Dear Salesian Sisters and Brothers,

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1 USA West Province Newsletter San Francisco, California January 08, 2017 Dear Salesian Sisters and Brothers, I wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I hope it has begun well. I wish you all the best for a 2017, filled with God s many blessings and beautiful surprises! As we live out the strenna for this year, WE ARE FAMILY! Every home, a school of Life and Love! may we become one Salesian Family working together for God s Kingdom and for the young, especially, the poor ones. I spent most of the Christmas holidays at the Provincial House. On the 24th, as a provincial house community, we finished the Christmas novena and celebrated a festive Christmas Eve dinner together. A few of us attended Midnight Mass at Sts. Peter and Paul s Parish with Fr. Al Mengon as presider. I enjoyed the well prepared liturgy with its excellent music, composed of professional musicians and the Sts. Peter and Paul s choir. I remembered all of you in my prayers that night. On Sunday morning, the provincial house community celebrated the Eucharist together, went out to breakfast and, later in the day, joined the Northern California SDBs for a wonderful meal and time together at Don Bosco Hall, Berkeley. My sincere THANKS to Fr. John Roche and Fr. Marc Rougeau and their team for putting together a very enjoyable family gathering. At the end of the meal, we all played White Elephant, a game that involves picking a gift from under the tree and trying to keep it from being taken by someone else. It was a fun evening. JANUARY BIRTHDAYS Fr. John Itzaina...07 Fr. Jesse Montes,,...10 Br. Tony Matse...17 Fr. Bill Keane...20 Fr. Jack Gibson...28 Fr. Arthur Lenti...31 Br. Steve Standard...31 PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR SICK Doris Roche (Mother of Fr. John Roche who is in a critical condition) Connie Boenzi (Mother of Fr. Joseph Boenzi) Br. Bruno de Pretto, SDB Fr. Mario Rosso, SDB Fr. Armand Oliveri, SDB Fr. Arthur Lenti, SDB REST IN PEACE Maria Mau Thi Vu Grandmother of novice Quang Nguyen December 28. Age 92 Sr. Refugio Gallardo, FMA RIP on December 24, 2016 Salvatore Billante May 6, Dec. 4, 2016 Salvatore was a Salesian

2 During the Christmas holidays and up to January 2nd, I was blessed to spend a few days at Camp St. Francis. I enjoyed the beautiful and spectacular scenery which that area of Northern California offers. I also spent some quality moments with my brothers in Watsonville, celebrated Fr. Joseph Mathew Paradayil s 25th anniversary of Priesthood and helped with the Spanish Masses over the weekend (Fr. Luis Oyarzo is in Chile visiting his family). It was a very enriching time with my brothers and the people of the parish. On Tuesday, January 3 5, the provincial council met in Richmond for our January provincial council meetings. I wish to thank Fr. Mel Trinidad and the community for the wonderful hospitality offered to us. The house was beautifully decorated for Christmas, which added to the festive and warm mood. It was good to be with the community and, in a special way, with our novices and Br. Jhoni Chamorro who is studying at St. Mary s University in Moraga. Although our provincial council meetings were intense, we were able to go through our agenda and we covered many important agenda items. We have begun to discern our assignments for next year. This part is always a challenge as we are fewer and older but the needs re main great. I have placed formation and vocations as a priority. We must all work together in these two areas. While we are blessed as a province for the young people we have in formation, we must intensify our efforts (not just our daily prayers) and act with courage and wisdom for the sake of the future. It might be easy to ask the Rector Major for permission to pull out of certain ministries for lack of personnel or resources, but the challenge is to find ways to continue Don Bosco s mission in the Western United States. I often reflect that I am about to end three years as provincial but often question myself as to our growth as a province and our increase in passion for Don Bosco s mission and voca2

