by Francis Desramaut, SDB

Subjects:

• Introduction: Don Bosco’s “Simple” Spirituality and the Spirituality of the Salesian Family
• Starting Points
• What Is Spirituality?
• Spirituality and Spirit
• Religious Spirituality – Subjective and Objective
• Spirituality in a Christian Context
• Salesian Spirituality – Initial General Description
• Salesian Spirituality – A Fluid Reality
• Evolving Character of the Spirituality of a Religious Community
• Salesian Spirituality Also in Evolution
• Bosconian Roots of the Spirituality of the Salesian Family
• Don Bosco’s Religious Experience at the Root of Salesian Spirituality
• Religious and Spiritual Experience
• John Bosco’s Religious-Spiritual Experience
• Extraction, and Socio-Cultural Environment
• Family Upbringing
• Growing Spiritually as an Adolescent
• Struggle and Growth through Secondary School and the Seminary
• Alphonsian Benignism
• Gift of Self in Service
• Don Bosco’s Spirituality
• Starting Point
• Features
• Don Bosco’s Optimism Tempered by the Recognition of Human Ambiguity
• Religious Outlook Sustaining the Spiritual Journey
• A Practical, Goal-Oriented Approach to Spirituality
• Heaven and This World
• Christian Asceticism
• Prayer and Apostolic Action
• A “Modern” Spirituality
• Salesian Roots of the Spirituality of the Salesian Family
• St. Francis de Sales in Don Bosco’s “School of Spirituality”
• St. Francis de Sales’ Influence on Don Bosco’s Spirituality in the View of Three Rectors Major
• Father Paolo Albera
• Father Luigi Ricceri
• Father Egidio Viganò
• Francis the Doctor of Pastoral Charity
• Francis’ Challenge
• Developments in Cultural and Intellectual History through the Twentieth-Century in the View of Two Rectors Major
• Father Paolo Albera in Two Modes
• Father Egidio Viganò and the “Signs of the Times”
• Process of Historical Acceleration
• Process of Personalization
• Process of Socialization
• Process of Secularization
• Process of Liberation
• Additional “Signs of the Times”
• Challenges to Salesian Spirituality
• Contemporary Catholic Spirituality – Characteristic Features
• The New Face of Catholic Spirituality
• What Contemporary Catholic Spirituality Repudiates
• Spiritualities of “Evasion”
• Dualism
• “Eschatologism”
• “Supernaturalism”
• Positive Features of Contemporary Catholic Spirituality
• A Spiritual Undertaking Open to All
• Experience of God in History and Involvement with the World
• Experience of God in History
• Engagement with the World in Contemporary Spirituality
• Spirituality of Liberation and Community-Building
• Spirituality of Liberation
• Spirituality of Communion or Community-Building
• Critical Assessment of Contemporary Catholic Spirituality
• The Spirituality of the Salesian Family in the Teaching of Don Bosco’s Seventh Successor, Father Egidio Viganò
• Viganò’s Utterances before 1990
• Letter of August 15, 1990
• Contents of the Letter of 1990 – Overview
• The Nature of Salesian Spirituality as Expounded in the Letter of 1990
• Contemporary Problems and Challenges
• Specific Traits of Contemporary Salesian Spirituality in Viganò’s Personal Vision
• Father Viganò’s Call to Salesians to Re-Focus
• Viganò’s Later Utterances
• Conclusion