A Message from Brother Álvaro, Superior General

It is with joy that I join with the happy initiative of the International Council of Young Lasallians who, following one of the orientations of the last Symposium, wish to devote the week of October 15th to 21st – with special emphasis on the last day of this period   -   to a repeated and common prayer from all Lasallians for peace.

  As I said to the Young Lasallians of Europe during their meeting in Poland, I believe that we are living in a time of grace in which, on the one hand, awareness is growing that war has never been and never will be a solution and that on the other hand we must create and develop a culture of peace; that our option is for life, for the poor and for those who suffer. I rather like the English term ‘peacemaker’. I think that it defines very well that attitude with which we should permanently live. A ‘No’ to war should be translated into a ‘Yes’ for life and for a full life.

      In his message for the World Peace Day this year, Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that peace is at the same time a gift and a task. As a gift of God we ought to ask for it endlessly, especially when we see that in the world of today there are many wars taking place, many of them ignored. As a task, what is demanded of us is a personal response in keeping with the divine plan.

  I invite you, therefore, to participate with creativity in this activity to which the Young Lasallians are inviting us and I make my own the prayer of John Paul II, the great friend of youth, during a youth meeting for peace:

Lord, the humanity which you have saved has turned many ploughshares into swords and threats and cries of fear seem to silence the songs of life.
 You who have promised to remain with us all of our days, listen today to the cry of these young people and be for our generation the master and pastor who leads to peace.
 While the project of the new Tower of Babel which ideologies are proposing appears more and more absurd and the predictions of those who have built upon sand are more and more distressing, we turn towards you in a manner more resolute than ever.
Climb the mountain again, Lord. We are going again with you to listen to you proclaim for our generation the code of true happiness.
Tell us with your wise and robust voice, the promise and the program:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called sons of God”.
Today we accept your invitation and we wish to make peace in the world our permanent task.

Brother Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría
Superior General