The Holy Mass was presided over by the Director-Rector of the Salesian Work of Colle Don Bosco, Fr José Miguel Nuñez, SDB. Concelebrating with him were the Vicar, Fr Enrico Lupano SDB, Fr Andrea Lovisone SDB, and the Diocesan Vicar of the Mamma Margherita Pastoral Unit (comprising the parish communities of Capriglio, Montafia, Viale and Cortazzone), Fr Emanuele Baviera. The Mamma Margherita choir of Capriglio provided the music.

In his homily, Fr José Miguel, quoting from the memoirs of Fr Francesia, recalled how: «…Mamma Margaret’s kitchen was transformed, during the rainy autumn and the long winter, into a family space, a warm refuge, for all the boys who gathered round the fire, seeking a little warmth and certainly a little affection too. We are at the very beginning of Valdocco’s history: within that house, amidst the most absolute poverty, unfolded the beautiful chapters of what we might call, without exaggeration, the cradle of the Salesian work».

He then emphasised Mamma Margaret’s importance in Don Bosco’s educational model: “Reason, religion and loving kindness, the three pillars on which the Preventive System is founded: Valdocco was a laboratory for experimenting with our Father’s educational method in real time, but Don Bosco learnt it from Margaret. And we can certainly say that the Salesian educational project owes much to a mother’s benevolent and tender gaze. This is our memory, this is our history. The spring to which we can always return to drink the fresh water of the Salesian spirit. Travelling upstream helps us return to our origins, to the source where everything is purer, cleaner, more transparent. Remembering Mamma Margaret is to let ourselves be touched by tenderness, by the embrace of a mother who always welcomes, always smiles, always forgives. Evoking her figure is not merely nostalgia. Her memory is a commitment for all of us who have breathed the Salesian atmosphere and grown up in Don Bosco’s home. We can certainly learn from her that attentive gaze, the kindness in every gesture, the kind word, always ready to heal any wound. Energetic when necessary, sensitive when the situation demands it: a great educator from whom Don Bosco himself learnt the Preventive System».

The president of the Friends of the Mamma Margaret Museum Association, Diego Occhiena, then highlighted how Mamma Margaret was able to embody and live out the Paschal Mystery throughout her life. At the most difficult moment at the Valdocco Oratory (the young people, playing at war, trespassed into Mamma’s vegetable garden, reducing it to a veritable battlefield, and nothing remained of the once-thriving crops), turning her gaze to the Crucifix, she understood, accepted, returned to her household chores and complained no more: ‘The Lord God has opened my ear, and I have not resisted; I have not turned back.’ (Is 50:4–9)