CIN_JN/PL_I024_CL11/190810
1919年8、9、10月 – 2019年8、9、10月
在中國四個的百週年紀念日：
首位在中國去世的慈幼會士的百週年紀念日：賀道行神父 慈幼會士 (廣州 1919年9月18日)
天主忠僕畢少懷神父來華的百週年紀念日 (1919年9月28日)
發出首封會長公函(Inter nos)的百週年紀念日 (1919年9月29日)
把中國的慈幼會傳教事業奉獻給瑪利亞進教之佑的百週年紀念日(1919年10月24日)
JMJ
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親愛的會友、修女、協進會會員和慈幼家庭其他的成員：
願主的平安常與你們同在﹗
在我們親愛的父親聖若望鮑思高創立慈幼學會的第一百六十週年之際（1859－2019），又為了回應我們會省四個地區在教育和牧民工作裡所面臨的嚴重困難，我們敬愛的總會長范達民神父到訪了中華會省。在聖母升天節的前後，我們要做一個非常有意義的虔敬和奉獻行為，我指的是把所有中華會省的慈幼人和事業奉獻給瑪利亞進教之佑 – 她是我們慈幼會113年來在偉大的祖國臨在時的女主保。
這份奉獻是有一個很有趣的歷史背景。讓我在這裡大致說一說(更詳細的敍述請見附件I, II, III, IV)。
在韶州，在一百年前(1919年10月24日星期五)，在慈幼會第一個傳教士住宅的貧窮小堂裏（新東門），雷鳴道神父（慈幼會傳教事業的領導人，但還未成為主教），以及其他十幾個傳教士（其中包括天主忠僕畢少懷神父），隆重地把最初的慈幼會傳教事業奉獻給瑪利亞進教之佑。他們這樣做，是因為初期的傳教事業已經受到正在進行的內戰所威脅，在那幾年，內戰已經吞沒了整個中國。他們透過誦唸奉獻禱文，把慈幼會的傳教事業奉獻給瑪利亞進教之佑。在一年前(1918年6月9日)，於第一次世界大戰期間，在都靈的進教之佑大殿裏，總會長歐培拉神父也唸了這篇奉獻禱文。歐培拉神父這樣做，是為了慶祝鮑思高神父建成進教之佑大殿的50周年。歐培拉神父親筆寫的這篇奉獻禱文的一個特點是，它不僅是為慈幼會士而寫的，也是為母佑會修女和協進會會員而寫的，也就是為整個慈幼家庭而寫的。
在70年前（1949年）的韶州，歐彌格主教承繼雷鳴道主教任韶州的主教。他考慮到當年慈幼會在韶州的工作遇到的困難，與他的傳教士（其中包括親愛的胡子義神父）一起更新了奉獻給聖母進教之佑誦，而這次的更新，是用了三十年前雷鳴道神父和他的傳教士所用的同樣的奉獻禱文。
這一年，是雷鳴道神父奉獻中國的100週年，又是歐彌格主教奉獻中國的70週年，由總會長范達民神父親自領導，中華會省慈幼家庭的所有團體（鮑思高慈幼會、母佑會、慈幼協進會、鮑思高志願者、顯主會、同學會和進教者之佑善會）將更新歐培拉神父所寫，雷鳴道神父和歐彌格主教所使用的奉獻禱文。百年紀念的確切日期是2019年10月24日，但我們很高興在我們敬愛的總會長的領導下，提早誦唸這奉獻誦。
1984年，鮑思高神父第七任繼承人衞甘諾神父在第22屆全代會，代表所有的慈幼會士，隆重地將慈幼會奉獻給瑪利亞進教之佑——教會之母，邀請了所有當地的團體和個別會士，跟大會成員一起唸這禱文。在他為這個奉獻行動所寫的信中（1983年5月31日在總部議會實錄），他提到了鮑思高神父在1869年(150年前)做的一些事情。衞甘諾神父寫道：「我們的父親和會祖鮑思高神父建議，我們對聖母的自我奉獻可以通過「赤子般的信賴」，變得更加有意識和具挑戰性。」他於1869年寫了一本小册子，在公教讀物裡刋登，讓進教者之佑善會的會員使用（該善會那年由他創辦）。鮑思高神父提供給讀者們一個「赤子般的信賴，讓我們把童貞聖母作為我們的母親」。他為這奉獻行動所寫的祈禱是有個中心點，就是讓信徒注視耶穌基督，並向祂祈求，祂是「最初的元始和最後的終結」。正是耶穌基督，在他的見證裡，祂從十字架上讓「他所愛的宗徒若望，成為他母親瑪利亞的兒子」。然後，鮑思高神父的祈禱文將奉獻者的注意力轉向聖母本人。奉獻者要求一個恩寵，即成為兒子，屬於聖母，讓聖母成為母親。是的，把自己「交託」於她的善良，他「選擇」她作為他的母親，要求她「接受」他。奉獻者說：「我把整個的我完全地、不可撤銷地奉獻給你，投奔到你的懷抱中，對你母親般的保護充滿信任。」在此，我們在鮑思高神父的祈禱文中表達了《奉獻》的真正含義，以及其基本的要求和承諾。這是一種信德的行為，它更新了我們受洗成為天主子女的意識」。願這也是我們與鮑思高神父第十任的繼任者、親愛的范達民神父共同奉獻時有的精神！
今天慈幼會事業所遇到的困難，不比我們的前輩所遇到的困難小。我們仍然需要完全地把自己託付給天上母親的關愛和幫助。讓這一次的奉獻，成為總會長探訪我們這個受苦的會省的這段充滿恩寵的時刻裡，其中一個的高峰。
在耶穌、瑪利亞、鮑思高神父之內，
我是你們摯愛的
省會長吳志源神父
2019年８月10日，香港
CIN_JN/PL_I024_CL11/190810
