Shane Dwyer: Lasallian Facilitators’ Gathering

7 – 8 March 2016

LASALLIAN SPIRITUALITY

The “Conduct of the Christian Schools”: its context and

the ongoing relevance of some of its elements…

To understand anything it can be very useful to understand

at least a little of where it comes from. What follows are

some resources to facilitate a conversation on the origins of

Lasallian spirituality, with a view to providing an

opportunity to discuss the ongoing relevance of some of its

elements for our own lives and work.

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“The church of today needs (the writings of John Baptist de la Salle) as

much as that of seventeenth-century France…for it is a rich and time-

tested proposal for how educators can put their faith to work through their

vocation – as a spirituality for life.” [Groome, p. 1]

“Since the risen Christ gave ‘the great commission’ to the first Christian

community on the hillside in Galilee (Matthew 28:16 – 20), the church has

recognized that education is an integral aspect of continuing God’s work

of salvation in the world.

Catholics have always been convinced that we “should

educate in the humanities, arts and sciences, as well as

in the Christian faith itself. To echo St Irenaeus,

anything that enables the human person to become ‘fully

alive’ – the intent of good education, surely – ‘gives glory

to God’.” [Groome, p. 1]

A Spirituality for Today

The Glory of God is the

human being Fully

Alive (St Irenaeus)

St Irenaeus of Lyons

(AD 130 – 200)

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“The church has educated people…since the earliest

monastic schools. Yet, De La Salle was the first to set out

a comprehensive spirituality for teachers, crafted

precisely to ground and guide the work of education…He

proposed that Christian educators be motivated by their

faith and allow it to permeate every aspect of their

teaching, entrusting the outcome to God’s provident care.” [Groome, pp. 1 – 2]

“For De La Salle, educators so grounded in

Christian faith must have a deep

commitment to the personhood of learners

in order to respect and nurture their dignity

and responsibility as made in God’s own image and likeness. Most

urgently, Christian teachers must favor the people whose human dignity

is most denied by society, making what we call today an ‘option for the

poor’.” [Groome, p. 2]

“For De La Salle,

the key to such

humanizing

education is that

teachers have a

life-giving relationship with their

students. And, as if coming full circle, the

quality of this relationship depends most upon the spirituality of

educators themselves. In other words, the touchstone of life-giving

education is the teacher’s spirituality – that they put their faith to work

in what they do. And as teachers allow their faith to ground their

educating, not only are they instruments of God’s grace for the salvation

of students, but they grow in their own holiness of life.” [Groome, p. 2]

A challenge

to

educators

In the image and

likeness of God

Your spiritual

journey is

important

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“All educators will find an invaluable

resource (in the writings of De La Salle). It will

stimulate our imaginations about how to care

for our own spirituality and then to put it to

work through our vocation. This will surely

enhance our potential to be instruments of God’s saving work and likewise

our own holiness of life.” [Groome, p. 3]

“As with all classics, De La Salle’s spirituality for educators can be read

afresh in every age; it transcends its original time and place. Of course,

we need to read him in his context and be aware of what we bring to it as

well, allowing his horizon to fuse with our own, stretching both.” [Groome, p.

3]

“Beyond educators, the emerging lay

ecclesial ministries in our time are

searching urgently for a spirituality to

sustain them. This makes the writings of De

La Salle essential reading. As they have

given rise to and sustained one of the richest

charisms of Christian education over the past three hundred odd years

and a community of Brothers of the Christian Schools that have been

extraordinary educators, now they can be a rich treasury for the whole

church.” [Groome, p. 3]

Enduringly relevant

A spirituality for

Ministry

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France in the sixteenth century was the

scene of intense religious activity, directed

mainly against the Protestants. However,

life within the Church itself was anything

but fervent. The decrees of the Council of

Trent (1545 – 1563) were failing to

transform the heart of the French Church;

the king had an inordinate influence over

Church property (and therefore Church

activity); the majority of bishops were more

interested in worldly concerns than in

promoting the living of the faith; priests

were poorly trained and often immoral, and

religious life was at a low ebb. In fact,

fighting the Protestants at times seemed to be the only thing that kept

Catholics Catholic. [Aumann, p. 218]

There were various key players who influenced the faith and spiritual

perspective of John Baptist de la Salle either directly or indirectly. Among

them are: Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Barbara Acarie, Brother

Lawrence of the Resurrection, Francis de Sales and Pierre de Bérulle.

