ST JOHN BOSCO: THE PRIEST WHO FED THOUSANDS OF ORPHANS

ST JOHN BOSCO: THE PRIEST WHO FED THOUSANDS OF ORPHANS

LET’S ABANDON OUR OWN WILL AND OPEN OURSELVES TO THE FLAMES OF CHARITY OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS…HE WILL WORK MIRACLES IN US AND THROUGH US:

Most fervently devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was St John Bosco, founder of the Salesians and the apostolate to young people, the great and providential man of modern times. His parents were pious farmers and lived in a small village called Castelnuovo. It was immediately apparent that he had a good and virtuous character. While still young, his father died and his mother said to him through her tears, “Now you can really say, our Father who art in heaven.” And he, full of love, gave himself into the hands of the heavenly Father, who meant him to be a great benefactor of mankind. His mother brought him up as a Christian, saying to him time and again, “I love you very much, but I would rather see you dead than a sinner.” Therefore he was always horrified by sin. Once, he broke a jar containing oil, and he himself brought the cane to his mother, so that she would punish and correct him.

He began to learn to be a tailor but he remained a little apostle who gathered others of his age around him and preached to them, telling them to fall in love with God; even a young Jew called Jonah converted and was baptized after he had listened to St John. The Sacred Heart called John to be a priest, and even though he had almost nothing, he studied hard and became an exemplary one. He had a disposition prone to fighting and disagreements within him, but he was able to overcome these things and became incredibly humble. The fire of love produced in him a flame of generous, apostolic and hard working zeal. Putting into practice the imitation and glorification of the Heart of Jesus, he worked in hospitals and prisons in times of epidemic!

Overcoming every obstacle and difficulty, he instituted in Turin the oratory of St Francis De Sales, where thousands of young people especially orphans, were fed, educated and taught the faith, all in the name of loving divine providence. He had the magnificent Church of the Sacred Heart built in Rome and the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians in Turin.

He used to say in holy wit, “Let’s pick three numbers to play the lottery, and these numbers are faith, hope and charity.” And with these three numbers, he saw his houses multiply all over Europe, cross to America and expand everywhere in an incredible way. These are lasting trophies dedicated to the Heart of Jesus that St John Bosco so loved and imitated.

PRAYER (to be repeated frequently during the day): “O beneficent Heart so loving, with Your love and Your favor, may I always love my neighbor.”