Agosto-Settembre-Ottobre 1919 – Agosto-Settembre-Ottobre 2019
Un Quadruplo Centenario Salesiano in Sinis:
Centenario della morte di Don Ludovico Olive, primo Salesiano morto in Cina (18 settembre 1919)
Centenario dell’arrivo del Servo di Dio Don Carlo Braga in Cina (28 settembre 1919)
Centenario del primo numero del Provincial Newsletter “Inter nos” (29 settembre 1919)
Centenario della Consacrazione a Maria Ausiliatrice della Missione Salesiana in Cina (24 ottobre 1919)
August-September-October 1919 – August-September-October 2019
A Fourfold Salesian Centenary in Sinis:
Centenary of the Death of the first Salesian to die in Sinis: Fr Ludovic Olive SDB (Canton [Guangzhou] 18 September 1919)
Centenary of the Arrival ad Sinas of the Servant of God Don Carlo Braga (28 September 1919)
Centenary of the First Issue of the Provincial Newsletter “Inter nos” (29 September 1919)
Centenary of the Consecration of the Salesian Mission in Sinis to Mary Help of Christians (24 October 1919)
JMJ
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Hong Kong, 10 August, 2019
Dear Confreres, Sisters, Cooperators & Other Members of the Salesian Family,
The peace of the Lord be with you always!
In this 160th year since the foundation of the Salesian Society by our dear Father St. John Bosco (1859-2019), on the blessed occasion of the visit to CIN of our beloved Rector Major Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, in response to the serious difficulties that our educational and pastoral work is facing in all the 4 Territories of our beloved Province, before-during-after the great Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven, we are going to make a very meaningful act of piety and devotion, I mean the Act of Act of Entrustment of all CIN Salesian people and works to Mary Help of Christians, the titular patroness of our 113-year old Salesian presence in our great motherland.
This Act of Entrustment has a very interesting historical background. Let me outline it here below (for a more detailed account see Attachments I, II, III, and IV).
