Rome (Italy). On the afternoon of 19 July 2025, Mother Chiara Cazzuola and the General Councilors of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians went, at the invitation of the Rector Major, Fr. Fabio Attard, to the Salesian Headquarters in via Marsala, to visit the Casa Don Bosco Museum in Rome, opened on 27 June, and meet with the General Council of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
After the welcome of the Rector Major, the Community Director of the Central Headquarters, Fr. Francesco Marcoccio, introduced the Mother and the Council to visit the Museum, an engaging and immersive path in the experience of Don Bosco in Rome, in the “Letter from Rome” and in which the Founder understands the meaning of the “Dream at nine years of age”, and therefore of his whole life.
The new Museum, inserted in a network between the different Salesian sites that preserve the historical memory of Don Bosco and in continuity with those of Turin-Valdocco and Genoa-Sampierdarena, was conceived and realized by a group of Salesians and lay professionals who sought the affective involvement of the visitor, to allow him to draw on the spirituality of the Founder and live it in today’s history.
The Artistic Direction of the project is by Fr. Pierluigi Lanotte, SDB, who has been able to digitally translate the ideas and the concept shared in content and ideas with Fr. Erino Leoni, Vicar of the Lombardy Emiliana Province (ILE), together with the historical reconstruction of Fr. Christian Besso, President of the Pontifical Salesian University of Turin-Crocetta, and the coordination of the works by the architect Giampaolo Mengato (cf. InfoANS).
At the end of the visit, the two Councils met for the prayer of first Vespers of the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time in the chapel of the community dedicated to Jesus the Good Shepherd.
In Good Night, Mother Chiara recalled the passage from the Gospel of tomorrow: Martha and Mary welcoming Jesus into their home (Lk 10:38-42). “It is a central text for us FMA” – said Mother – “In the characteristic features of the FMA outlined by Don Bosco in the first Constitutions, we read, ‘In the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the active and contemplative life must go together, portraying Martha and Mary, the lives of the Apostles and the Angels’.
The first Sisters were wondering how to live ‘continuously’ united with God’ with so much work. Don Bosco, visiting Alassio, being with the Sisters in the kitchen, he invited them to ask him for a word. They, showing him the pans and stoves, asked how to live that ‘continuously’. And he answered that it was enough that their heart and their will were oriented to God and that everything was done for Him. It dealt with the right intention. So, later the Constitutions were changed and that ‘continuously’ was removed. But this remains central to our spirituality; contemplation and action go hand in hand and nourish each other.”
The fraternal encounter of the SDB and FMA Councils continued with a dinner together with the SDB community at their Headquarters. At the end, the Rector Major thanked Mother and the Councilors for having accepted the invitation, especially for the journey that they desire to make together for the salvation of young people. Taking up again Mother’s Good Night, he also highlighted a central element recalled by their General Chapter 29: the charismatic identity, the centrality of Christ, without which there will not even be the passion for young people.
This beautiful evening of fraternity ended with the exchange of gifts and the delivery of the invitation by Mother Chiara to the Rector Major and to those present, to the celebrations and events planned for the Canonization of Blessed Sister Maria Troncatti and the brochure, fresh from the press, illustrating her life.