3 tions. We must be creative (but, not creative for the sake of doing new things) but creative in finding ways to strengthen our communities, be a quality presence as people of depth and faith, seeking ways to attract more vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life and seeking ways to help our poor youth. We are not speaking of one ministry or site but of a greater region, we call the Province. As we enter a new era in our country with the inauguration of a new president, let us not allow ourselves to become complacent and water down the Gospel values of compassion, inclusivity, justice and care for the poor, the young and our environment. We must speak boldly and work together for what Jesus preached as we read in the Gospels and for what Pope Francis continually calls us to live. These days, I am at St. John Bosco, Bellflower. I am making the official visitation of the St. John Bosco community. I will also travel to Texas (January 20 28) for several events in San Antonio and Laredo and visit family. I will be back in Los Angeles to celebrate the feast of St. John Bosco and preside at the induction of new cooperators at St. Dominic Savio Church on the 31st. May this month of January, often called a Salesian month, because of all the feasts celebrated in the month, be a time of growth, deep reflection and gratitude for the holy men and women we Salesians honor and try to imitate: Blessed Louis Variara January 15th, Blessed Laura Vicuna January 22, St. Francis De Sales- January 24, Blessed Bronislaus Markiewicz January 30th, and St. John Bosco January 31st. Let us honor them in our Liturgical celebrations, promote them in our ministry among the young and imitate them in our own lives. With warm regards, Fr. Ted Montemayor, SDB Province Calendar January, SU Mother of God 8-10 SU-TU Provincial Council Meeting, Salesian Preparatory, Richmond 9 MO Provincial Council Presentation: Care of the Elders 10 TU Provincial Council: Report on Novitiate TH-FR Provincila Visitation, Salesian Community Bellflower 16 MO Martin Luther King, Quarterly Day 18 WE Board 1:30 PM SJB Bellflower 24 TU St. Francis de Sales, Patron FR-MO Provincial Visitation, Corpus Christi, San Francisco 31 TU St. John Bosco, Founder 3

4 Salesian Family on the way The Salesian Family is on the way, on the way out paraphrasing Pope Francis. It was the year 1841, and Don Bosco, a great charismatic and holy man, founded the oratory as a great youthful family, beginning with the Pious Society of St. Francis de Sales (later Salesians of Don Bosco, for his inspiring and patronizing). Thus began his path to form good Christians and honest citizens. The oratory is a place of action and prayer, where young people are formed learning to think, work and pray together. In things that are of advantage to the youth in danger or serve to win souls to God, I run forward to temerity, Don Bosco. The Salesian Family, is a spiritual family, not a simple affinity or sympathy, has a charismatic and spiritual interior communion. A single spirit that maintains the original characteristics of each group of laity that conforms it, in defense of human dignity, the family and promoting justice and peace. A family with plurality of expressions converging towards a single center, the Eucharist. A spirituality of the everyday with mysticism; there is no apostolate without asceticism and there is no asceticism without mysticism. A great family to join, open doors, that helps and serves to build a better world; with fidelity to the Pope, and consecrated to the service of the church, the youth, the poor and unevangelized peoples. A family founded on Salesian humanism, with hope, giving meaning to life and future to humanity taking the person as the axis, loving it without prejudice or exclusion. A family that today surpasses thirty groups or branches in each country and that has in mind its grandparents who constitute the ring of conjunction between generations, and ensure the transmission of traditions and customs in which the youngest can find their own roots, their future. Life is a network of roads, and gives us the option to choose. It is in us which and the ways of how we are going; if we blindly believe in the weather satellites outside our borders or if we trust our people. John Paul II, founder of the World Youth Days, used the metaphor of the road, he proposed Jesus as a stone for the improvement of them and longed to live the rainbow of young people s hopes. In history, the Romans 300 years BC have achieved roads, Via Apia, was a key engineering work for its development. In 1875, ten missionaries who became huelleros arrived in the country (first from the American continent), who thanks to the advice of Don Bosco in only 13 years sowed much of South America with a preventive system supported by reason, religion and affection. Colleges and Oratories, were the initial groups of the Salesian Family. Today is with us the tenth successor of Don Bosco, Rector Major Angel Fernández Artime, who along with his team of collaborators continue to project aggiornadas traces of enduring and challenging roads of this daily rally. We 4