One hundred years ago in Shiuchow, on Friday, October 24, 1919, in the poor chapel of the first missionary residence of the Salesians (San Tung Mun), Don Luigi Versiglia (the Head of the Salesian Mission, but not yet a Bishop), together with a dozen other missionaries (among them the Servant of God Don Carlo Braga), solemnly entrusted the incipient Salesian mission to Mary Help of Christians. They did so because the incipient mission was already threatened by the ongoing civil war that in those years had engulfed the whole of China. They entrusted the Salesian mission to Mary Help of Christians by reciting the Prayer of Consecration (Entrustment) recited one year before, while World War I was still raging, on June 9, 1918, in the Church of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, by the Rector Major Fr. Paolo Albera. Fr. Albera did so in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Don Bosco’s completion of the Church of Mary Help of Christians. A special characteristic of this Prayer of Consecration, written by Fr. Paolo Albera himself, is that it is made not only for the Salesians, but also for the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Cooperator Salesians, i.e for the whole Salesian Family.
Again in Shiuchow, seventy years ago (in 1949), Mons. Michele Arduino, second successor of Msgr. Luigi Versiglia as Bishop of Shiuchow, given the difficult times that in that year had come upon the Salesian work in Shiuchow, renewed together with his missionaries (among them dear Fr. Gaetano Nicosia) the Entrustment of Salesian works to Mary Help of Christians, using the same Prayer of Consecration used thirty years before by Fr. Luigi Versiglia and his missionaries.
This year, one hundred years since the Entrustment made by Fr. Luigi Versiglia and seventy years since that made by Bishop Michele Arduino, led by the Rector Fr. Major Ángel Fernández Artime in person, all CIN communities of the Salesian Family (Salesians of Don Bosco, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Salesians Cooperators, Volunteers of Don Bosco, Sisters Announcers of the Lord, Past Pupils, and ADMA) are going to renew this Entrustment, using the Prayer of Consecration written by Fr. Paolo Albera and used by Fr. Luigi Versiglia and Bishop Michele Arduino. The exact date of the centenary would be October 24th, 2019, but we are happy to anticipate this Act of Entrustment guided by our beloved Rector Major.
In 1984, the 7th Successor of Don Bosco Fr. Egidio Viganò, on the occasion of General Chapter 22 and in the name of all the Salesians of Don Bosco, made a solemn Act of Entrustment of the Salesian Congregation to Mary Help of Christians – Mother of the Church, inviting all the local communities and individual confreres to join the Chapter members in this Act. In the Letter with which he prepared this Act (31 May 1983 in AGC) he mentions something that Don Bosco did exactly 150 years ago in 1869. Fr. Egidio Viganò writes: “Our Father and Founder Don Bosco suggested that our self-entrustment to Mary could be made more conscious and challenging by an ‘Act of Filiation’. In a booklet written by him in 1869 and published in the Catholic Readings for use by the devotees of the ADMA (founded by him that year), Don Bosco offered the readers an ‘Act of Filiation by which we take the Virgin Mary as our Mother’. The prayer written by him for such an Act centres the attention and the supplication of the devotee on Jesus Christ, ‘first beginning and last end’. It is Jesus Christ who in his Testament from the cross gives to ‘the beloved apostle John the quality and title of son of His Mother Mary’. Then, Don Bosco’s prayer directs the attention of the devotee to Mary herself. The devotee asks the grace of ‘belonging to her’ as a son, to ‘have her as Mother’. Yes, ‘entrusted’ to her goodness, he ‘chooses’ her as his Mother, asking her to ‘accept’ him. The devotee says: ‘I make a total and irrevocable donation of my whole self to you, abandoning myself in your embrace, full of trust in your maternal protection’. We have here expressed in this prayer of Don Bosco the very meaning of the Act of Entrustment as well as its fundamental demands and commitments. It is an Act of faith that renews our baptismal consciousness of being children of God”. May this also be the spirit with which we make the Act of Entrustment together with the 10th Successor of Don Bosco, dear Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime!
The difficulties that the Salesian work is encountering today are not lesser or smaller than those met by our forefathers. We still need to entrust ourselves completely to the loving care of our heavenly Mother and Help. Let this Entrustment be one of the highpoints of this grace-filled time of the visit of the Rector Major to our suffering Province.
In Jesus, Mary, Don Bosco, I am,
Yours affectionately,
Fr. Joseph Ng Chi Yuen
Provincial