Conversation in the Spirit: A Saturday with friends

On a breezy Saturday morning last week, a group of batch mates from our high school class of 1969 were invited to meet in a familiar setting and share reflections on “How does Don Bosco continue to affect you?”

- ENDEAVOR SONNY COLOMA

Hosting us was Don Bosco School of Theology (DBST) President, Rev. Francis Gustilo, SDB. We were classmates in DB Makati in the mid-sixties. He went on to become a priest and head of the Salesians’ Philippine province. We gathered in a small circle at one of the school’s meeting halls. DBST is nestled within a two-hectare campus in Better Living Subdivision in Parañaque that is reachable either from Sucat Road, or from the Bicutan exit of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX).

We were joined via Zoom by class-mates living in Canada and southern California.

Our meeting had three movements: first, listening to each other; second, listening to the Other; and third, responding to the Other. “Other,” of course, refers to God.

The year 2025, according to Fr. Francis, marks the 150th year from the launching of Don Bosco’s first mission to China in 1875 and its outreach from Europe to the rest of the world

Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco was born in Italy’s Piedmont region on Aug. 16,1815 and died on Jan. 31,1888. A follower of the spirituality of St. Francis of Sales’ philosophy, he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. It was while working in Turin, a center of industrialization and urbanization, that he was drawn into launching an apostolate for the betterment of streetchildren and other disadvantaged youth.

He developed a unique system of education that emphasized healthy interaction among children and youth through sports, vocational training, daily mass and prayer, and frequent reception of the sacraments of confession and communion. This became known as the preventive system of Salesian education.