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St. John Bosco Youth Connection
Welcome to the St. John Bosco Youth Connection page. It is our hope that you will find the contents of this page to be both informative and interactive. Check back often for new content and to download the youth challenge which you can find to the right, which will also be updated throughout the year. Pray for your vocation, and the Lord will answer!
St. John Bosco: Patron Saint for Youth
Saint John Bosco was born in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy in 1815, the year that Napoleon's armies were finally defeated and driven out of Italy. Brought up in a peasant family and raised by a widowed mother, John endured many hardships in pursuit of an education and growth in the Christian life. He demonstrated great initiative and creativity at a very early age and learned magic tricks and acrobatics in an attempt to gather an audience so that he could evangelize and catechize the children and adults of his town.
After his ordination to the priesthood, he settled in the industrial town of Turin which was flooded by peasants in search of work. John Bosco focused his efforts on ministry to the orphans and working children of the city and established homes called oratories where they could live, learn productive trades, and be educated in the faith. In the face of much resistance by anti-clerical politicians and unfriendly churchmen, his oratories grew so quickly that by 1868 over 800 boys were under his care. As if this work were not enough, he wrote and printed countless pamphlets that popularized Catholic teaching and answered the objections of anti-Catholics and secularists and as a result, several attempts were made on his life.
Miracles reported by numerous eyewitnesses accompanied his work, including the multiplication of food. He was also known to receive supernatural guidance from God in the form of vivid dreams which he often recounted to his companions.
To ensure the continuation of his work, St. John Bosco founded a religious congregation named in honor of one of his favorite saints, St Francis de Sales. He is the patron saint for youth. This holy saint died in 1888, but today John Bosco's Salesians continue his work all over the world.
Discernment Tools
Take a few minutes and prayerfully consider these questions:
- Imagine yourself five or ten years from now as a priest or religious. How does that feel?
- Imagine an entire day in your future as a priest, religious brother or sister. Visualize yourself doing what they do. How does your heart react to this exercise?
- What is the most satisfying part of your week? What does that say about you?
- For one week, live as if you decided to enter a seminary or formation program. Notice how you felt. The following week live as if you decided to drop the religious life or priesthood vocation question and dismiss it. What feelings stir up in you?
- Imagine Jesus looking you in the eye, calling you by your first name, and saying, "What is it you really want?" Spend time with the question. Tell Jesus all that you hope for in life. Then spend time listening to His response to your dreams. (What is the desire of your heart?)
- What was the last major decision you made about your life? How did you come to that decision? Was it a good one? What can you learn from that experience about your vocation discernment?
- Make a list of all the reasons it wouldn't be a good idea for you to become a priest, religious sister or brother. Then make a list of all the reasons why it would be good! Which one weighs more? Bring the list before God in prayer and listen.
- What advice would you give someone in your shoes regarding a vocation as a priest or as a religious?
- Reflect on priests or religious sisters/brothers who have been mentors for you. Which qualities in them would you like to imitate if you were called?
- If you are in 9-11 grades, consider attending a Discernment Overnight at Sacred Heart Major Seminary to better understand life as a seminarian.
Prayer for Vocations
Loving God,
Thank you for the gift of life.
You know when I sit and when I stand.
You have me always in Your heart.
For this, I thank you Lord.
You know the path for my life and
what will make me happy.
Help me to discover the vocation
that You have planted in my heart,
especially if it is a call to the
priesthood or consecrated life.
Bless me and guide me Lord,
So that the road I choose
I will choose for your glory.
Amen
