St. Dominic Savio - "Just Like You"

Dear Friends,

The discussion of the theme for SYLC 2010 has been a labor of love. On the feast of Don Bosco this year, many of you, the Salesian Youth Movement USA West gathered to “Rock Out Youth Poverty” and were challenged to respond to the issues of youth poverty through the lens of the Gospel by way of our own Salesian youth spirituality.

 Our Christian faith and our Salesian spirituality celebrates life. It calls us to confront the devastation wrought by poverty. In our communities and in our world, we have seen the human face of poverty. As a province we have committed to be a vast movement who stand in solidarity with those who are poor, especially the young.

Like Don Bosco, we also believe that young people, if accompanied and empowered, would grow to be saints—young leaders rooted in Don Bosco’s expression “good Christians, good citizens.” We believe that YOU are the protagonists and at the same time the prophetic agents of hope for the world. 

Our Salesian spirituality calls you to be like the young saint Dominic Savio, to courageously choose to live lives that are grounded in the Gospel and become examples for your peers of youthful holiness.

On this feast of St. Dominic Savio, the Salesian Family invites you to respond to this call. Therefore for SYLC 2010, our theme will be “JUST LIKE YOU”. We hope that this theme will help you to recognize that you have the resources for good that are waiting to be developed, that you are capable of choosing Jesus and his gospel values, and you can be determined to fight for these values. As a Salesian Family, we challenge you, our young leaders, in Don Bosco’s words, to give yourselves totally to God—to model your lives just like Jesus… to become authentic disciples and zealous apostles.

On this special feast day and as we begin our preparation for SYLC 2010, let us all commit ourselves again to the young and the poor by adopting a plan of life that includes being open to society, to service, to solidarity and to charity. Let us take on Don Bosco’s motto: Da Mihi Animas—working to gain souls for God. Through this theme let us accompany one another to commit to a life of holiness, and to reassure one another that holiness is possible!

Blessings and happy feast day!

-Bro. Al Vu, SDB & the Province Youth Ministry Department