SALESIANS OF DON BOSCO - Untitled Document

At the age of nine, I had a dream which made a deep impression on me for my entire life. In the dream, I appeared to be near my house, in a rather large courtyard, where there was a crowd of children who were playing away among themselves. Some were laughing, some were playing, not a few were cursing. On hearing those curses, I suddenly threw myself in among them, using my fists and words to make them stop.

At that moment, a venerable figure appeared, a grown man, nobly dressed. A white cloak covered him entirely, but his face was so bright that I was not able to gaze at it. He called me by name and ordered me to put myself at the head of those children while adding these words:

“Not with blows, but with gentleness and with charity, must you win over these friends of yours. Start right away now to teach them about the ugliness of sin and of the beauty of virtue”.

Confused and frightened, I added that I was a poor ignorant boy, unable to talk of religion to those young boys. In that moment, the boys, stopping their laughter, their racket and their curses, gathered round the person who was speaking.

Almost without knowing what he was saying to me, I said “Who are you to order me to do the impossible?”

“Precisely because such things appear impossible to you, you must make them possible with obedience and by the acquisition of knowledge.”

“Where, in what way will I be able to acquire knowledge?”

“I shall give you the teacher, under whose discipline you will become wise, and without whom all wisdom becomes nonsense. “

“But who are you to speak in such a way?”

“I am the son of her, whom your mother taught you to greet three times a day.”

“My mother told me not to go near people I don’t know, without her permission. So, tell me your name.”

“Go and ask your mother my name.”

At that moment, I saw beside him a lady with majestic features, dressed in a cloak which was shining all over, as if every part of it were the brightest of stars. Realising that I was becoming more and more confused with the questions and answers, she signalled me to come closer to her, took my hand gently and said to me:

“Look.”

Looking round, I noticed that all the boys had disappeared and in their place, I saw a vast number of young goats, dogs, bears and many other types of animal.

“Look, this is your job. This is where you have to work. Become humble, strong and robust. And, just as now, what you have seen happen to these animals, you must do for my children.”

I turned around then to look and instead of fierce animals, there were just as many meek lambs gambolling about, running around bleating, as if having a party for the man and woman.

At that point, still asleep, I started to cry, and I begged her to speak in a way I could understand, because I did not know what all of this was supposed to mean. Then she put her hand on my head saying:
“In due course you will understand everything.”

That said, a noise woke me up and everything vanished.

I was speechless. My hands seemed to be hurting where I had delivered the blows. My face was hurting where I had been punched. The man, the lady, the things they had said and what I had heard so filled my mind, that I was no longer able to get to sleep that night.

Father John Bosco

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