Therefore, every two months the text of a chapter will be shared, accompanied by a video interview that helps to capture its spirit, and some other materials for community animation.
The first chapter is what is now being proposed to us for March and April.
In the video interview, Fr Stefano Martoglio, Vicar of the Rector Major, explains that
‘it is about learning to live in formation every single day. Formation is “our continuous effort to enter more deeply into God’s plan for us”, it is our response to God who calls us every day. This was Don Bosco’s life: a response to God that was constantly renewed in ever-changing circumstances’.
Among the seven keys to understanding that the First Chapter offers to begin the journey of growth in Salesian life outlined by the Ratio, Fr Martoglio highlighted personalisation and participation: “the goal of formation is to become like Christ the Good Shepherd, and this cannot happen simply by changing external behaviour or acquiring skills. Formation must reach the heart. It requires openness, personal reflection, and a continuous commitment to transformation with the help of accompaniment. This is the main path of formation modelled on the Preventive System.”
The involvement of young Salesians has been a defining element since the beginning of the long and extensive gestation process that led to the birth of the fifth edition of the Ratio. Once again, it is the young confreres, with a group of over one hundred Salesians of Don Bosco in Initial Formation from various regions connected online, who are proposing themselves as facilitators of an approach to the Ratio that is not only receptive but also interactive.
In Hyper-Ratio, the online platform they have set up, you will already find:
- The downloadable web versions of the complete text of the Ratio in the five main languages. you will have to wait a few more weeks for the PDF text, so that it can be finalised in its final graphic format, which is currently being put together.
- The Word format text of the first chapter, with an introductory page of Lectio Biblica, as will be found for each chapter in the final version.
- An article by Fr Koldo Gutierrez, SDB, which helps to grasp the profound harmony between what the 29th General Chapter proposed as a formation process and what is found in the new edition of the Ratio.
In the coming months, the Hyper-Ratio website will become a virtual/real Salesian courtyard for meeting and exchanging audio-video materials that can be produced, shared and enhanced, so that what the Ratio process aims to activate becomes an expression of life, interests and energies of communication and cohesion within the vast living body of the Congregation.
Access to the video interview on the first chapter can be found on Hyper-Ratio or via the hyperlink below: Italian – English – Spanish – French – Portuguese.
