Book Mass at the Basilica

Service Description

Celebrating in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart means retracing the final moments of Don Bosco's life... That morning, Don Bosco wanted to go down to the church to celebrate at the altar of Mary Help of Christians. No fewer than fifteen times during the divine sacrifice, he stopped, overcome by deep emotion and shedding tears. Father Viglietti, who was assisting him, had to distract him from time to time so he could continue. As he then walked away from the altar, the moved crowd gathered around him, kissing his vestments and his hands free from the chalice, and following him into the sacristy. Here, they asked him in one voice for his blessing. "Yes, yes," he replied. And having climbed the three steps of the door that connects the first sacristy with the second, he turned back, raised his right hand, but immediately burst into tears and, covering his face with both hands, repeated in a choked voice, unable to finish the sentence. It was necessary to take him gently by the arms and lead him away. The shocked onlookers moved to follow him, but the door was closed. Who wouldn't have wanted to know the cause of such emotion? Don Viglietti, when he saw him return to his usual calm, asked him. He replied: "I had before my eyes the vivid scene of when I dreamed of the Congregation when I was ten. I could see and hear my mother and brothers questioning me about the dream..." Then Our Lady had said to him: "In due time you will understand everything." Sixty-two years of toil, sacrifice, and struggle had now passed since that day, and a sudden flash had revealed to him, in the construction of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Rome, the crowning of the mission mysteriously foreshadowed to him at the beginning of his life. From the Becchi di Castelnuovo to the See of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, how long and arduous the journey had been! At that point he felt that his personal work was coming to an end, he blessed divine Providence with tears in his eyes and raised his trusting gaze to the abode of eternal peace in the bosom of God.