I’m sure I am not alone in marveling at the success of St. John Bosco. How could he have had so much worldly success with boys the world had cast off? The sheer numbers are staggering: He took care of the needs of 500 boys at a time and ultimately 2500 of these boys became priests.

I think his success can be traced to four points:

1. Unwavering, unmitigated, personal pursuit of holiness.
2. Frequent recourse to the sacraments, especially Holy Communion and Penance.
3. Purity
4. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary


(This post combines posts made at 4Real message board with the addition of #2, the importance Don Bosco placed on the Sacraments.)

1. Unwavering, unmitigated, personal pursuit of holiness

One of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, who has a charism in instructing parents with their children, began a class with an interesting analogy. He began by talking about the gravitational pull of the earth and the force that it exerts on the moon. The earth, by its mass and speed of rotation, keeps the moon in its orbit. The only way the moon would be taken out of the orbit, is if a stronger and greater object pulled upon it. (Something like this.) If the main body gets knocked off its axis, spins awkwardly, the satellite, the moon, feels the effects more. The point he was trying to make, (I don't know if I am actually getting it across) the tighter the parents spiral of virtue, the less effects are felt by the children. The more wobbly and slowly spinning the main planet, the less effect it has on the satellite. Every effort at virtue, every single offering is seen and remembered by God. It is also seen and remembered by children who spend their entire time studying their parents (The priest said this.) I think St. John Bosco totally bears this idea out. How did he succeed in leading 2,500 wayward boys to the priesthood? Unwavering, unmitigated, personal pursuit of holiness. How could he have lead these boys without severe punishments? By practicing the Divine love of a saint.

The level of virtue practiced by St. John Bosco is revealed in his list of resolutions he made upon entering the seminary:

"1. In the future, I will never again take part in any public performances at market fairs. I will never go to dances or theaters, and, as far as possible, I will not attend the dinners which are held on such occasions.
2. I will not do any more juggling, acrobatics, or tight-rope walking; I will not play the violin; I will not go hunting; because all these things are absolutely opposed to the ecclesiastical spirit.
3. I will love and practice solitude, and temperance in food and drink; and I will not take any more sleep than is strictly necessary for my health.
4. Whereas in the past I have served the world by reading secular literature, in the future I will serve God by reading only about subjects relating to religion.
5. I will combat with all my strength everything, every reading every thought, word, and action contrary to the virtue of chastity. In counteraction, I will practice all those things, even the least, that can contribute to the preservation of this virtue.
6. Besides all the usual practices of piety, I will never omit a short mediation and spiritual reading each day.
7. Every day I will relate an illustration or a maxim for the good of souls. I will relate this to my friends, my companions, my teachers, and even, if there is no one else, to my mother.”
From Edna Phelan's Don Bosco A Spiritual Portrait (Doubleday;1963)35-6.

He kept these resolutions and added a few more with his ordination, all the while bringing his resolutions to the Blessed Virgin Mary and begging her that he would keep them.

St. John used acrobatics and other tricks while he was a youth. When he was a teenager, he noticed children gathering around the church on Sundays, but not attending Mass. He would organize a show for them, the price would be the Rosary. He would retell the homily from Mass verbatim. As his spirituality deepened with the higher calling of the priesthood, he resolved to never cast scandal upon the holy priesthood. Even the thought of possibly causing scandal, occasion of sin to others, made him resolve to give up these theatrical, acrobatic practices. This is an example of heroic sanctity. Anything we resolve to give up, even if it seems minor, will be richly rewarded by God, who is greatly "injured" by sin. St. John Bosco totally understood this. For the boys in the oratory, St. John made their shoes, mended their clothes, during the night he wrote their text books. He went begging for them, finding them jobs, apprenticeships. He taught them, heard their confessions (he could read their souls), said Mass for them. He would have 500 boys at a time. He didn't sleep or at least rarely. He would take two boys with him on a "begging" mission. He would choose two boys who knew the way to the wealthy person's home. Resting his hands on a shoulder of each boy, he would "sleep" on the way! He didn't need the tricks when he became a seminarian and a priest. He had become so transformed into the Heart of Christ that Divine Love spoke through him. The boys followed him like lambs.

2. Sacraments
“Frequent confession and Communion, and devout attendance at daily Mass.” This was the saint’s method of education. He would tell the boys, “If you want to be the friend of Jesus, visit Him often." His ideas were considered innovative.

