Abstract

Education having as its goal the offering to a young, growing person help toward the attainment of the fullness of maturity is not something static, but a process full of dynamism concerning the new realities, phenomena and the signs of the times. Such a sample of presenting solutions supporting education in the spirit of Don Bosco in modern times is the Salesian Program of Educating Youth towards Faith, being a reflection upon that, how to unite, this is what is important in the Salesian heritage of the past with what is new and indispensable in the present time. The Program pointing to challenges which the modern educator and a young person must answer to, are: rejection and strangeness toward faith and the world of adults, poverty, secularization, in the context of different beliefs and religions as well as daily life in which the young person searches for community, love, family, friends, benefits and the sense of life, simultaneously giving proposals to overcome them. Here an attitude is the attitude of an educator, who is not merely open and awaiting, but first approaches with a proposal for the young person accepting him/her as he/she is and discovering in him/her the kernel of good. The clearly defined goal of the integral development of the person summarized in words: an honest citizen and a good Christian serves it together with the succeeding stages of his/her realization indicating the sense of life, a mature personality and a proposal of faith, which concretizes in a social commitment of a young person. This is a concrete proposal addressed to the young called the Salesian Youth Spirituality, which in placing the youth in the center of attention is realized in a joyfully lived daily life, in friendship with Christ and a supportive community, which stimulates toward an active participation in the social life.