DON BOSCO'S MADONNA Mumbai JANUARY 2018 vol.19 No. 9 TRUST GOD IN ALL THINGS e don’t linger long at the manger, do we? Our hearts are still aglow and our spirits animated with visions of shepherds tending CONTENTS theirW flock, Wise Men who have journeyed from afar, and the Holy Family - Mary, Joseph, and their Precious Child. And then, before From The Editor's Desk: Trust God you know it, they’ve packed up and fled south to Egypt. I find it an in All Things.. ........................3 irony of history that when Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem they were not met with any semblance of hospitality. And yet when they Coping With Family Problems ventured into foreign territory, it’s apparent that somebody took - Ian Pinto sdb.........................4 them in and provided a hospitable place for them to dwell while they awaited Herod’s demise. Talk about trusting God in all things! Youth on the Move: Help, My Son’s How often we plan, make reservations, especially when we’re going on the Cloud! - Ermete Tessore 8 into a city where we know no one. Or, we go with a group so we Salesian Saint: Ven. Joseph Quadrio.......10 won’t get lost and we’re sure that we’ll have an assured welcome. Again, talk about trusting in God! Vocation Story: Cl. Clarence Martis sdb...11 The story of the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt comes to us as we Witnesses In And For Our Times: enter a new calendar year. We who experience and celebrate the Ven. Benedetta Bianchi Porro....t...12 annual trek to Bethlehem and the joy of Christmas morning will soon have everything packed up, prepared for our own journey to a new Lectio Divina: Epiphany of the Lord - Cl. Ian Pinto, sdb................16 place in time. Though there are no Herods in hot pursuit, our thoughts are apt to touch on what must have been on the minds of Quietspaces: He Who Intercedes on Mary and Joseph as they headed into the unknown: the joy and Our Behalf - Pope Francis.......18 surprise of things new and different? Would there be joy? Would they be constantly looking over their tired shoulders or would they Little Girl, Goodbye have kept their ears pealed for the footfalls of Herod’s soldiers? If - Fr. Ian Doulton's Collection...20 Grant we pray, they were directed to leave this place and go,’ it stood to reason that Facets Of His Life: The Postal System the One who ‘ordered’ them would order others in one-way-or- in the 1800s - Natale Cerrato....24 that we may experience another to be there for this strange migrant couple from the ‘back- of-beyond.’ That’s trust! Reflecting on Mary: Live the Eucharist the intercession of her With Mary - Silvio Longobardi 28 We do not easily admit to weakness or being needy, but Christian through whom we were maturity embraces dependency on God. This is the nature of things. Walking With the Church: The True God has created all and provides for us out of all that is created. It’s Cross, Missionaries Today.......31 found worthy worth noting that from time to time Jesus arranged for the early Newsbits...............................................31 disciples to experience a healthy dose of being pushed beyond their to receive the author limits (e.g. feeding the multitude when they had no food). It was in In a Cheerful Mood.....................32 these times they learned to trust God, to reach beyond knowing into The Devotion of of life, the realm of faith. So it is with us. Epiphany invites us into receptivity the Three Hail Marys............33 in the midst of those life and family experiences which pull us beyond Loving Children to their Our Lord Jesus Christ! Loving Mother.......................34 the limits of our own ability to cope and manage. The spiritual They Are Grateful to discipline here is for us to yield to the Spirit of Jesus who indwells Our Lady & Don Bosco.........34 (From the Opening Prayer of the us, and call out to God: “Abba! Daddy!” Herein is freedom, freedom Thanks to Dear Mass of the Motherhood of Mary) from our own self-imposed belief that we are supposed to be able, to St. Dominic Savio..................35 be competent. Freedom to be a child! Fr. Ian Doulton sdb January 2018 2 Don Bosco’s Madonna January 2018 3 Don Bosco’s Madonna been taught and not always difficult, no longer matters. Most FAMILY ISSUES agree just because that is what do not fully see this truth: that COPING WITH FAMILY PROBLEMS “everybody else” thinks. life is difficult, instead they moan COPING WITH FAMILY PROBLEMS more or less incessantly, noisily Ian Pinto, sdb “The first couple of times I went or subtly, about the enormity of he family is the basic unit