The Preventive System, in a gist

Here's a reflection shared by Fr Julian Fox in his latest news on austraLasia #3387. It shares the views of a senior Salesian Priest attending the ongoing General Chapter. The reflection is about the way we employ the three words, Reason, Religion and Loving Kindness in our understanding and how and where could Don Bosco have learnt the REAL and practical meaning of these words.

I heard these three terms as a kid in the village, from my grandfather and grandmother, but not in Italian (we spoke Piedmontese at home always). When things needed to be worked out amongst people, maybe something had gone wrong, grandpa used say 'Rasunuma 'n poc' = 'Let's have a chat about this'. It was very practical reasoning, nothing cerebral about it. On the other hand, grandma's comment on things was 'Un poc 'd religiön 'l rangia tüt' = 'a bit of religion (a sense of God) will fix things up', and 'Vorumsi ben' = 'Let's get on together'. Here 'religiön' has little to do with cult, rules and regulations and a lot to do with the primacy of God. And where 'amorevolezza' in Italian (loving kindness in English) seems to suggest me showing this to them (so one way, in a sense), note the communal aspect of 'vorumsi ben'.

Now that's the most comprehensive and still deeply meaningful explanation I've ever come across in my whole Salesian reading.