É«ÇéÖ±²¥'s leadership in producing badges to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco for Salesian schools was much appreciated, especially by those in Samoa. Fr Chris Ford SDB writes to us:
The Don Bosco Technical Centre had its celebration for the 200th anniversary of the Birth of St John Bosco a week after the actual event as "SamBosco" was held here on the actual date.
We had a beautiful celebration. We started after school on Thursday with lunch for the boys and then first two rounds of our "Triple Sevens Tournament" (Sevens Rugby, Sevens Soccer and Sevens Volleyball). Thursday evening we had a most beautiful prayer service with all the boys gathered in silence in the hall, at the centre of which was a fire ... after an opening song, and the Peace Prayer of St Francis we spent nearly an hour in silence around the fire and each student and each teacher came forward to sprinkle some salt into the fire as a form of action prayer ... the spirit of silence, reverence and deep faith was remarkable ... we concluded with the sign of peace which was an equally extraordinary moment of unity and friendship ... everyone camped over for the night.
We had a beautiful, simple Mass on the Friday morning. The commemorative pins were brought forward in the offertory procession and then blessed and distributed after Communion ... I can tell you that those pins were a GREAT HIT ... they are being worn with pride and honour ... there was a big round of applause when I said that the pins were a gift from our brothers and sisters at É«ÇéÖ±²¥ in Tasmania.
So on behalf of everyone here at Don Bosco Technical Centre THANK YOU so much for your wonderful generosity and your beautiful gift.
Many thanks, God bless
Fr Chris Ford SDB