“Do everything, endure everything, to win souls for the Lord.” (Don Bosco)
Here, Don Bosco expresses what should move us all: to win souls for God and to take part in the great fishing expedition of love. This statement can become a powerful motivation for us, especially when we consider what God Himself has done to lead our souls from darkness into the light.
This is also where the concept comes into play when, in our Catholic tradition, we speak of “sacrifice.” It does not always have to be the great sacrifice we imagine offering to the Lord. It can be the many small things in life that we offer to the Lord and for the salvation of souls: overcoming our laziness, refraining from responding to aggression in kind, the effort required to concentrate during silent prayer, acts of charity, working to grow in love, and much more.
Alongside these actions comes endurance, which is important on so many levels. It is not just about enduring difficult external circumstances or putting up with difficult people. Sometimes we must also endure ourselves, even when we are still so far from being the people we aspire to be. Even this can be offered up to God, asking that souls be won over.
But let us try, time and again, to immerse ourselves in the starting point of everything. It is God’s love that is capable of bearing with us humans and that seeks us out. In that love, we, too, become capable—in our own way—of loving as Saint Don Bosco did. This is possible because we are then nourished from the same source! And what a great work of love for God and love for our neighbor it is to be able to lead people to God!