EVER AT PLAY IN GOD'S PRESENCE

This weekend sees many Salesian schools leaving lessons behind and taking time to play and celebrate the feast of Don Bosco. This is fantastic because Don Bosco's work began with play, and it remains at the centre of his

spirituality. To play means to be in the present moment. It means being together without any other agenda. It allows the world to turn without you for a while and creates a space for people to be together with games and entertainment or alone with a hobby. In the emerging industrial Turin young people formed the backbone, the muscle, of the development of the city which tripled in size during Don Bosco’s lifetime. They dug, laboured, climbed ladders, carried bricks and mortar and did so for over 12 hours a day for six days a week. They were hardly teenagers, their muscle strength not fully developed they were used up and discarded as more young people arrived from rural areas devastated by floods, famine, and war. They were full of complex needs, low in energy and away from home but Don Bosco began his work by inviting them to play. Why?

Don Bosco invited the youths to play because they were full of stress, oppressed, alone, broken in spirit and they had forgotten how to trust others in a hostile city. Play was the antidote to all those ills and was also the place where he could establish a network of positive relationships around them. Those involved in play lose themselves in a flow of activity and find themselves liberated from sadness and stress and they are energised by what they are doing. In spiritual terms, playing takes a person into the flow of life that many

religious traditions call the Spirit. Those who play are liberated for a while from the past and from the future to simply be in the present moment. Spirituality recognises the present moment as the sacred space where meaning unfolds making play a sacred and a privileged pathway into the mystery of each life. It is also therapeutic, healing and refreshing after the pressures of life have been set aside for a while.

Don Bosco knew from his experience of leading his friends as a boy that play reveals the true nature of a person. That is why he learnt to juggle, lead games and tell stories with them when he was still a child himself. Play is a setting within which hearts are opened and needs are made known. It is safe and a way of establishing healthy ties to others.  This quote, often attributed to Plato, captures the richness of play as a way of building the relational trust that Don Bosco wanted to encourage:

“You can discover more about a person

in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

By opening a Sunday club in Turin Don Bosco was able to invite youth to come and play. He offered some food, a team of friendly adults and, in time, a team of young helpers. He did nothing spectacular, just organised the popular games of the time. Games like tag, blind man’s buff, bulldog, and arm wrestling needed no equipment and very little space. Don Bosco joined in many of these games and was always present with other helpers to calm the arguments that often erupted. Playing in the fresh air, knowing some food was available and feeling safe allowed the boys to relax and join in conversation with trusted adults. Through playing Don Bosco closed the fatal gap of mistrust between the helpers

and young people. He created a weekly experience of community that became therapeutic and a source of hope for the future within young lives. He ended his day with an experience of shared prayer and a reassurance that God was with the youngsters as they went into another week of hard work.

 Don Bosco was spinning a very precious and ancient thread into his Salesian tapestry by establishing his work around a playground. The thread is spiritual, and it can be traced back millennia to some of the world’s oldest religions. For example, when the Hindus speak of the creation of the universe, they do not call it the work of God, they call it the “play of God”. They use the term "Vishnu lila" where Vishnu represents God and lila play. They see all the cosmos as God's playground. In a similar way the Jewish Testament also recognises that there is a playful wisdom behind creation.

I was with God forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times

Proverbs 8.30.

Jesus himself was also able to relax with others and went out to celebrate with food and drink and friends regularly. Social life and parties were places where Jesus established himself within a wider network. It was within that social setting that he went on to reveal the good news of the Gospel. Therefore, there is a sacredness about the playing space, free time and especially in social life and creative activity. Don Bosco recognised the playground, whatever shape it might take, as the place where we touch a sacred presence. In the flow of that presence, we come alive and delight in life, learning things that conscious thought can never teach us. This weekend, as Salesian schools, let’s make playing a spiritual experience and an act of faith in God.