5 To be ex-student, to belong to one of the groups of the Salesian Family, is not to remember pleasant memories, to attend dinners, meetings or masses. It is a Christian commitment to action towards society, to be a motor and generator of tendencies alien to globalizing ideologies, is to work side by side for the needs of others; be coresponsible for the story using the few gifts or talents received. In the ex-student there are projects and attention to climate change and the 4th. Industrial revolution, we have ideals, dreams, joy and in shirt sleeves, wanting to go further by turning the walls into bridges. High octane love, it is the fuel of our acts. are all necessary, we must let ourselves be molded by God, so we will find every project of life. The complex dynamics of our lives, leads us to analyze the paths we choose and the ways of how we use them. Human relations, in their intimate essence, can not be defined in terms of domination and personal interest, nor of false gods with a worship of material goods, possessive love or power that lead to ruin in violence, social discard and Forced migration. The spirit of the world offers many mirages, many parodies of happiness. The greatest source of unhappiness is the mirage of finding life apart from God, and of attaining freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility (JP II). Many of the darkness that advances in life, often frighten and generate false comforts that fall asleep to face the challenges and inherent fears. It is advisable to carry light luggage, to drive us with austerity, at an adequate speed and with a spiritual light. Consumerism, social ruin and lack of education, generate a thick fog that can very easily smash a society that demands as a fundamental budget the vertigo of a speed that gives us temporary blindness against attacks on human dignity. We are all responsible for all, in the face of forced migration and all kinds of violence. Give advice to those who need it, and teach those who do not know, Francisco tells us. With the tumbles of the road enter to twist the loads, but it is a law that in long footprint must be accommodated, and he who wishes to forget them must pass bitter,( Don Ata Yupanqui). Happiness does not consists to reach the horizons, neither to be in front of the mirror of the screens, nor with the air less than 24 degrees; is the fruit of a certain lifestyle with dreams, utopias and accepting the own cross. As the Our Father prays, Francis, in November of 2015 gave us a message: You cannot live without forgiveness, or at least you cannot live well, especially in the family. Beyond 2017, religions, their communities and families will forever be bulwarks against all totalitarianism (JP II), auroras of peace, ways of meeting and reconciliation that make a decisive contribution to fraternity and human dignity. The future of humanity is forge in family, growing together!!! Gabriel Alsó Pio IX ex-student, Argentina. salesssga@gmail.com Source: Charter of the charismatic identity of the Salesian family of Don Bosco, Pascual Chávez, Thanks to Salesian Family Counselor Father Abel Iglesias Cortina SDB. 5

6 Rector Major presents 2017 Strenna (ANS Rome) - For the Salesian Family, 2017 will be a year dedicated to a journey together with the motto We are Family. Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime officially presented the strenna on December 28 at the Generalate of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, accompanied by Fr. Filiberto Gonzalez, general councilor for communications, and other members of the SDB Generalate community. In the auditorium of the FMA Generalate, the Rector Major met Mother Yvonne Reungoat, a large representation of the FMAs, and some other members of the Salesian Family. There he presented the theme and structure of the 2017 Strenna, encapsulated as We are family: every home, a school of life and love. Fr. Fernandez s presentation highlighted some of the features of the third strenna of his rectorate: The family is fertile soil only if there are welcome, respect, and enthusiasm that overcome life s difficulties. The family includes people of different ages and varied customs. Some are in faraway countries. There are pain, disability, different cultures, etc. The family is a diversity that makes union of hearts. The family finds enrichment in its many differences and in discovering that it is happiest and most complete when the journey is made together. After some time for the responses and questions to the Rector Major from the audience, the evening ended with Mother Reungoat s greeting to Don Bosco s successor and a moment of Salesian conviviality. The full text of the commentary on the strenna in Italian, Spanish, and French is available at www. sdb.org. This year s video, made by Salesian Info at the request of the Communications Department, is available on the ANSChannel YouTube in different languages (5 with dubbing). 6

