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Leadership & Stewardship in the Lasallian School
From the day St. John Baptist de La Salle first established his Christian Schools, he sought only one thing: that his work would serve the will of God. De La Salle believed that as long as the schools and those who maintained them were responsive to God's spirit working within them to bring redemption to the world, the work would endure. It is clear that De La Salle intended that his Institute and the Christian schools survive him for generations. He knew that this would be possible only if the schools remained attentive to the will of God as revealed in the needs and lives of their students. To this end, he trained his Brothers to immerse themselves in lives of prayerful discernment, constantly reading "the signs of the times" in light of their duty to be guardians of their students' souls. Their task was not merely to venerate De La Salle's memory and teachings, but to enter into his spirit, becoming the "new founders" and caretakers of the Christian schools. Today, the shared mission movement of the Lasallian family seeks to infuse modern-day Lasallians with this same understanding. We are called to live and work in the Lasallian tradition of faith and zeal for God's will, with care and vigilance for God's children, especially those that the rest of society leaves behind. To do this, we must accept a unique challenge: to be at the same time keepers and re-inventors of St. John Baptist de La Salle's vision, to be both leaders and stewards of the Lasallian mission. What are the responsibilities and the challenges of leadership and stewardship in the Lasallian school? What distinguishes them from similar responsibilities and challenges in other situations? What are some concrete means to meeting these responsibilities and challenges? When walking through the story of St. John Baptist de La Salle, one is constantly reminded of his unique view of both the world and his life. For the young priest De La Salle, life was a constant dialogue between two voices: one that came from God and another that came from society. Both voices begged his full attention, but seemed to be making opposite demands. One called him to give all of his love and devotion to God, while the other called him to end the suffering of poor children in the streets of France. This seemed to pose for De La Salle the dilemma of having to choose between a life of knowing God and a life of knowing the world. The break-through moment in De La Salle's life came when he realized that the two calls were actually one in the same: the call to love God by building his Kingdom. From then on, De La Salle knew that he could hear and respond to God's call in both his work and his prayer. One would inform and challenge the other, so that there was no longer any distinction between his love of God and his apostolate to the young and dispossessed. This was what would later be called De La Salle's "double contemplation", and it was the centerpiece of his spirituality and, ultimately, of the Lasallian mission. Today, anyone who accepts the call to be a member of the Lasallian family enters a tradition of being both prayer and doer, messenger and sender, steward and leader. For the Lasallian, this dual role takes on the added responsibility of doing these things in faithfulness to the charism of St. John Baptist de La Salle. De La Salle’s charism may be understood as those ideals and intentions that were at the very heart of his life and work. These include faith in God, zeal for God's kingdom, abandonment to the providence of God, and salvation of youth through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The primary responsibility of anyone who would be both leaders and stewards of the Lasallian mission is to infuse their lives with the charism of St. John Baptist de La Salle. This means that they must (1) view all things in a spirit of faith in the providence of God, (2) seek to know the will of God as revealed in the "signs of the times", and (3) act with zeal for the salvation of God's children by teaching them to build the Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus Christ. Central to any Lasallian school is a loving attentiveness to each student, a devotion to creating a school community that mentors and empowers the young spiritually, socially, intellectually, and physically. The means to do this is a faith-filled obedience to the Spirit of God working within and through these students. They are God's word spoken to us, and in their lives we will find the direction our work must take if it is also to be God's work. In establishing his first Christian Schools, De La Salle's vision of student-centered pedagogy, practical curricula, and salvation-centered school management necessitated new and non-traditional approaches. The Founder accepted the challenge to create such schools with complete faith that God would lead him to success and never desert him, even when faced with opposition and controversy. As Lasallian leaders and stewards today, we are called to this same spirit of faith, regardless of personal, professional, or institutional discomfort. Innovation and risk, when undertaken with prayerful abandonment to the will of God, are often catalysts through which real Christian education and salvation take place. For us, as for De La Salle, innovation and risk are not a threat to authentic Lasallian education; they are its hallmarks. When De La Salle established his first schools, he in fact redefined primary and secondary education with his revolutionary approaches and goals. De La Salle's schools featured the first true liberal arts curricula, and the first method of teaching an entire classroom of students simultaneously. He created his own textbooks, trained his own teachers, and created standardized instruments for school and teacher evaluation. Why all this effort? De La Salle did these things because existing educational structures could not provide for the one feature upon which he insisted for his schools: that they lead students to salvation. The streets of France were filled with children living in squalor and neglect. To De La Salle, the worst evil of their condition was that they knew nothing of the God who was their loving Father; they were "far from salvation". Therefore, the task of ministering to God's children must mean that, in De La Salle's own words, "all possible care and attention" be paid to bringing them to a knowledge of God and the means to their redemption. Thus, the schools and all that took place within them were to immerse the students in God's loving, healing, and guiding presence. At the same time, while it is clear that De La Salle believed the establishment of the Christian Schools to be an act of providence by God, it is crucial to distinguish essence from form. While it is clear that the choice of Christian education as the Lasallian apostolate was integral to De La Salle's understanding of God's will, it is also clear that the choice made practical sense as a timely and effective means of accomplishing God's will. The call that De La Salle was answering was the call to bring the young to God's salvation; this was the essence of his mission. The path that De La Salle took was to bring the young to knowledge of God; this was the form the mission took. It is primarily in his openness to God's voice as it spoke to him through the signs of the times, and not in the exact mechanics of his response, that the Founder's true charism may be found. In conclusion, shared mission means that all members of the Lasallian family, Brothers and non-Brothers alike, share equally the responsibility and the privilege of discerning, shaping, and fulfilling the mission of bringing the young to salvation through Christian education in the faith community of the Lasallian school. We are all leaders, we are all stewards, and we are all called to be one family for the sake of the students that we serve.
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The Lasallian Family |