 In the Latin language there is a saying that could also be applied to our Don Bosco conference. It is, nomen est omen. This means that the name also reflects the inner essence of a person or a thing. In this sense, all reflection on catechesis and appropriate ways of transmitting the faith reflects what makes Saint Don Bosco such an inspiring figure for us. He lived in Italy in the 19th century. He was born and grew up in poor circumstances, and from an early age he had the desire to dedicate his whole life to the transmission of the faith. He had a special focus on young people, just as we are asking ourselves these days how we can reach out for young people in catechesis. He knew how much places for proclamation can become messages of faith. In Turin in 1880 he managed to get a chat to gather young people for catechesis. It was not the material or organizational expenses that were so effective, but the radiance of his charism that turned sober or even poor walls into resonating bodies. The secret of his catechetical gift speaks from a word that has come down from his mouth or rather from his heart. He said, Do good, be merry, and let the sparrows whistle. One may think on Jesus' word in the Sermon of the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew where it says, Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, they do not reap, they do not gather provisions in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? It is this freedom from human feasibility that makes Saint Don Bosco so credible. His words can become a statement of faith and a curriculum for catechesis if we look at them more closely and spell them out. So first, doing good, mercy, and attention. Already 65 years ago in 1958, the then younger theologian and later Pope Benedict XVI foresaw the present situation of the Church almost prophetically. Already at that time he spoke about the fact that faith needs graduality because not all people are connected to faith in the same way. Thus, in addition to those who want to belong to Jesus Christ out of deep inner determination and are at home in the sacramental life, there are those who as Christians are human beings among human beings. To be good to others, to look at them kindly, to see what they need, to understand courtesy, not as a convention, but as a loving attention. Catechesis in the Church wants to shape the good so that in a world with so much denial it can bring out the yes of God. Being a missionary church begins with seeing, wanting, and doing the positive. Some time ago I personally became aware of how evangelization can begin with a very everyday example. After a visit to a gym, I held the door open for a following visitor as he was leaving. I had seen him there several times, but I had never spoken to him. He gratefully returned the gesture, and from then on we were in conversation. Perhaps in the life of Saint Don Bosco it was precisely the obvious, the simple, and the everyday that can challenge one to do good. The well-known phrase, only those who feel what they see, give what they have, shows how we can get a sense of what is good. The famous French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said it in this way, one sees well only with the heart. And those who first look with the heart at the other and at life grasp another emanation of Saint Don Bosco. Secondly, to be joyful, joy of faith and gratitude. The Apostle Paul understood this connection in his spirituality and preaching as the deepest source of faith. In the letter to the Philippians, he writes, what Don Bosco also made is made his own. Rejoice in the Lord all the times. I once again say, rejoice. Let your goodness be known to all people. The assistant and brothers, real authentic joy of faith come from within. When a person has gone to that depth where he or she realizes that he or she owes everything to God and that no success is the merit of his own achievement, his life is his life is not chance but providence that radiates. The confidence that Saint Don Bosco was able to transmit to young people in his catechesis came from within. His faith was unwavering and unserving that God gives in his time what man needs. In Germany, there is a canon of songs that is very easy to sing with different voices and that is precisely what it is so stirring. It takes little to be joyful and who is joyful is a king. True joy is gratitude. It knows that it cannot be organized. It's not bound to external or material conditions. It rises from within and where it thus comes into life, faith comes into play. This is catechesis in the spirit of Saint Don Bosco. This is how young people can be one for Christ. This attitude is connected with the third instruction of Saint Don Bosco. Thirdly, and let the sparrows whistle patience and serenity. Whoever says let the sparrows whistle does not mean it in the liberal sense to each his own. It's not a call to abrituraliness but an invitation to deep serenity. Perhaps it is precisely this that has so empathetically opened young people to the dimension of faith in catechesis in the material hardships and political and professional uncertainties of their time. Don Bosco himself knew about the dangers of life and about how much man can get lost in the turns and turbulences of time. Finding and having faith that allows a serenity to mature as the fathers of the church once expressed it in an image. With regard to catechesis at the church they use the comparison of the sun and the moon. Just as the moon derives the light from the sun the church derives the light from Christ. And just in the rhythm of time there must always be the waning moon so that there can be the waxing one that becomes finally the full moon. So external forms of church and catechesis must always pass away so that new ones can arise. The annual Don Bosco conference in turbulent times of the church and the world is such a valuable contribution in the life of the church helping to renew its catechesis from within. Because we Christians are called to live serenity where otherwise agitation is rampant we can point out what the world lacks without us. Where catechesis has patience with people because it knows of God's greater possibilities for them we Christians carry out into the world a soothing contrast that knows of what the letter of the hebrews promises us. There's yet rest given to the people of God. Dear friends the annual Don Bosco conference here at Steubenville in which I'm participating for the first time this year is an impressive sign for us in Rome of how worthwhile it is to keep asking the spirit of this patron saint of catechesis and not to tire of persevering in patience because we know what Saint Paul calls us to in the letter of the Romans. Patience brings about probation. Probation brings about hope but hope does not let perish. When it comes to proclaiming the faith finding the right ways to people in the name of God by giving them mercy and attention, witnessing joy and gratitude and living serenity and patience our catechesis gains the spirit of Saint Don Bosco. Do good, be merry and let the sparrows whistle. Amen.