St. John Bosco understood that a vocation is preserved in frequent Communion. Could it be that the words of his own mother, on the day of his first Holy Communion, profoundly helped him reach the altar as a priest, that he could promote these practices fearlessly?

Mama Margaret said to John:
“I fondly trust that God has really taken possession of your heart this morning. Promise Him to keep pure as long as you live. Go to Holy Communion often; but beware of sacrilege and therefore be frank in your confessions. Be obedient; go readily to Catechism and to sermons. Flee bad companions like the plague.”

Don Bosco understood his boys. “The things ordinarily found wanting in children’s confessions are resolution and sorrow for sins. When one of these two things is found wanting, advise the child to refer to his catechism, if he is old enough to understand it.” This could be one of the reasons he spent his nights writing textbooks. He couldn’t find books which taught the things his boys needed to know.

“And yet in his regulations he thoughtfully wrote: ‘Never urge boys to receive the Holy Sacraments, but only encourage them and give them ample facility to profit by them. During retreats, triduums, novenas, sermons, and catechetical instructions, make known the beauty, grandeur, and holiness of our religion which offers such easy and efficacious means for sanctification in its Sacraments. Show them how beneficial all this is to society, to the tranquility of their hearts, and the salvation of their souls. In this way the young will be spontaneously inclined toward these practices of piety and will approach them with pleasure and profit.”
Edna Phelan, Don Bosco A Spiritual Portrait, 175.

3. Purity

The Salesians of Don Bosco have their special charism. Everyone is familiar with the Franciscan charism of poverty, Mother Teresa's order of dedication to the "poorest of the poor", the Carmelites to a hidden life of contemplation. But not everyone knows the charism of the Salesians. It is purity. I think this also sheds light on St. John Bosco's success with youth. Even today, one cannot enter the Salesians if he/she has sullied the virtue of purity by serious sin.

At one of our meetings, Father said once: "Even for a good person, it would take him three days to rid his house of impurity."

When I came home from this meeting, I took a look around my house. What is he talking about? 3 days? Well, what about all that mail that streams in everyday? Can I really call those catalogues pure? Do I throw them out immediately? Do they sit around collecting dust? What about my subscription to that nice gardening and craft magazine - Does the yogurt ad need to use a model dressed only in yogurt lids? or the shower faucet ad? (I cancelled my subscription.) What about my music cabinet? My video cabinet? My clothes closet? My bookshelves? St. John Bosco was considered an angel of purity. I think in today's world this is an overlooked virtue. Father often quotes St. Alphonsus di Liguori who says 'There isn't a person in hell who hasn't violated the 6th or 9th commandment. ' This principle is demonstrated daily in our 'culture of death.' The sin of impurity leads to murder.

4. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

“To save your soul,” this was the first thought [St. John Bosco] implanted in the mind of every boy who came to the Oratory. He cultivated that thought every day by including in the daily prayers which the boys said together the ejaculation “Dear Mother Mary ever Virgin, help me to save my soul,” which was recited three times and each time followed by a Hail Mary. His frequent words of admonition, which he would “whisper into the ears” of the boys according to their needs, usually, bore the same stamp. “Become good, and we shall be in Paradise together”; “Try to make a good confession and you will have great joy”; “Be cheerful, one day we shall be together with the Lord!” These words, like the two mottoes in his room, “Give me souls, take all the rest," and “Only one thing is necessary, to save one’s soul,” were so many sparks revealing his great thirst for the salvation of souls.”
Edna Phelan, Don Bosco A Spiritual Portrait, 114.

St. John Bosco said: “To find comfort for my poor heart, I went before her wonderful altar and I promised her that on returning to Turin I would do al I could to instill devotion to her in your hearts. And, recommending myself to her, I asked these special graces for you. –Mary, I said, bless our whole house, keep even the shadow of sin from the hearts of our boys, be the guide of our students, be for them the Seat of Wisdom. May they all be yours, always yours, and look upon them always as your children and keep them as your devoted sons for ever.—I believe that the Blessed Virgin will hear me and I hope that you will assist me so that we may all correspond to the voice of Mary and the grace of Our Lord.” Edna Phelan, Don Bosco A Spiritual Portrait,123.

Finally, St. John Bosco was totally devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and he entrusted all of his boys to her maternal care. Since Our Lady is our sweetness and our hope, she makes the practice of virtue easy (a spoonful of sugar...) The simplest, shortest, gentlest way to begin or increase your spiritual practices is to bring Our Lady into your life, a little bit at a time.

Another post about Don Bosco