Religious apostolate

As religious our apostolate is taking up tasks that need to be done, and there’s no one doing it. We undertake works that are urgent and necessary but none willing to do. Doing what everyone is doing, especially if they are doing it better than us, is no charism. That’s the corporate mode or race. Not a religious commitment. 

Secondly taking up something new is not for the sake of ‘doing something new’ but because there is a felt need and our apostolate is a response to that need. 

Contextualising this for us Salesians I ask myself: As SDBs what is the need that is demanding our intervention, especially in the youth sphere? 

Whatever the need I could think of (work for migrants, those addicted to drugs or social media, those struggling with mental health issues, young couples...), it struck me that our response necessarily does not mean starting something totally new. It mostly implies transforming existing modes of apostolate into something relevant. Perhaps it is easier to start something new, rather than adapt obsolete traditions and works to something relevant for the day and today’s need.