Michael Rua

 

1.      Michael Rua, S.D.B., (Italian: Michele Rua) (9 June 1837 - 6 April 1910) was an Italian Catholic priest, a student of St. John Boscoand first collaborator in the founding of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He was the first Rector Major of the Salesians, and has been beatified by the Catholic Church. Michael Rua was Don Bosco's closest collaborator in the development of the new Salesian congregation

2.      Early life       

      Rua was born in Turin in Italy, in a poverty-stricken neighborhood on the outskirts of the city of Turin. He was the youngest of the nine children of Giovanni Battista and Giovanna Maria Rua. He was a refined and quiet. He used to dress neatly. The father, who was the supervisor of a weapons factory in the city, died on 2 August 1845 when he barely 8 years old. He then lived with his widowed mother in their apartment in the factory which she was able to keep, and which then employed her. The young Michel attended a school run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools. . Michael Rua was one of the boys who at fifteen came to live with St John Bosco in his Oratory in Turin and later became his close associate in the setting up and early guidance of the Society of Don Bosco (Salesians), now one of the biggest religious orders in the world.

3.       “We two will go halves in everything”
One day Don Bosco was giving out little medals and Michael, who was late and at the end of the line, thought he heard him say, “Take, Michelino”. The priest stood there but he didn’t give him anything. Then he said to him, “We two will go halves in everything”. And that was how it turned out. Michael went on to become the founder’s close friend and associate. He was among the first few with whom Don Bosco shared the idea of forming a Salesian Society. The order was called after Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), who had a genius for converting souls through kindness and persuasion.

4.      Inspired by Don Bosco
Michael Rua joined the other first Salesians at seventeen, and, inspired by Don Bosco’s example, he spent his days at the youth club, morning and evening classes, supervising theatre or music rehearsals, gymnastics, lively outdoor games, solitary study, along with frequent reception of the sacraments. “I got much more from observing Don Bosco, even in the humblest of actions,” Rua later said, “than from reading and meditating on a treatise on asceticism.”

5.      Close collaborator
Rua was Don Bosco’s closest collaborator in the development of the new Salesian congregation over the next thirty-six years. He made his first profession in 1855, was the first spiritual director of the Society at the age of 22 years (1859), was ordained priest in 1860. At 26 became the rector of the college at Mirabello in Emilia-Romagna, the first Salesian foundation outside Turin.

6.      Illness
In 1865, Michael returned to Turin to rejoin Don Bosco, who was ill and over-burdened with work. He re-organised the house at Valdocco, a youth club with a boarding school of seven hundred students whose spirit had declined. With remarkable tact, he restored good discipline. But in July 1868, Don Rua’s constant activity got the better of his strength and he was confined to bed with a sudden attack of peritonitis. The doctors gave him only a few hours to live. But Don Bosco asserted, “Listen, Don Rua, even if you were thrown out the window just as you are, I assure you that you won’t die.” A few days later, despite the doctor’s prognosis, the patient recovered.

7.      Differences in character
Although the two men were close, each kept his own personality and sometimes were in opposition. Where Don Bosco would focus on the work of the day and was audacious in his projects, Don Rua was prudent, calculating, and foresaw and forestalled the problems he saw coming down the track.

8.      Successor to Don Bosco
When Don Bosco died, Pope Leo XIII, honouring his request, designated Michael as his successor. There was progress in Europe, Italy, Spain, France and England.

Unusual Foundations

At Naples in 1909 they accepted the Direction of a school for deaf- mutes.

At Sienna, on the island of Malta, the Congregation accepted in  1903 a school for young delinquents.

Finally, a work on behalf of Italian workers laboring at the Sempion tunnel was highly praised not only by Catholics but even by the Socialists of the time.

Recruitment

There were 774 religious professed at the time of Don Bosco’s death which increased to 4,001 at the death of Don Rua.

The Salesian, he explained, is like a diligent gardener cultivating with particular solicitude those tender little plants which are healthier and more flourishing than the rest and are destined to produce the grains that will be the seed for the new harvest.

Provinces

From 1888 to 1910 the number increased from 6 to 32.

“The Living Rule”                

Nicknamed “The Living Rule” because of his austere fidelity, Don Michael Rua was also known for his fatherliness and goodness. As the numbers of members and communities increased, he sent Salesians all over the world, showing special care for the missionary expeditions. In the long and difficult journeys which he undertook to visit the Salesian works in Europe and in the Middle East, he was a constant source of comfort and encouragement, always taking inspiration from the Founder with words like: “Don Bosco used to say… Don Bosco used to do it this way… Don Bosco wanted…” just before Don Bosco passed away he whispered to him: “Make yourself loved”. Fr. Auffray notes that the contrast between them was striking: “In one, the face, smile and attitude pointed to fatherly goodness; in the other, the whole person showed a gentle seriousness, recollected activity, and a note of austerity. Among the boys in the playground, the former appeared gay, expansive, cordia; the latter, instead, as affable as the Father but more restrained, less effusive.

9.      Years of suffering       
These were years of great suffering. In 1895, a Salesian priest was murdered by a half-crazy student. Five months later, Bishop Lasagna, one of the great hopes of the Salesian society, his secretary, and four sisters of Mary Help of Christians, were victims of a train accident. Then, a flood in Argentina destroyed the material results of ten years of missionary work. In France, the so-called Law of Associations (June 2, 1901) required the closing and sale of the Salesian establishments. In 1907, a scandal in a high school stirred up a violent storm of protest against the Salesians all across Italy. He vowed to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, if the honour of his religious family was fully restored. It was, and he fulfilled his vow in 1908.        

