Mornese (Italy). On 3 August 2022, more than 760 young people from the Salesian Youth Movement (MJS) of Spain and Portugal filled the streets and charismatic places of the small town of Mornese with joy and color.
Leaving Barcelona on 31 July, from the first house Don Bosco visited in 1886, the young people, aged 19 and over, participate in Campobosco, a great encounter of Salesian Youth Spirituality organized by the Salesian Youth Ministry in Spain and Portugal in which, until 8 August, they traverse the land where the Salesian charism was born.
Dare, trust, live! is the slogan of the 2022 edition, which has as its objectives: to build one’s own Christian life by meeting Jesus through the experience lived by Don Bosco, Mother Mazzarello, and the young people of the first oratory; to know the examples of youthful holiness that blossomed in Valdocco and Mornese as inspiration for one’s own project of evangelical life; living the ecclesial reality through youth leadership and charismatic communion, in harmony with the journey of the Synod.
Along the stages of the pilgrimage, the participants have the opportunity to meet and dialogue with various authoritative witnesses: the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime; the Superior General of the FMA Institute, Mother Chiara Cazzuola; the General Councilors for SDB and FMA Salesian Youth Ministry, Fr. Miguel Ángel García Morcuende and Sr. Runita Borja; the Councilor for the Mediterranean Region, Fr. Juan Carlos Pérez Godoy; the SDB and FMA Provincials of Spain, Fr. Fernando García (SSM), Fr. Ángel Asurmendi (SMX), and Sr. Charo Ten (SPA); the Director of the National Salesian Center for Youth Ministry (CNSPJ) in Spain, Fr. José Miguel Núñez.
Once in Mornese with 14 buses, the young people were divided into two large groups and in rotation, they visited the Valponasca, the Parish, the houses of the town, the Collegio and celebrated the Eucharist at the Mazzarelli, in the Sanctuary. In the evening, the common appointment for all, long awaited especially by young people from the FMA realities, the Salesian Goodnight of Mother Chiara Cazzuola, in the courtyard of the Collegio.
“I am very happy to be able to meet you. I have followed you in these days through videos, interviews, listening to the hymn, and everything you have experienced in these first days. It is special to meet you in this courtyard desired by Don Bosco, which echoes the mandate given to Mother Mazzarello, that is renewed for us by seeing you here tonight, ‘I entrust them to you’ and we can complete it with an addition, thinking of all of you, ‘I entrust them to you’.”
These were the first words of Mother Chiara who, retracing the main stages of Mother Mazzarello’s life, highlighted how even the experiences of fragility and limitations, if lived in God, can be transformed “into a great work of art that illuminates so many other lives. As Maín put her life in the hands of God when she contracted typhus, you young people can put all your life projects in the hands of the Lord and you will find your true vocation, now that you are living times of very important decisions”.
With the words of Pope Francis on his recent , she then encouraged them to go forward, without losing hope, always aiming ‘on high ’ and teaming up, to “be light. You too, called to heights of heaven and to shine on earth, are made to shine together” and she concluded by assuring them of prayer to Mary Help of Christians on her part and of all the FMA.
With the words of Pope Francis on his recent trip to Canada,
she then encouraged them to go forward, without losing hope, always aiming ‘on high ’ and teaming up, to “be light. You too, called to heights of heaven and to shine on earth, are made to shine together” and she concluded by assuring them of prayer to Mary Help of Christians on her part and of all the FMA.
The young people of Campobosco 2022 asked Mother some questions. To the question, “What advice do you give to us who work with young people?”, she replied:
“First of all, be people of great hope, really hope in young people, in their goodness, in the possibility of finding the point accessible to the good, to have a lot of trust in education, especially knowing that it is not only we who educate, but it is the Lord who guides our action and our work.”
In addition to the warm applause and expressions of affection of the young people, Mother Chiara received some symbolic gifts, including the backpack and the Campobosco 2022 t-shirt.
Then, the participants returned to Colle Don Bosco to continue the pilgrimage to the Salesian Holy Land, enriched by the glimpses of the land of origin and the educational passion of Mother Mazzarello and many sisters, who in 150 years of history reached the lives and the hearts of many young people, communicating God’s love for them.
La canción es un itinerario de santidad hasta el cielo!, una expectación de gozo, y fuerte unión con la tierra fuerte,donde nacimos nosotras gracias al Sí de Mmazzarello hasta la eternidad.