these and other means on behalf of our missions. But your work should aim above all to arouse numerous sincere, solid vocations among the young people entrusted to our care.