Why do the Salesians of Don Bosco organise cultural and artistic events? The answer comes from Don Bosco himself, who dedicated all his life to the education of the young people, especially the most poor. "He had a humanist approach to education."

Don Bosco wrote books, published books and had a very organised library because he believed that a good book is the best friend to a young person in the process of his education and maturity. To prove Don Bosco's concept of his love for books, Dr Giovanni Albertotti, his personal doctor, wrote about Don Bosco's physical, pathological and psychic life. He was endowed with boundless energy and drive, coupled with confident submission to the designs of providence and everything was directed towards the salvation of souls. While he perceived the need for some order of priorities, the one thing he could not do was stand idly by as new institutions were created around him. As he himself often stated, the fact that many intellectually gifted boys were being denied an opportunity to achieve their real potential, gave him no rest.

Today, there is an organised battle to throw away books! Forgetting that in that "vandalized way" they are fighting a horrible battle against an educational approach. The Salesians of Don Bosco will be organising various cultural activities in aid of their mission for young people most in need in Malta and Gozo. With this in mind, a Book Fair of Melitensia books will be organised during the weekend of 28 and 29 October from 9am to 7pm both days inclusive. This book fair is being held at St Patrick's Salesian School, St John Bosco Street, Sliema. This will include hundreds of rare Melitensia books. The aim is also to stimulate love for the book and for Maltese history and culture.

Many people throw away books which the Salesians collect with love and dedication, having in mind what our founder Don Bosco used to teach us: "A book contains a world of culture, information and knowledge." I am convinced that the best friend you can ever have is a book. I believe that what we are doing is saving precious, and sometimes, very rare treasures which are not appreciated and saving them from being thrown away or destroyed.

We have been organising book fairs for the past 20 years and during the Covid pandemic, we managed to collect a large amount of books.

Please come and bring your friends to buy these books and help the Salesians of Don Bosco in their sterling dedicated work with the young, especially those most in need!

For more information contact Fr Charles Cini SDB on 7949 2555 or email: [email protected]