Rome (Italy). The Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, presented the theme of Strenna 2019: ‘So that my joy may be in you’ (Jn 15:11). HOLINESS ALSO FOR YOU.
The Strenna “is the fruit of dialogue at the World Council of the Salesian Family, which gratefully, is in harmony with the ecclesial moment of the Synod, and also with the last appeal on the theme of holiness”.
“In every corner of the earth every young person will be “placed back” at the center for the beauty of their life, for the freshness of their years, for the dreams they carry in their heart. The Synod of young people will have the beautiful and interesting task of giving young people the opportunity to express themselves, to make their dreams known, to make adults feel that they are there, and that they have a heart capable of beauty. Because in the end, holiness is a beautiful way to multiply love and beauty. Fearless. With feet on the ground and heart turned towards Heaven”.
The document of the Strenna consists of nine paragraphs. In the seventh, the Rector Major insists on an essential reality of holiness and he does it by asking a question: What does holiness mean to you? The issue proposed by the question is an exciting topic, and the answer addressed to each of the members of the Salesian Family is even more exciting. “Holiness is not ‘one more’ option and a goal only for some. It is full life, according to the project and the gift of God. It is therefore a path of humanization”.
Holiness, in fact, is not part of the ordinariness of things that we think we have understood, not even in our reasoning about a holy life, a life that has to do with God deep inside us. We can only look at it with amazed eyes. Existence, recognized as the path of holiness, teaches that life is not only made of experiences to have, of years to live, of things to discover, because life is first of all learning to love and learning to receive love.
This daily holiness became a reality in lives lived in fullness in the Salesian charism: Zeman, Stuchlý, Lustosa, Zatti, Srugi, Sandor, Lunkenbien and Simão Bororo, Comini, Ana María Lozano, Laura Vicuña, Alexandrina Maria da Costa, among many others…
Fr. Á.F. Artime says that the presentation of Strenna 2019 “is a magnificent opportunity to be in harmony with the appeal that the Holy Father addresses in the Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, which has much to do with the Salesian charism. Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello were great guides in this sense, with the ability to inspire and accompany the boys and girls on the paths of daily holiness”.
The full presentation of the Strenna of the Rector Major for 2019 is available on the sdb.org website