7 Symphony Irvine : A Concert to Saint John Bosco We Are A Family Somos Una Familia UN CONCIERTO PARA SAN JUAN BOSCO PRESENTADO POR LA SINFONICA IRVINE Friday January 27, :30 Pm Saint Dominic Savio Church Bellflower Blvd. Bellflower CA Courtesy Ticket / Boleto de cortesía Sponsored by the Salesian Family / Patrocinado por la Familia Salesiana 7

8 Salesian Volunteer program sponsor a mission trip to Tijuana Every year the Salesian Volunteer program sponsor a mission trip to Tijuana. This year we had the blessing to have two novices, Quang Nguyen and Damien Ho, in our group. Here in Tijuana, we have work with the homeless, orphans, Haitians and cleaning anything that you can imagine. For this New Year we will be serving the Haitians and later on we will celebrate with the Salesian community. This year our community has over 40 people. From here we will like to wish you a happy New Years full of God blessing and love. Juan Carlos Montenegro Salesian Volunteers Delegate 8

9 JANUARY SALESIAN MISSIONARY INTENTION For all Salesians That they may always and everywhere be men of the Church and of unity. Full ecclesial communion is what Christ himself left us as his testament: Father, that they may be one (Jn. 17,21). The first step to fulfill this ardent desire of the heart of Christ is to pray as he did. Prayer will be followed by fraternal charity, which, as Pope Francis shows, reaches out to all believers, all the sons and daughters of God, in concentric circles. Being present in 132 countries is in itself a great ecclesial responsibility in the field of ecumenism: the sons of Don Bosco are called to become prophets and teachers, first through example. 9

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12 St. Mary s Chronicles The Nativity Scene The nativity scene and decorations for the church were set up by the youth group. The background was hand painted by Fr. Jesse. By placing the nativity scene in front of the altar an aura of excitement was created by birth of Jesus. Sr. Rose, F.M.A. recited the daily rosary in front of the nativity scene for all the parishioners. FR. BETO S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION The Legion of Mary celebrated Fr. Beto, S.D.B. s birthday with a get together, doubling as a farewell lunch. The following day Fr. Beto returned to Mexico for a two week vacation. Invited guests from the other church groups also celebrated. Picture was taken by Fr. Jesse. 12

13 Salesian Community Day Out The Salesian Community was invited to the Santa Anita Race Track by Michael Gutierrez, Salesian High graduate for the holidays. He is pictured here with Frs. John, Jesse, Jim, Beto, Joe, and Br. Steve. The big winner at the world famous track that beautiful sunny day was Bro. Steve. New System, Better Protection A new safety measure was taken when six cameras were installed around the church property. They have up to 5 MP recording resolution. An HDMI output at 1920X Live view from cell phone or Internet. And, there is an easy smart search for motion event during playback. Although the system is from HIKVISION, one of the more trusted names with security professionals, it was installed and is managed by ADT. The system has already shown to be beneficial not only for the Church community but also for the community at large. A week ago there was a serious automobile accident right in front of the church. A Los Angeles police officer noticed that we had a camera surveillance system. He came to the office and asked the secretary, Julia, if he could review the recording of the accident. He left pleased because of the objectivity the system had provided him with. The next project will be providing the school with a similar system. In our parish one important priority is the safety of our parishioners, especially the children. For Safety s Sake: New Garage Doors The St. Mary s garage now has two automatic doors. By replacing and adding a new door now two cars can fit in the garage. This was also done for safety reasons. Some time ago the drawbridge type door conked someone on the head. Luckily the injury was minor. 13