                                                                                                                                                    Growth of the society, death and influence
When Michael Rua died on 6th April 1910 at the age of 73, the Society had grown from 773 to 4000 Salesians, from 57 to 345 communities, from 6 to 34 Provinces in 33 countries. His body is venerated in the crypt of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians at Valdocco in Turin. Don Rua was beatified by Pope Paul VI on October 29, 1972. Today the Salesians are one of the third largest missionary societies in the world, with about 18,000 members and some are involved in the work of the Curia in Rome.

Silence

 

Pythagoras says: ‘Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.’ A quiet mind produces wonderful results. What Pythagoras said is very relevant to all our lives. The silence that we need to spend time with is not the silence of depression, heartbreak, fatigue or even staring at photos of happier times and going through texts sent by your friends on how your ex is enjoying without you. Silence is about creating an ambient around yourself where you are just happy to be by yourself. The presence or absence of others won’t disturb you if you are internally silent.

Speaking about a tranquil mind Anshul Chaturvedi says that silence should allow your mind to settle. In this silence, you give place to yourself to know what you are knowing, thinking and feeling at the present moment. The traffic police imposes a fine on us if we take calls while driving, hence learning from this we must fine ourselves for indulging in unnecessary and trivial things that land us in tension and depression.

Ramakrishna speaks of a picturistic idea where the still mind is like a tranquil pool which reflects the moon in all its grandeur. The common man’s mind is like a pool which is constantly in a whirlpool, the water never gets an opportunity or a chance to settle down. Due to this it is unable to reflect and present what’s above. Growth takes place only when we absorb and listen. Sometimes we must put a pause to our communication with others. We need to do something better with our time rather than only waste it by unnecessarily communicating with others.

We need to live in solidarity, at the same time we shouldn’t be too obsessed with our friends but give them their due space and respect. When it is fun time with friends it is fun time with friends, when its work time it is work time. We can’t afford to make our work an extension of our personal and emotional equations. Nowadays all of us interrupted by messages on various social sites which don’t allow us to concentrate on our work or disturbs our moments of silence and stillness. 

All this needs to be cut down. We need to avoid unnecessary waste of time conversations. We need to force our minds so that we deal square with what we need and when we need it. S. Radhakrishnan commenting on Bhagwad Gita 6: 10 says ‘In a world which is daily growing noisier, the duty of the civilized man is to have moments of thoughtful stillness.’ What he means is that we need to create a sacred space in the midst of a concrete jungle.

Silence and single minded focus are the two sides of the same coin or two wings of a bird. The achievement of one makes the achievement of the other possible and easy. Whatever be the situation outside, be it noisy, filthy, confusing etc we need to create an inner silence which will be of great help and benefit to us.

Renunciation

 

In the subject called Philosophy of Knowing, a knower in order to know is supposed to have a detached desire to know. Another word for detached is renounce. In this article I am commenting on the article of Swami Parthasarathy named Practice Detachment- Touch great spiritual heights. A wonderful poem Even this shall pass away by Theodore Tilton is brought into the picture by him. Detachment and renunciation are beautifully described in the personality of the King of Persia. The king who lived a life of renunciation had carved a maxim on the ring which he put on his finger. It had the following 5 simple words: ‘Even this shall pass away.’ This was not only seen in the words inscribed on the ring but also in his daily life. He was a person who didn’t identify with the best and the worst of experiences in life. He was serene in times of trouble and wasn’t overjoyed in moments of joy. ‘The magnificent stance of objectivity is the trait of detachment, renunciation and so on’.

There are a lot of imbalances in the world; our world keeps on fluctuating from one feeling to another. All this is an inevitable part of life so to say the unchangeable part of our human lives. We human beings are sandwiched between these changing things, however we have been given the power to maintain ‘intellectual equipoise and mental equanimity’ through all the fluctuations that keep taking place in our world. In simple words it means that we have the power of renunciation and a sense of detachment in all the fluctuations and variations that take place in the world. Renunciation and detachment in ‘truth mark the dignity and prestige of the human race.’ However not all see it as it is and hence these are misunderstood by the society at large and considered to be extremely distasteful or contradictory.

Renunciation has to be and can be practiced in all places in everyday life. In reality it actually gives you the energy and the boost to work without any kind of worry or anxiety. However renunciation in our world today has been turned into an ugly portrait of resignation and retirement. One may get an idea that renunciation is something to do with sitting back and relaxing or even being lazy. It may also be perceived as a subtle path to escape from the realities of daily life. However, all these ideas about renunciation are not true.

Very few people realize that detachment and renunciation is an effect and not a cause. Swami Parthasarathy gives a picturistic understanding about this when he writes, ‘Like a person climbing a ladder cannot release his foot from the lower rung until his other foot firmly rests on the higher rung. Hence, your state of detachment only establishes your escalation to a higher level of your personality.’ This is seen in the growth that takes place, when we were little children, we were deeply into the toy world. Everything revolved around playing with things. He says that it is practically impossible that the child in us could have stayed detached or had a spirit of renunciation from the toys. 

What struck me to a great extent was the following. He says that as we grew up, we gained a higher level of knowledge. We began riding a bicycle and then a motorbike. In a sense we grew out of the toy world. The important thing to note is that we didn’t give up the toys; the toys gave us up. This may sound funny but that is what Swami Parthasarathy says in relation to renunciation and detachment. He goes on to say that as we reach higher or climb up the social ladder, the lowers automatically fall off. He strongly asserts that we can’t give up anything in life but we can take up only something higher. ‘E.g. When the flower matures into the fruit, the petals of the flower drop.’

In conclusion he states clearly that ‘Detachment, renunciation is growth into a higher dimension in life marked by knowledge, wisdom. Ironically this elegant human quality is detested by society at large; people mistake it to be denial of pleasures of life and reject the very idea of renunciation.’ Let us be open to the new possibilities and events that may come across to us in our lives.

Practice Detachment- Touch great spiritual heights