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| LASALLIAN YOUTH |
Who Are Lasallian Youth?
Lasallian Youth derives its name from St. John Baptist de La Salle, the founder of the Christian Brothers. De La Salle was a priest from a wealthy family in seventeenth-century France. He actively lived his life in response to God's will. In time, this led him to train teachers, to form a new religious congregation, to renounce his wealth in favor of the poor, and to start a system of schools that revolutionized the education of youth at that time. It was a system that brought the children of the poor and the children of the working class together in the same classroom, in which the teachers were seen as ministers of Jesus Christ, touching the hearts and minds of their students. De La Salle saw education as a saving factor in the lives of the young. His teachers instilled Christian beliefs and practices along with the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Contrary to the common practice of the day, he turned schools into places where teachers and students worked in a caring atmosphere of respect for one another.
This group of teachers would become a religious community who came to be called the Brothers of the Christian Schools and more recently, in the United States, the De La Salle Christian Brothers. These men, along with others who identity themselves as Lasallian, continue to dedicate their lives to the education of youth with a special concern for those who are poor. Lasallian Youth both share in and are the focus of this mission.
One of the principles De La Salle insisted on in the schools he founded was that students be aware of and concerned with one another's welfare. The brightest students helped the slower ones; students went into the homes of ill students to help them; those who had more to eat shared with those who had nothing.
Another principle that guided De La Salle's spirituality was the constant remembrance of God's presence. So central to his 0th development was this exercise that he insisted that each class in his schools vocally recall the presence of God every half hour.
In forming Lasallian Youth, we are responding to and encouraging these elements of Lasallian spirituality: faith, service, and community. In his meditations, De La Salle advised his teachers, "Teach your disciples the knowledge of God. Make known to them the truths of the Gospel. Train them to put them into practice" (Meditations for Sundays and Feast Days 100.2.). |
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