Aids for the Salesian Missions Day 2012 Campaign

1. Manifesto (poster)
2. Booklet
3. Holy pictures with a prayer
4. CD with texts in various languages, presentations (PowerPoint) and photos
5. DVD with 9 short films:

What is available

Video 1: Salesian Mission Day 2012 – an aid to understand:

• the process followed  by the Department for the Missions to promote Salesian Missionary Day (SMD), a tradition which, evolving with time and circumstances, has been celebrated for about  a hundred years.
• the topic chosen for 2012 which, along the lines of the congress held in Chiang Mai, in Thailand, in 2006 (Telling the story of Jesus), is a help in understanding the commitment of the Salesian Congregation to telling the story of Jesus in the continent of Asia.

There are six other videos, short documentaries, which describe the work, the experiences and the commitment to evangelisation of the Salesians in India, Thailand and the Philippines:

Video 2: North of Calcutta. On the frontiers of the mission

Video 3: In dialogue with cultures. The Shillong miracle

Video 4: Don Bosco's Madonna. Hic domus mea, inde gloria mea

Video 5: Knowing, training and bearing witness. Seeds of the mission in Thailand

Video 6: Chiang Mai. Seeds of evangelisation

Video 7: Small communities. The Salesian parish in Mandaluyong

The last two  describe:

Video 8: How the Sons of Don Bosco are working and evangelising in a context characterised for the most part by other religions – Salesians among people of other faiths – where living close to and meeting people of other faiths is a daily occurrence;

Video 9: Experiences of evangelisation in the contest of communication: Evangelisation through Social Communication

Some questions to start reflection on the videos:

• What has the video taught you?
• Which experience strikes you the most?
• What do the experiences of evangelisation in Asia teach us?
• Do you realise that Christ also needs you to proclaim the Gospel?
• In what way could you too be a missionary of the young?
• Do you know the story of Jesus? Have you tried telling it to someone?
• Sharing our faith in Christ is not contrary to human dignity, rather: everyone has the right to hear the Good News, while always respecting freedom of conscience. How do you approach followers of other religions?

Some activities for the SDB community and the educational – pastoral community

1. Organise a missionary exhibition (see the material in the CD).
2. Prepare a cine-forum on the 9 short films for a youth group, religion class. It is possible to discover a missionary approach based on the pillars of Don Bosco’s Preventive System.

3. Get the mass media, regional and local, such as radio, TV, papers, magazines interested in the subject, …  in order to get to know and to promote the Salesian missionary charism. The documentaries on the DVD can also be offered free of charge for transmission on television.

4. Suggest that young people become involved in a missionary group with the possibility of learning how to tell the story of Jesus.

5. Identify in one’s own area “missionary opportunities”, intercultural and interreligious and suggest a situation in which to tell the story of Jesus to followers of other religions.