Save your soul!

Yesterday was the first day of our novena in honor of St. John Bosco.

And what a way to kick off the festivities by an example of an emboldened youthful holiness in the person of the 13-year-old Blessed Laura Vicuña! An epitome of selfless love geared towards the salvation of the soul of her very mother.

Ah! That familiar catchphrase: salvation of souls.

During supper, Fr. Rey threw questions to us that he would pick up from the list of questions meant as a reviewer for the upcoming Salesian Family gathering slated next month.

Of the many questions, one caught my fancy:

“What is the prayer taught by Don Bosco to his Salesians
in order to remind them the primacy of caring for the soul?”

Almost instantly, my mind processed the question. I automatically recalled the keywords: prayer… soul… young? And I thought that the answer must be one of those prayers addressed to the Guardian Angels.

I did not have the nerve to attempt voicing it out since I was not sure.

When the answer was revealed, it surprised me. For it is a prayer which has been part of my daily life since I entered the seminary:

Dear Mother Mary ever Virgin,
Help me to save my soul!

Then, the dots have been connected.

When we pray this, we remind ourselves that we have souls to save first and foremost: ours. And as we save other souls, we also work towards saving our own.