He prepared himself with a novena and other devotions; then, on that day, October 25, 1835, he received Holy Communion. Father Michael Anthony Cinzano, rural dean and pastor of Castelnuovo d’Asti, before the solemn High Mass, blessed the cassock and John donned it. (BM I, 276)
On that occasion young John took the following resolutions:
1. In the future I shall no longer take part in fiestas or fairs. I shall never go to dances or to the theatre…
2. I shall never again perform selight-of-hand tricks, stunts or similar acts. I shall no longer play the violin or go hunting…
3. I shall avoid worldliness; I shall be moderate in eating and drinking…
4. …from now on I shall try to serve God by reading religious works.
5. I shall oppose with all my strength anything contrary to the virtue of chastity…
6. Beside the seminary practices of pieiy, I shall devote a little time each day to meditation and to spiritual reading.
7. Every day I shall tell some example or some spiritual maxim to my companions, my friends, my relatives, or at least to my mother.
I made these resolutions when I donned the cassock. (BM I, 278)