(ANS – Rome) – What will begin on Thursday, January 16 in Turin will be the XLIII Spirituality Days of the Salesian Family: an event, therefore, with a long history behind it, a promising present and a future yet to be written. A meeting, at the same time, dynamic and alive, never the same, rather in continuous evolution, which although it has already become a “tradition”, is continually renewed, keeping up to date with the times, the young people and the perennial relevance of the Salesian mission.
The Salesian Family Spirituality Days (JEFS) were born at the initiative of Father Egidio Viganò, VII Successor of Don Bosco, in the first half of the eighties of the last century. Although the count of the JEFS could correctly begin from then, in truth those first meetings were something different from the meetings that are so well known today throughout the Salesian world: from the nominal point of view, they were not “Days”, but of a “Spirituality Week”; From the point of view of participation, there was a great predominance of the Sons of Don Bosco with respect to the other groups of the great charismatic tree originated by Don Bosco; and from a thematic point of view, they were not linked to the message of the Strenna for the year that had just begun, but rather to specific themes that the Rector Major identified on each occasion.
And things continued like this for some time: it was only with the IX Successor of Don Bosco, Father Pascual Chávez Villanueva, that the JEFS assumed its current physiognomy, progressively expanding the number of participants (which for the JEFS is expected to be approximately three hundred fifty people). Also because it is precisely from those years that the participation of various groups of the Salesian Family expanded even further, with a dozen new institutes, associations and congregations that joined the Salesian Family starting in the new 21st century.
What characterizes above all this new way of living the JEFS can be summarized in three points, explains Father Joan Lluís Playà, central delegate of the Rector Major for the Secretariat of the Salesian Family, in a conversation with ANS: “life, mission and communion: life, because the Days allow us to share the call that God makes to each one of us and our response, because they focus on the pastoral action carried out with the young people and the people entrusted to us and communion; as a characteristic element, fruit of the fraternity between the various groups of the Salesian Family”.
When it seemed that the JEFS had reached a stable and fixed form, an unforeseen and cataclysmic event like the Covid-19 pandemic changed the landscape again. And what initially seemed like a great limitation, capable of stopping a decades-old tradition, instead became a strong impulse for development.
“Participation grew extraordinarily during the year of Covid and as a consequence of the experience lived, through the online Conferences,” Father Playà actually reported, observing that in the 2021 JEFS, the first in the pandemic, the people who Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 people logged in to participate remotely: nearly twenty times as many people as were previously gathering in Valdocco.
As a result of this experience, since the following year the JEFS have always planned moments with online connections for everyone; and, in addition, a new methodology for participation in the event was developed: “Currently, there are three types of Conference: those in person in Turin-Valdocco, with live broadcasts of some of the main moments; those organized online by various regions of the Salesian Family, especially in East Asia – Oceania and in America, both at the regional and territorial level; and then the face-to-face days that are organized at the provincial level, in one or more areas of the provincial territories.
These new ways of living the Days, developed precisely from the pandemic, in most cases are organized around the feast of Don Bosco, but in the southern hemisphere also in March, at the beginning of the pastoral year, and in some cases around the date of Don Bosco’s birth, August 16, with a freedom of movement that reflects the variety of the Salesian Family and that adjusts to the pastoral needs and calendars of each territory.
With all this wealth behind it, the Salesian Family is now preparing to experience a new edition of the JEFS. And to promote the maximum dissemination of what will be shared around the Strenna on this occasion, the Secretariat of the Salesian Family is now making available on the Internet all the materials that will be presented in Turin, “so that they can suggest initiatives and generate new fruits,” concludes Father Playà.
For this and all other useful information related to the JEFS, visit the site: https://www.famigliasalesiana.org/es/jornadas-2025/15/fs
