Journey through the Wandering Oratory

 Hats off to the participants!!! We completed the journey to the different oratories of Don Bosco in just three hours. Three hours of wonder and amazement, but it took Don Bosco nearly five anxious, painful, humiliating and discouraging years before he could arrive at the Pinardi shed.

What was it that made Don Bosco stick to his so called “rowdy” boys in spite of constant heartbreaks, tears and failures? Was it the fact that were it not for the good guides and benefactors that he had on his personal journey, he too could have landed on the street like the very boys he was helping? Or was it because he was overwhelmed with sorrow by the fact that the prisons were full of good but misguided youth? Or was it??? Or was it??? Or was it??? There could have been many reasons, but we know for sure, he was driven by his deep love for the young and his conviction that working with them was God’s will for him.

Looking at his first oratory at the church of St. Francis of Assisi, we realize that it is not the size of the place that counts, but the size of the heart that welcomes. Young people need today do not need our educational degrees, but the degree of our love.

 Thank God we do not have  to wander around like Don Bosco, searching for a place! But our hearts need to move around to search out the young who are in need of our assistance, who are lonely, misguided and exploited, and risking everything, love them as Don Bosco did.