Dom's Essay on
St. John Bosco
Dominik won first place in the Catholic Business Network’s essay contest when he was in 8th grade. Here he expressed a desire to “follow in [St. John Bosco’s] footsteps and practice a couple of virtues in dealing with young people…[to] make a small impact on their future.”
The Confirmation name I chose is St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesians. One night my family and I watched a movie on St. John Bosco and I saw how caring and generous he was to youth. St. John Bosco has numerous virtues I would like to emulate. He was charitable, helpful, nurturing, selfless, obedient, playful, and funny. If I could follow in his footsteps and practice a couple of these virtues in dealing with young people, I believe I can make a small impact on their future.
The virtue I most admire about St. John Bosco was his selflessness in helping the youth. He would bring poor boys from the streets into his home and care for them. He played games with them, fed them and taught them the Catechism. He taught them both formally and informally. He would set up classes where they studied the Catechism, read the bible and sang hymns. Outside of the classroom he taught them by his example and acted as Jesus had.
Over the summer I worked at Sacred Heart Camp, a camp for less fortunate children. I taught and coached them how to play sports and helped them make arts and crafts. I hope to return next year and each of my high school years to work as a senior counselor to help teach and spend time with these young people. I know that by my example I am teaching them about Christ in an informal way by acting as a role model. I hope that by being selfless I could be more like St. John Bosco.
Another virtue I would like to emulate is charity. I plan to make a sincere effort to be charitable of my time and talent. When one is a teenager it is easy to get drawn into video games, iPods, “Facebook”, texting, television etc. There is a value to some of these things when they serve as tools, forms of communication and entertainment. Focusing too much time on these devices however, a person could care too much about themselves and less of others. I too can spend less time on these devices and be more charitable of my time and talent by helping young boys learn to ice skate during the instructional hockey skills clinic for my hockey program. As a travel hockey player I enjoy helping younger players learn how to skate and the rules of ice hockey. Using my athletic ability and leadership skills (I have been captain and assistant captain for my hockey teams), I could be charitable of my time and volunteer to help train young boys.
I think God may be calling upon me to be charitable of my time and talent in helping youth learn how to play sports at the Sacred Heart Camp and help young boys learn how to skate and develop their hockey skills. By being encouraging and a positive influence in these young people’s lives I would be emulating John Bosco’s virtues of selflessness and charity.
– Dominik L. Pettey