The poster for the Rector Major's Strenna for 2021 has been published this week, depicting the theme: 'Moved by hope: "See, I am making all things new" (Rev 21: 5)

Introducing the theme of the Strenna last month, the Rector Major, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime SDB, wrote:

When thinking about a message that can unite us as a family in 2021, it is impossible not to take into account the fact that the world, every country, has certainly been blocked if not paralysed.

He says that the Salesian approach does not repeat the many messages saying we can overcome it by trusting in ourselves, being strong, or calling on national pride in having coped in the past with other disasters:

our message emphasises and insists that faced with this tough and painful reality with its weighty consequences, we continue to express the certainty of being moved by hope: because God in his Spirit continues to make "all things new".

Pope Francis has invited the world to become infected with "the necessary antibodies of justice, charity and solidarity" for reconstruction once the days of pandemic are over.

Fr Ángel reminds us that Don Bosco is close to us in our present problems as he experienced similar situations and managed them with a profoundly realistic perspective, placing his hope and trust in God.

He goes on to consider how Salesians can respond this major crisis:

What contribution can we offer as a Salesian Family? What Gospel values, read in a Salesian perspective, do we feel we can offer? How can we, as educators, offer as an alternative an "education to hope"?

Alternative processes to the dominant culture. Change of values and perspective:

• from closure to openness
• from individualism to solidarity
• from isolation to genuine encounter
• from division to unity and communion
• from pessimism to hope
• from emptiness and lack of meaning to transcendence.
• God speaks to us through so many people who have known how to live with hope:
• in extreme situations God continues to speak to us through the hearts of people who see and respond differently
• the Salesian holiness of our Family is rich in models of those who have know how to live moved by hope (Blessed Stephen Sándor and Madeleine Morano…).

We do not save ourselves by ourselves alone. No one is saved alone.

Read the Rector Major's complete outline of the 2021 theme here

Each year, a new Strenna (Italian for 'gift') is presented to the Salesian Family by the Rector Major, to help us engage with a particular aspect of or approach to our Salesian mission in a changing world.

Download the poster from ANS on the link below.