The purpose of these study days is to set us off on the road to 2015 and the bicentenary of Don Bosco’s birth. The Salesian focus across the world for this year is the historical roots of our spirituality in Don Bosco. We will be following this theme in different ways but in the study days we wanted to focus on Don Bosco’s relationship with the city:
As a young man he was involved in the growth of the city of Turin and the development of ways to prevent harm to young people in the chaos of the city.
We think that by reflecting on how Don Bosco adapted to city living might give us an insight into how our spirituality might continue to adapt to the new cityscapes in which we live today. Therefore the historical will develop into the topical, moving from John Dickson’s history to Gerry O’Shaughnessy’s reflections on the pace and stimulation of city life that threaten our spirit in new ways. Finally Selvam will look at the ways that spirituality emerges in the city and how we can help to bring more depth and meaning into city life- faith in the city.
The timetable will look like the one below but will need to be adapted to each location.
Jan 14th Chertsey Fr Francis Preston and Dr J Lydon
Jan 21st Bolton Fr Hugh Preston Bro Kevin O’Donnell
Jan 28th Easterhouse Fr Brian McGraw
10.00 Arrivals and coffee
10.30 Welcome, introductions and morning prayer (provided by formation team)
11.00 Don Bosco and The City- Fr John Dickson
11.40 Break with coffee available
12.0 Sex and The City- Fr Gerry O’Shaughnessy
12.50 Break for own packed lunch- soup available-
1.50 Faith in The City- Fr Sahaya Selvam
2.30 Break and mass preparation
3.00 Mass and music prepared locally
4.00 Departures
During the days there will be information available from a range of Salesian groups and hopefully from Don Bosco publications.
Bookings: can you email Fr Pat Sherlock to let him know that you are coming and to which venue. secretary@salesians.org.uk
If you need any more detail please call Fr David at Savio House 01625 575405