of home to visit my parents I found their problems, their burdens, Tsociety. This sociological def- it really hard to cope. I found it and their difficulties as if life inition is common knowledge hard to deal with not being able were generally easy, as if life and is often quoted to define the to express my opinions as freely should be easy. They voice their family. Family is the microcosm as I did when I was away from belief, noisily or subtly, that their that reflects the larger macro- home. My mum didn’t necessarily difficulties represent a unique cosm: society. Family and society agree with my upfront attitude to kind of affliction that should not have a mutually influencing life. While I was always out there be and that has somehow been relationship. The health and trying to get people to take me and especially visited upon them, or atmosphere of the family reflects my beliefs and opinions seriously, else, upon their families, their the health and atmosphere of her attitude was “why fight it... tribe, their class, their nation, society and vice versa. If families why not just go with the flow.” It their race or even their species, are divided, fragile, aggressive the rough edges of both rub was really frustrating. I used to get and not upon others.” and value-less, society is bound against each other. really upset that my parents to be fragmented, hostile, des- didn’t agree with what I was The family, which is a comm- tructive and ethically unsound. “My parents and I never really doing.” unity of individuals, is not ex- On the other hand, if families are saw eye to eye about anything. empt from life’s difficulties. united, happy, peaceful, forgiv- When I was younger it was just the When this young teen penned Problems, difficulties, challenges, ing and upright then society too simple stuff - the length of my these words what she did was not conflicts and frustrations are will be communitarian, peace- skirt, how I chose to wear my hair only put down her own life bound to occur at one time or ful, tolerant and ethical. While or the movies I wanted to watch. experience of conflict and frustra- another, in one way or another, families influence society, society But as I got older I found that there tion in family life but also, in a so there is no need to be alarmed too influences the family. It is was a lot more that we didn’t way, she speaks about the exper- by it. What needs to alarm us, difficult for a fruit-bearing tree agree on - my choice of friends, iences that everyone, I daresay, however, is how the family copes to grow in the desert, you know? what I wanted to study at faces. The details may differ but with these setbacks. university, political issues or how the underlying truth remains Everybody’s Got Problems I chose to spend my weekends. steadfast, ‘Everyone faces prob- Dealing with Family Problems Despite any attempts to ro- lems, difficulties, challenges, con- Each family deals with its manticize the idea of family, it is “I left home at 17 to study at a flicts, frustrations and failures!’ problems in its own way. While basically and fundamentally a university in another city. Mov- There is no denying that fact. there is no ‘quick-heal’ method, group of individuals who are tied ing away from home has totally there are productive and coun- together by bonds of blood and broadened my outlook on the Scott Peck in his bestselling ter-productive ways. How can kinship. These individuals share world and has changed my opi- book, The Road Less Travelled, you know if a method is produc- many things in common but also nion on lots of issues. Over the begins with these astonishingly tive or counter-productive? Sim- differ in many others ways. One past two years I’ve met the most plain yet insightful words: “Life ple. Look at the outcome. If a of the basic differences within a amazing people with the most is difficult. This is a great truth, family member refuses to talk to family is personality. Each indi- extraordinarily diverse experien- one of the greatest truths. It is a another because of a misunder- vidual in the family is different ces. My circle of friends includes great truth because once we truly standing or a past hurt, then that from the other, not only in phy- people with different religions, see this truth, we transcend it. behaviour is counter-produc- sical characteristics but also in beliefs, values, cultures and Once we truly know that life is tive. Willing to listen and dia- characteristics that are emotio- different ways of approaching difficult — once we truly under- logue with one another is a sign nal, mental and spiritual as well.