Abstract

The article quotes a number of opinions which show St. John Bosco’s solicitude about teaching the boys in his institutions ardent love of the Eucharist. Don Bosco looked upon the Eucharist as a source of graces and the sign of closest union between man and God, and also as an excellent means of education keeping young people from evil and as the foundation of a life of faith. That is why he encouraged freąuent confession and Communion and private prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. He was the apostle and precursor of an early Communion. He wanted the meeting with Christ in the Eucharist to by the nourishment of virtue and a cure against temptations — contrary to the strict principles of the Jansenists, according to whom the Holy Communion was the reward of virtue and who reąuired the perfect love of God and absence of venial sin. In a time of growing cult of the Sacred Heart Don Bosco saw in the Eucharist the greatest sign of the love of the Sacred Heart. The Eucharist was at the centre of his own life and he considered it to be the best means of ensuring the good conduct of a young man.