St. John Bosco

 
My favorite story of St. Don Bosco–a story that shows how awesome the gifts God gives his saints can be!

So, one April evening when the buds were beginning to show on the branches, John Bosco was coming home from Buttigliera. A priest of seventy noticed his silence, which contrasted with the vigour of his stride.
 
“Where are you from?” he asked.
 
“Becchi.”
 
“You are following the Mission? Your mother’s sermons are not enough?”
 
“Her sermons are very good, but I like to hear the priest who is giving the Mission.”
 
“And you understand some of it?”
 
“All of it, Father.”
 
“You’re very sure. I will give you four soldi if you can repeat even four of his words.”
 
“From the first sermon or the second?”
 
“As you will. What was the first about?”
 
“About the necessity of giving ourself to God in time, lest we lose our salvation at the last hour.”
 
“Perfect.”
 
“Shall I repeat the whole sermon?”
 
To the utter amazement of the priest, John repeated first the morning’s sermon, then the evening’s; not like a little parrot, but as a boy thinking, recapturing the words by first recapturing the ideas. He had not only remembered; he had understood. Then the priest questioned the boy closely, about his family, his tastes, and the education he had had. He could read and write, no more; he had not so much as a notion of what grammar might be. But he would have liked to study. He told of his ambition to be a priest, of his deepest ambition to preach to the young. But alas! though his mother was wholly with him, there was the veto of his brother Antonio.
 
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I first read this story as a “meditation of the day” in the Magnificat devotional book, and I found an online version here.