Thursday, December 09, 2010

Some musings on Don Bosco’s coming

Fr. Joe, our catechist, mumbled some unrecognizable words when I told him that I would be off to the provincial house. I thought that he was almost complaining that I’d be out again of the community to go to the provincial house.


The seminarians may be puzzled as well, why I would, once in a while, head to the provincial house. A number of them have asked me what’s my business in the provincial house.


Just so to set the record straight, I am there for the commission on social communications (CSC) meetings.


The commission is composed of five individuals, we have Fr. Bong as our head, Frs. Vester and Drans are also commission members.


I think it’s in order to update you with some endeavors of the commission.


The webpage of the province is still being updated which will hopefully be web 2.0 compliant, that is, it’ll be more interactive and up-to-date.


This year, the CSC penetrates the airwaves via Langit sa Lupa. The talk show airs in Radio Inquirer on Saturday evenings. We met the station manager last Monday and we got the go signal to have an additional 30 minutes by next year which we plan to use for a segment that will cater to the young people.


Fr. Bong asked me to tap seminarians here who could be anchormen for that segment. If we cannot be there on a weekly basis, perhaps, one Sunday every month, we could take charge.


On top of the regular issues of the Salesian Bulletin, the CSC added two more special issues that will coincide with the visit of the relic of Don Bosco. We’ve seen the first one featuring Don Bosco as the cover. The second one will hit the ‘newsstands,’ so to say, once the relic is already here.


Advent season is about coming, I am certain that it’s been a general knowledge. And coming means we are to prepare.


This year, this season of advent means doubly special for we are preparing for the Christmas season, and more than a week after, we brace ourselves for the coming of Don Bosco in flesh, metaphorically and literally. We’ll be able to see a part of him.


I hope that we’ll not be drowned with the pomp and pageantry and noise of his coming, for I believe that his visit is meant to strengthen us spiritually.


Don Bosco’s coming is a meeting with the person of Don Bosco. And I’d like to believe that he has got some special message for each of us.


I’ve read a couple of episodes in the Biographical Memoirs when Don Bosco would do oratory hopping to visit his salesians, the novices, the young people, and the preparations are simply remarkable. They would assign someone to deliver the speech. They would intensify their practices of piety. They would offer their communion and confessions so that the visit of Don Bosco to their house will be a tremendous success.


I wish that we’ll also do the same.


That as we busy ourselves in thinking about what exhibits could be set up, what else will catch the fancy of our guests, what will make the event more special, we may not lose the grasp of the essential.


After all, that’s what his motto is all about: Give me souls, take away the rest.

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