THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
often predicted relative to the expansion of the Society after his departure to another life. He bade Don Rua look forward to the future with confidence and hope, but to prepare for far greater things than even the remarkable achievements which had made his own life so eventful.
The inherent vitality of the Society, indeed, was not even yet realized by those who had watched its progress and taken an active part in it from its inception; its possibilities were yet to be revealed to them, for the passing of the founder, which seemed to crush every hope of a great future, only gave a new impetus to his apostolic works in all directions; and it was manifest that his power as a heavenly protector and intercessor for the cherished companions and children left on life's highway, was not less effective in its supernatural aid from on high, than his actual presence and living inspiration had been on earth.
As I reflect upon the band of apostles that filed out under Don Bosco's Salesian banner, my heart is thrilled as it is in contemplating the heroism o£ the first Christians. Don Bosco, endowed with the skill, sweetness and magnetism of a heavenly director, had formed saints and heroes to perpetuate his work, for none others could do it. And Mary Mazzarello, whose Cause of Beatification is already opened in Rome, had no less left her spirit of supreme self-denial as a heritage to her Salesian Sisters. What venerable names, radiant with light, loom up before the eyes as memory
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