On the day of the Nativity of St John the Baptist – a date which, ever since the days of the Valdocco Oratory, has coincided with the name day of St John Bosco – the Salesian community gathered around Don Bosco’s Successor in an atmosphere of deep family warmth and brotherhood. The celebration was simple in style yet intense and solemn in its observance, placing the entire day under the banner of gratitude and communion.

Alongside Fr Attard, several of his confreres from Headquarters and from the communities directly entrusted to the Rector Major were also remembered and celebrated, as they mark significant anniversaries of their religious profession or priestly ordination: a further sign of how personal gratitude is always part of a broader appreciation for the vocational fidelity lived out over time.

“The hand of the Lord was with him

At the heart of the celebration, the Rector Major’s homily offered a profound spiritual insight into understanding not only the figure of John the Baptist, but also the journey of Don Bosco and, today, that of the Congregation.

Drawing on verses from the Gospel of Luke – “The hand of the Lord was with him… The child grew and became strong in spirit. He lived in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly in Israel” (Lk 1:66, 80) – Fr Attard emphasised how every authentic vocation arises from God’s initiative.

“The hand of the Lord,” he stressed, “precedes, accompanies and sends.”

The mission does not arise from a human project, nor from personal talent, but from a call that comes from the Other. This was true of John the Baptist, and true of Don Bosco: their deepest identity sprang from a divine choice that preceded them and sustained them even in times of trial.

Growing over time: the grace of unity

The Rector Major then referred to the process of integral growth described by the evangelist Luke: growth in body and spirit, in nature and in grace. Holiness – he reminded us – is not a leap outside of time, but a maturing within time.

Referring explicitly to Don Bosco and to Article 21 of the Salesian Constitutions, he revisited the theme of the “grace of unity”, that harmonious synthesis between human depth and spiritual depth which makes the mission fruitful. Without a solid human foundation – built on humility, listening, silence and patience – no charism can take root and endure.

The desert: a prerequisite for fruitfulness

The most striking part of the homily was devoted to the theme of the desert, understood not as a geographical location but as a theological category: a space of purification, of essentiality, of listening to the Essential.

“What a lesson for us today!” he stated emphatically. “How many pastoral proposals and projects fail because the time of the desert has not been respected? How many confreres lose their depth because silence has been replaced by activism, and interiority by efficiency?”

The desert of John the Baptist and Don Bosco’s trials thus become a call to today’s Salesian life: to rediscover authentic inner quality, to learn to wait without despairing, to remain hidden without forgetting that it is precisely there that the mission is maturing.

“The substance of the word proclaimed,” he concluded, “depends on the quality of the silence that precedes it.”

Only a voice trained in listening can resonate fruitfully. A message for the whole Congregation. The Eucharistic celebration thus set the tone for the entire day of celebration: not merely an affectionate tribute to Don Bosco’s Successor, but a renewed entrusting of the Salesian mission to the “hand of the Lord” who guides the Congregation. In the atmosphere of prayer and fraternity experienced that morning, the message was clear: the mystical key to Salesian life is to prepare for the mission in the silence of union with God, for only what matures in seclusion can bear fruit for young people. The celebrations continued in the afternoon with tributes, the gala performance at the opera house and Vespers; yet it was in the morning Eucharist that the community found its source and its direction: gratitude, communion and renewed fidelity to the mission.

{gallery}Festa RM – Messa – 2026{/gallery}