Br Gabriel and Don Bosco...

Br Gabriel Fernandez sdb ... no more!! Well that brings to close another life in the Salesian Congregation but this time of someone much closer home and someone with whom I shared two years of life while at Karunapuram. That Br Gabriel had given upon life was evident to those who met him, especially in the last couple of years. But that he survived so long in spite of all that turmoil and emptiness only shows what strength and vigour he had in his younger days. What I liked in him was his attachment to Don Bosco. Whatever one may say regarding his habits or behaviour, he never missed an occasion to speak of Don Bosco. No goodnight talk of his ended without reference to Don Bosco and Mother Mary. Having grown up in that earlier Salesian tradition where Don Bosco and Mother Mary were anywhere and everywhere, his reference to them does not come as a surprise. (That is something lacking in today's Salesians - we think twice before speaking about them! At times we feel proud to have spoken about a very grand idea but nothing in it about God or Don Bosco!) Anyway, now Br Gabriel will not have any more problems!