BOVA is our overseas volunteer programme, placing people to work with Salesian projects in several different countries. Anita, who has been BOVA Animator for several years, is moving on, and we're looking for someone who has the skills, experience and enthusiasm to replace her, and continue taking BOVA forward.
For more information, see our Job Vacancies page.
Last week, St John Bosco College students spent time with some of their peers from Colegio Salesianos El Pilar. The 24 students and 2 teachers visited from Soto del Real, near Madrid, as part of the Erasmus scheme, and they stayed right next door to the school, at the Don Bosco Centre in Salesian House.
Ms Tharsis, SJBC’s Head of Modern Foreign Languages, said their students enjoyed sharing lessons with their visitors in the mornings, and everyone had great fun when the Spanish students made delicious tortillas in the school kitchen with two classes of Year 10s.
Br Lukasz from the Savio Salesian College Chaplaincy expresses thoughts we all share, as students move on from our Salesian schools around the Province. Along with him, we wish all our leavers happiness and success as they take the next steps in their lives.
Five years passed double-quick. 84 year-elevens were crying, signing their t-shirts, taking last photos and hugging their teachers. Everybody gathered in the Assembly Hall. They were so excited. These were their last minutes in Savio Salesian College. Happiness was mixed with nostalgia because this was their last time.
In previous months, we've heard from Sophie Astles from Share the Light, a charity run by young people in the UK for young people in Zambia, which originated at Salesian School Farnborough.
The school retains strong connections with the charity, sending students as 'advocates' to Zambia each year, and holding events to raise funds for activities such as education scholarships and nutritious breakfasts for children at Share the Light's partner projects in Zambia. One very popular event is the 'Footy and Family Fun Evening", organsied by Salesian College's Head of Upper School, Mr Gore, and his team, which is held on the college sports fields, which was blessd this year with good weather, and as always, was a highly successful evening.
The Salesians of Don Bosco have been resident in the Bootle community for several decades now, running a large parish and a secondary school. The resident community of Salesian priests and brothers who work with and for the benefit of young people, reside within St James’s Presbytery.
We are looking for an experienced housekeeper to join our small housekeeping team. Application deadline is Monday 8 July 2019.
This week is Refugee Week. As conflicts across the world displace more people than at any time in human memory, the lives of young people are especially shattered, and as Salesians, we are called to help them just as Don Bosco did in Valdocco for marginalised young people in his own time.
For the few asylum seekers who make it to the UK, the problems are not over. They face increasing hostility, long periods of uncertainty, and for young people, an ongoing disruption of their childhood and adolescence.
The Valdocco in Britain project is a new summer camp being organised by the Salesian Youth Ministry team to provide a Salesian-style holiday experience to asylum seeking / refugee young people (aged 14-17), but we need your help to make it happen.
Br Lukasz from the Bootle SDB community and the Savio Salesian College Chaplaincy team, reflects on this week's memorial of the five Polish Salesian martyrs, who were executed in 1942. The oldest was 23, and the youngest just 19.
“My dearest parents, brothers and sisters, the time has come to say goodbye to you on August 24, the day of Mary Help of Christians … May the Good Lord take me to himself. Don’t have regrets that I am leaving this world so young. I am now in a state of grace. ... I am going to heaven. There I shall pray to God … Pray sometimes for me … I’m going now.”
After writing these words in the letter to his mother, Franciszek Kesy and his other four companions: Czeslaw Jozwiak, Edward Klinik, Edward Kazimierski and Jarogniew Wojciechowski, were taken into the prison yard in Dresden and beheaded. It was the 24th of August 1942, the monthly feast of Mary Help of Christians in all Salesian communities. This Wednesday in our Family, we celebrated the commemoration of these blessed martyrs.
CAMINO is a 6 day training course, from 26 August to 2 September 2019, for those working in Chaplaincy or non-formal education. It aims to provide at further training to experienced educators in youth work /chaplaincy to deal specifically with interreligious dialogue in their own settings.
The course is offered by Don Bosco YouthNet, a network of 18 youth organisations across Europe, within the global Don Bosco Movement. It will be held at Benediktbeuern, near Munich, Gemany.
'God has given us this cross, and he is giving us the strength to carry it'
The memorial of Polish Salesian martyrs Blesseds Francis Kesy, Edward Klinik, Jarog Wojciechowski, Czeslaw Jozwisk and Edward Kzmierski is celebrated on 12th June.
They attended the Salesian oratory in Poznan, Poland, and were involved in the youth work there. Following the Nazi occupation, Francis took a job in a factory, spending his free time at the oratory, and after the house was taken over by the Nazis as a barracks, the young people gathered in the woods, to continue their prayer and the work of the youth groups. In September 1940, these five young men were arrested, accused of belonging to an illegal organisation - the fear was that Catholic groups like these could form the basis of a resistance movement.
Story and photos: Barry Hudd
Father Michael Fava, the most senior Catholic Army Chaplain, has been awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Fr Michael is a former pupil of Salesian College, Farnborough.
In November 2018, Fr Michael was appointed Deputy Chaplain General, the first Catholic to be appointed to this post.
Summer 2018
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Salesians of Don Bosco UK 2015
Salesians of Don Bosco UK is a Registered Charity 233779
Charity Registered in Scotland SC039294
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