Saint John Bosco
Gospel: Mark 4:35-41
Saint John Bosco: Father and Friend of Youth

Today is the Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint John Bosco today.

The Gospel passage from Saint Mark tells us: After dismissing the crowd, Jesus got into the boat with His disciples and sailed across a sea stirred by a fierce wind. The boat was being battered by waves and was already filled with water. The disciples were terrified and thought they were perishing. So, they woke Jesus, crying out for Him to save them.

We often face challenges brought by this world. As students, we endure pressures of studies and entrance exams; in our work, we confront competition from colleagues or within the same profession; in family life, conflicts arise from disagreements among loved ones, sparking strife. We also encounter temptations from the prince of this world and his minions: when we offer prayer to God, he tries to turn our inward hearts toward outward worldly concerns; when we participate in the Mass, we sometimes focus on ritual rather than on all that God reveals to us through His ministers in the Sacred Liturgy of the Mass.

In Saint John Bosco, we see the image of a servant of Christ who walked through storms.

Saint John Bosco (August 16, 1815 – January 31, 1888), a renowned Italian Catholic priest and educator, founder of the Salesians of Don Bosco, is honored as “Father and Friend of Youth.” His life overflowed with selfless love for impoverished youth, yet it was marked by multiple storms and trials.

As his biography recounts:

Bosco’s life began amid “storms”: He lost his father at age two, leaving his family in dire poverty. His elder brother obstructed his pursuit of education, declaring, “A farmer’s son is not worthy of studying,” while the Piedmontese countryside was ravaged by famine due to war and drought. This mirrored the urgency of the Gospel scene—“a boat tossed by a sudden storm”—as he struggled from childhood on the brink of being “overwhelmed.” His mother Margherita’s resilience and faith were his first “lamp of faith.” At age nine, a dream like a call from Jesus showed him direction amid the storm: A noble man urged him, “Win your friends not with blows, but with gentleness and kindness. Show them sin is ugly and virtue beautiful.”

As an adult, Bosco faced fiercer “waves” in Turin. He founded the Oratory to shelter orphans and street children, yet neighbors complained of “noisy disturbances,” and authorities expelled them, deeming the gatherings “dangerous” and fearing revolution. The orphans he took in once stole blankets and destroyed haylofts; the number of residents grew from 36 in a few small rooms to 800, straining resources like a “ship about to sink.” Worse, the anti-religious policies of the Kingdom of Piedmont swept over him like a “fierce wind”: confiscating Church property, suppressing religious orders. He wrote to King Victor Emmanuel II to protest but was ignored. Interrogations and assassination attempts followed—knife attacks, clubbing, shootings. Traditional clergy accused him of “stealing faithful from their parishes”; nationalists viewed his youth groups as “breeding grounds for revolution.”

Yet Bosco never allowed fear to consume his faith. Recalling the exhortation of the “noble man” from his nine-year-old dream, he took “gentleness and kindness” as his oar: teaching youth trades, protecting them from abusive employers (drawing up contracts to forbid corporal punishment and ensure rest), sleeping on straw mats with his mother, sharing meager meals, and persisting despite repeated expulsions. Facing political pressure, he stood firm in his mission like Jesus rebuking the winds and waves: “I live not for myself, but for these children forgotten by the world.” This faith gradually calmed the “storms”—the king’s tacit protection with the order “do not disturb him,” Prime Minister Cavour’s intervention, even the “divine warning” of successive royal deaths (though unproven).

Ultimately, Bosco’s faith, like Jesus calming the storm, turned the Oratory into a “safe harbor” for youth. He founded the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and the Salesian Cooperators, institutionalizing “gentleness and kindness” to restore dignity and education to thousands of orphans. Before his death, looking at the youth filling his courtyard, he smiled: “I once feared they would perish, but now they have become my ship.”

I wish to take this opportunity to say to the superiors of the Bosco family, all Salesians, communities under the patronage of Saint John Bosco, brothers and sisters in Christ, and those discerning a vocation to the consecrated life: Saint John Bosco is Father and Friend of Youth, and above all, our model. When we face storms, let us imitate Saint John Bosco, entrust ourselves courageously to the Lord Jesus Christ with full faith, and fulfill the mission He has entrusted to each of us.

O God, who raised up the Priest Saint John Bosco as a father and teacher of the young, grant, we pray, that, aflame with the same fire of love, we may seek out souls and serve you alone. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica