Turin (Italy). The Salesian Family Spirituality Days concluded on Sunday, 18 January 2026, in Valdocco, Turin. The final morning led the participants to a summary of the experience to feel as “Servants, believers, free and generous for the young people”. Everyone was deeply affected by the event of Cana, the biblical reference passage (Jn 2:1-11) and, in an environment of joyful family celebration, learned wisdom from Mary in looking at the personal situations of her own life and the challenges of the current world.
In his homily at the Eucharistic Celebration in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, the Rector Major, Fr. Fabio Attard, began by saying, “This Sunday’s readings, providentially, whisper to us a single and fascinating truth: service is not an addition to our Christian vocation, but rather its beating heart, the very form in which our being disciples takes flesh and communicates itself to the world.” With his words commenting on the readings, he encouraged to live more consciously the path of the Strenna, “Do whatever He tells you” and to bring this vocation into their communities and families: “Believers, free, to serve”.
At the final assembly moment, Fr. Joan Lluís Playà, Central Delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family, called on stage the members of the secretariat and the organizational team, including the General Councilor for the Salesian Family, Sister Leslie Sándigo, and her collaborators, Sister Lucrecia Uribe and Sister Sangitha Rani, for the reading of the Final Manifesto, in harmony with the path proposed by the Rector Major, expressed in the four verbs: LOOK, LISTEN, CHOOSE, ACT.
These are the verbs also taken up by the Rector Major in his final greeting – after thanking those who organized, the technicians and the participants, even online – underlining the importance of taking up the text of the Strenna according to the four sessions throughout the year, “so that the Word continues to offer us new wine.”
He then added a clarification to each verb. Look with empathy, without filters and without judging, with love with pathos, with that sense of closeness, like Mary and the servants. Listen by forming ourselves, not with an intellectual, analytical listening, but “with the ears of Christ”. Be on the wavelength of the Word of Jesus and Don Bosco, going to the origins “to continue to be original”. Choose generously – “we are generous because our goodness is the reflection of the Good Shepherd” – generosity is a consequence, not a cause, “we are generous because we have allowed ourselves to be filled with God’s generosity…because we have benefited through generosity.” Act with faith, understanding faith as a relationship, as “the architecture of our ecosystem. We breathe in God’s presence and seek to act as a fruit of it.”
Among the participants from 44 nations, a genuine family was experienced, hearts were opened, and the deep communion they experienced allows them to continue their journey as renewed women and men. Everyone left with the conviction that they had received a gift to share and with an energy that strengthens the mission of accompanying young people on their journey of faith.
From the work in the Language Groups, some commitments emerged as more heartfelt demands: enhancing one’s daily life; strengthening the relationship with the Lord, a more personal relationship that is not experienced only formally; ‘remaining’ more with the Lord to be able to ‘listen’ authentically with young people; being an active presence that can also listen with the eyes; take the invitation to a commitment of authentic testimony in the daily service.
Joseph Tufano, new President of the Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA), summarizes the experience of the Days as follows:
“My first Days of Salesian Family Spirituality as ADMA President concluded on Sunday! Like every year, they were very beautiful moments of fraternity and friendship, in communion with many representatives of the various groups of the Salesian Family and accompanied by messages from the Rector Major’s Strenna. I have always been struck by the greatness of the Salesian Family, different in vocations, declination of Don Bosco’s charism and origins, but strongly united in recognizing themselves as part of a single mission.
It is really difficult to select the most significant moments and messages, because there were so many. One of these, Fr. Fabio’s presentation of Strenna, was for me a powerful reminder of the essentials of my being a believer: a faith that does not withdraw into itself, that pushes one not to be a “neutral spectator”, but that generates connection, listening, service, accompaniment. A faith that is measured in the ability to stand beside others, especially young people, without intentions to judge and without “predefined answers” without listening to the questions!
The Round Table on Youth and Faith left another particular mark on me. How much Grace to listen to our young people! Listening to them, it’s easy to realize that young people aren’t looking for perfect models, but for authentic adults; not abstract discourses, but simplicity, and concreteness; not self-referential structures, but places and people capable of truly listening. Faith, for them, comes from contact, from daily experience, from relationships that do not judge but accompany.
I thank Mary for these days. We are all a little richer after these days and I in particular feel more accompanied in my role in the ADMA.”
