Sean Devereux Talk

*Witness to the Group

Share my experience w/ Salesian Values & Spirituality

There will also be a Q & A on my Discernment

Intro to the Salesians

St. Francis de Sales

(Sa-les-ians)

Don Bosco

Founder of the Salesians

Served the young & the poor

Oratory - food, sheleter, work opportunities, as well as spiritual and education guidance for young boys who lived on the streets and were getting into trouble.

Values

What are the Salesian Values?

Well, it has to do with the goal or mission of the Salesians.

And the goal of the Salesians is to especially serve 2 groups of people:

Those 2 groups of people are:

1. The young

2. The poor

Again, the mission of the Salesians is to serve the young and the poor.

It’s to see Christ especially in these 2 groups and to especially bring these 2 groups of people to Jesus Christ.

The values upheld by the Salesians include certain virtues that help bring Christ to the young and the poor.

Those virtues include:

Humility

Simplicity

Honesty

Patience

Generosity

Kindness

Gentleness

Gratitude

Hospitality

Thoughtful concern for others

And more…

Wow… good thing you don’t need to remember all of those! But we would be wise to actually live them.

I want to share with you someone who I encountered all of these virtues in because I encountered them in this person and it is through this person that I encountered Jesus Christ.

Fr. Joe

How Fr. Joe ministered to me/how he modeled these virtues:

Segway to:

Fr. Joe was someone who served the young and the poor.

I know because I was both.

When I say that I was poor, I don’t mean material poverty, my family got by. I mean spiritual poverty.

Explain what this spiritual poverty was:

Fr. Joe’s witness planted seeds for me that eventually grew and budded forth when I was 18 years old.

That’s when I had a conversion, began praying the rosary, began devoutly receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, and everything changed.

Eventually, my spiritual poverty was replenished by the spiritual riches of the Catholic Church.

Without realizing it, I found myself having much in common with Fr. Joe: my new spiritual life looked much like the Salesian spirituality Fr. Joe committed to as a Salesian priest!

This talk is on Salesian VIRTUES and SPIRITUALITY

I already showed how Fr. Joe was a model of Salesian Virtue - now I would like to share the Salesian Spirituality that was behind such virtue:

Spirituality

Salesian spirituality is best understood in light of a powerful vision St. Don Bosco had. This vision was a supernatural gift from God and it paints a picture for us of Salesian Spirituality.

Overview of the Vision

In the middle of this endless sea...

The sea is raging, waves are crashing...

Many ships armed with canons and weapons are heading to destroy a much larger and taller ship.

In the midst of this endless sea, there are two tall columns or pillars that are a short distance a part and reaching to the sky...

1. Mounted on top of the first pillar is a statue of the Virgin Mary and below here feet, there is an inscription, “Help of Christians”.

2. The other pillar/column, which was far loftier and sturdier supports a Eucharistic Host of proportionate size and bears beneath it the inscription: “Salvation of Believers”.

The captain of the ship does everything in his power to steer his ship in between these two tall, sturdy columns / pillars.

Meanwhile, the entire enemy fleet seeks to attack, the ship, steer off course, and sink it at all costs.

At times, a hole is gashed into the side of the ship, but a breeze from the 2 columns instantly seals the gash.

The captain finally reaches both columns and quickly steers first to the larger column with the Host, then the other with the statue of Mary

He anchors the large ship to both and no sooner does he do this when all the enemy ships flee in terror, colliding into one another and vanish from sight.

Interpretation:

1. The Ship is the Church

2. The Captain is the Pope

3. The Enemy Fleet are the enemies of our souls: the World, the flesh, and the Devil

4. The 2 Columns/Pillars represent Jesus in the Holy Eucharist & The Blessed Virgin Mary

How does this sum up Salesian Spirituality?

Because Salesian Spirituality consists in being devoted to Mary, The Eucharist, The Church/Pope, and Joyful Education.

Before getting to each of these, I’d like to point something out in the interpretation of this vision.

*Not only does the vision apply to the Church, we needs to be steered between the two columns of Marian Devotion and the Eucharist...

But it also applies to us. We are the captain of our souls and we need to steer ourselves in the same direction as the Church, namely, between these two columns/pillars.

That is what Salesian Spirituality seeks to do. It seeks to invite it us to be devoted to Mary and to the Holy Eucharist.

And it’s not only Salesians. In fact, all other spiritualities seem to be anchored on these two columns.

Just look at the lives of the saints!

Nearly every saint has had a strong devotion to Mary and to the Eucharist:

Mother Teresa

John Paul II

Maximilian Kolbe

Blessed Carlo Acutis

and of course,

Don Bosco

The Church needs these two pillars, the saints needed these two pillars, you and I need these two pillars.

Not only do we need the two pillars, but we need the other two aspects of Salesian Spirituality.

The Church/Pope

What & Why

Joyful Education

What & Why

How it applied to me / how Fr. Joe exemplified these two

His faithfulness to the Church & the Pope

His Joy as an educator

What attracted me most was his goodness & joy - the hope that he had and lived in.

I wanted that same joy.

Come up with a great ending!

Q & A on Discernment