14 BOSCO TECH HOSTS MATH COMPETITION FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS ON FEBRUARY 4 By Kare Krynen ROSEMEAD, CA. January 3, Don Bosco Technical Institute (Bosco Tech) will host a mathematics competition for fifth through eighth grade students on Saturday, February 4. The 45th annual event will offer awards to the highest scoring individual and teams. The competition is always a great opportunity for middle school students to challenge themselves while testing their critical thinking and math skills, said Bosco Tech President Xavier Jimenez. Mastery of complex problem solving is key to future success in STEM fields. (626) to learn more about the school. Celebrating its sixty third year, Bosco Tech is an all-male Catholic high school that combines a rigorous college-preparatory program with a technology-focused education. The innovative STEM curriculum allows students to exceed university admission requirements while completing extensive integrated coursework in one of five applied science and engineering fields. Each year for the past several years, one hundred percent of the graduating class has earned college acceptances. Visit edu for more information. Competition check in begins at 7:45 a.m. and the onehour test starts at 9 a.m. Food will be available for purchase. An award ceremony will begin at approximately 11 a.m., following the competition. The competition cost is $8 per student and registration ends January 27. To register, mathcompetition@boscotech.edu or call (626) for more information. Bosco Tech is located at 1151 San Gabriel Boulevard, Rosemead, Visit or call According to Niche.com, Bosco Tech ranks in the top three of all-boys schools in the Los Angeles metro area and among the top 100 all-boys high schools in America. Founded in 2002 by Carnegie Mellon University students as CollegeProwler.com, Niche provides reviews from everyday experts on neighborhoods, colleges, and K-12 schools to provide students, families and professionals with insight into important life decisions. 14

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16 Free Medicine for Longevity? By Sheila Kun, Cooperator Louis warned me: Don t talk about medical conditions in the beginning of a new year! Okay, okay, what about something that every one of us wants to have longevity? I have a free prescription for all of you. You don t have to sign up for a health plan, you don t have to drive to see the doctor, and all you have to do is to do an inventory within your home. Here is the recipe for longevity This prescription does not need FDA approval, nor do you have to brew it like Chinese herbal medicine. Yet this prescription works for generations, bringing good health and happiness to many. Enjoy taking this medicine of longevity! Please try to take it every day: adherence to therapy will bring you immense health benefits. There are 4 types of medicine in the world that are free and would improve bodily functions: First: drinking water. Water is freely available - you don t have to go to the pharmacy to get it. Water is the primary source for longevity. Think about how water works; it flushes toxics away from your body, it maintains your circulation, it sustains your electrolytes, it makes you feel full when you are craving for junk food and best of all, it prevents constipation. Second: Sleep: we don t quite understand how it works in our brain and why we need it. We do know that animal studies had shown sleep deprivation led to death in animal studies. In real life, many car accidents are results of fatigue and sleepiness while driving. You need your beauty sleep to be freed of wrinkles; you need quality sleep to preserve your wakefulness in the morning. Think about this, you can save a lot of money by not taking melatonin or other insomnia medicine if you have cultivated a good sleep hygiene habit. Sleep is the number one maintenance care approach to better health. Third: Walking. The benefit of exercise needs no introduction. Exercise is part of many therapeutic recommendations for a variety of diseases such as diabetes, heart, and even for healthy folks in their aging 16

17 process. Walk a mile a day, and you will keep the doctor away (I invent this as I am writing.) Last, but not the least is singing. Karaoke wherever you are, in the shower, driving to work, among your friends and co-workers. In another words, spread the words of joy by singing praises. Positive attitudes get you a lot of miles, both physically and mentally. So let us re-capture the prescriptions for longevity which are absolutely free: drink water, sleep, walk and sing. Since you get these prescriptions from InTouch, you have the Good House Keeping Seal that they are good for you. The Care Ministry wishes you all a very Happy New Year 2017! Your homework assignment from the Care Ministry this week: Enjoy the prescriptions for longevity and twitter or to your friends and families. The Care Ministry welcomes your comments/suggestions: kunlouis@gmail.com 17

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