Salesian parishes have the privilege to celebrate this feast on either the Sunday before or the Sunday after the liturgical feast so that as many parishioners as possible will be able to pause and remember and endeavor to imitate this “giant of sanctity” as Don Bosco was called by Pope Pius XI at his canonization on Easter Sunday 1934.
On the centenary of his death in January 1998, Pope John Paul II declared Don Bosco the Father and Teacher of Youth.
In writing about this great honor given to Don Bosco, the then Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr. Egidio Vigano, wrote in a circular letter to the Salesians:
“In this title in fact we can see condensed, unified and set out, the main values of the living heritage left us by Don Bosco:
his kind of holiness: practical love;
his choice of a field of apostolic activity: youth;
his strategy of approach: the preventive system;
his program of action: education;
the secret of his success: his intuitive knowledge of the juvenile heart.”
We, as members, of Don Bosco’s family by virtue of our membership in the Salesian Parishes of St. Rosalie and St. John Bosco are called to imitate the living heritage of our Father and Founder: to strive for holiness through the practical love of God and neighbor; to have a predilection for the young and the desire to assist/educate them through the practice of the preventive system to become good Christians and good citizens.
There is a Latin saying, “nemo dat, quod non habet” – “no one gives what one does not have.”
The greatest gift we can give to the young of our parish, the children within our parish boundaries, our children and grandchildren is the gift of our holiness. If we are not holy or striving for holiness, we can’t transmit this precious gift to others.
Today on this feast, let us commit/recommit ourselves to leading holy lives – a great gift to those we meet in daily life
                                         God loves you!
                                                Fr. Mark

Don Bosco
Father and Teacher
of Youth
Salesians of Don Bosco
Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
(Salesian Sisters)
Salesian Cooperators
St. Rosalie & St. John Bosco Parishes
Archbishop Shaw High School
Academy of Our Lady
Our Lady of Prompt Succor School
Immaculate Conception School