Rome (Italy). On 27 December 2024, in the Generalate of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Vicar General of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Stefano Martoglio, guiding the Congregation after the resignation of Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, as traditional, delivered to the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians as first fruits and to the whole Salesian Family the Strenna that will accompany the entire Salesian world in the new year 2025.
In line with the journey of the Church that lives the great event of the Jubilee, the text has as its title, “Anchored to hope, pilgrims with young people”. It is an invitation to deepen, as Christians and as Salesians, the “reasons for our hope”. Christ is the foundation of hope, the anchor of salvation and towards Him one walks in the company of young people, with a gaze to the heavenly reality, not to escape from daily reality, but to make it livable for all by working actively as “good Christians and honest citizens”.
The Strenna recalls, in the year in which we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first missionary expedition of the Salesians of Don Bosco and the beginning of the Triennium towards the 150° of the first expedition of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, to revive the missionary impulse that characterizes not only the missionary ad gentes, but every Christian, every community.
Sister Leslie Sandigo, General Councilor for the Salesian Family, welcomed those present and those who were connected online through direct streaming, introducing prayer, focused on peace:
“Together, as the Salesian Family, we want to thank Fr. Stefano for the gift of the Strenna, which invites us to look in the same direction, following the footsteps of Don Bosco and the origins of our charism, towards the needs of young people and of today’s society who cry out peace, hope, and no more war. We are called, as a Family, to give ourselves and build peace where we are.”
He then introduced the presentation video of the Strenna, made by IME Communications, screened in world premiere.
“Hope in the Lord, be strong, renew your heart and hope in the Lord” (Ps 27). Where the present makes noise, it is there that our hope must break through. But how do we do it?
It is the beginning of the video, which through the stories of some young people from different realities of the world, commented by Fr. Stefano Martoglio, tells the path of hope in everyday life, with dreams, expectations, concerns. “Hope is not the belief that something will be right regardless; it is not something that eliminates our worries. It is the certainty that something has meaning, beyond its result.”
Where do I find the strength? Where does this hope come from? – ask the young people. “Christ is the anchor of hope, who brings the sufferings, the wounds of humanity on the cross, to lead them to the Father. (…) God has given us a promise and He intends to keep it. For this reason, Christ gave us our anchor of salvation, so that we might remain fixed in eternity, even living our time, through the sea of our days, with all the waves that will be there, every day. The gaze on heaven, and feet firmly planted on the ground. (…) Hope does not disappoint, not because it is an illusion, but because it is Christ.”
After the video, Sister Ausilia De Siena, Councilor for Communication, presented Flaminia and Antonio, two young people who have talked with Fr. Stefano to deepen the contents of the Strenna. The Vicar did not hide the emotion in what he called the “privilege of being able to accompany the Salesian Family with this sense of gift for the new year that Don Bosco has transmitted to us.”
Mother Chiara Cazzuola concluded this intense and interesting deepening by thanking Fr. Stefano for the beauty and richness of content of the Strenna, “that can mark a path and also a renewal for us, in the sense of our being Salesian Family, of our personal and community vocation, because we share a great charism, and also to revive our missionary spirit.”
Among the various passages, Mother highlighted the sense of presence, of generativity: “The whole Preventive System of Don Bosco revolves around this and what is lacking in today’s civilization is precisely the sense of humanity, the sense of being present. So I see this as a providential invitation, first of all as the Salesian Family, but also as Christians. (…) The Lord is incarnate in this story and raises us up again in His adventure, calling us to share this strength of His that for us also becomes the being-present, by each one of us, which generates life where it is and with whom it is.”
A last gesture concluded this beautiful family moment. Sister Leslie called the representatives of the Salesian Family and a missionary who initially drew light from the candle, which represents Christ, with the commitment to bring it into their daily sector of work, “to be artisans of peace, men and women of hope.”