When it comes to our experience and understanding of our faith, we do

not stand alone.

During this time France

led the way in the reform

of Catholic spirituality. It

was a time of turmoil

where people wrestled

with what it means to live

a life of faith in the midst

of a busy ever-changing

world…a world in which

the Church itself was

often its own worst enemy.

Sound familiar…?

Context is everything

5

“Great emphasis is placed on the presence

of God. La Salle did not consider this point

as a simple preparation for prayer; it was,

in itself, already prayer…La Salle often

visited the monastery of the Carmelite

Fathers on the rue de Vaugirard; he had

very probably met Brother Lawrence of the

Resurrection who lived there until 1691.

This unassuming layman was visited by

many Christians who sought to live the

gospel to its depth, but in an

uncomplicated way. Brother Lawrence

simply taught them the practice of the

presence of God.” [Deville, p. 179]

(The students) will be inspired to enter the classroom with profound

respect, out of consideration for the presence of God. When they have

reached the center of the room, they will make a low bow before the

crucifix and will bow to the teacher if one is present.

Then they will kneel to adore God and to say a short

prayer to the Blessed Virgin. After this, they will

arise, again bow before the crucifix in the same

manner, bow to the teacher, and go quietly and

silently to their regular places… [Conduct: Entering School

and the Beginning: Article 1]

Awareness of the presence of God

Students’

prayer and

recollection

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From the time the teachers take their seats

until school begins,

they will apply

themselves to

reading the New

Testament and will

remain silent in

order to give an example to the students.

They will observe, however, all that takes

place in the school in order to maintain good

order…[Conduct: Entering School and Beginning School: Article 2]

As soon as the bell has ceased ringing, the prayer

leader will begin the prayers in a loud voice distinctly

and calmly. After making the

sign of the cross, and after all

the students have also made it,

the prayer leader will begin the

Veni Sancte Spiritus… [Conduct: Prayers: Article 1]

Teachers’ prayer and

recollection

COME, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of

Thy faithful and kindle in them the fire

of Thy love.

V. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall

be created

R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the

earth.

Let us pray:

O GOD, Who taught the hearts of the

faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit,

grant that, by the gift of the same Spirit,

we may be always truly wise, and ever

rejoice in His consolation. Through

Christ our Lord. Amen.

Veni Sancte

Spiritus…

Come Holy

Spirit

7

No other prayers will be said in school; there

will be prayers on no other occasions than

those which are indicated in the present

Article. Nothing will be added to the prayers

indicated in the present Article without the

orders of the Superior of the Institute. In case

of some public necessity or for some other occasion which concerns the

needs of the Institute, the Superior may add the litany of the Blessed

Virgin or some other short prayer at the end of prayers, and for a specified

time only. [Conduct: Prayers: Article 3]

“La Salle’s genius consisted in understanding and repeating ceaselessly

to his Brothers that their ‘labour’ was bound to their ‘state’ and was totally

apostolic. Thus, they were to live under the influence and ‘the action’ of

the Holy Spirit.” [Deville, p. 178]

“On 7 April 1719, as he lay dying, John Baptist de la Salle summed up in

a single phrase the basic attitude of his life as a Christian: ‘In all things,

I adore God’s action in my life’. Throughout his life, his goal had been to

respond faithfully to the invitations of the Holy Spirit…despite sufferings,

heartbreak, separation, contradiction and every kind of darkness.” [Deville,

p. 173]

Keeping it simple

In all things I adore God’s

action in my life

John Baptist de la Salle

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Catechism will be taught every day for a half

hour from 4:00 until 4:30 in the afternoon. [Conduct: Catechism: Article 1]

On Sundays and holy days, when catechism

lasts three times as long as on the other days,

teachers will always choose some story that

the students will enjoy, and will tell it in a way that will please them and

renew their attention, with details that will prevent the students from

being bored. Teachers will not say anything during the catechism lessons

unless they have read it in some well-approved book and of which they

are very certain. [Conduct: Catechism: Article 3]

Teachers will help students to apply themselves perfectly to the

catechism. This is not naturally easy for them and ordinarily does not last

long. For this purpose, teachers will employ the following means: 1) they

will take care not to rebuff or to confuse students, either by words or in

any other manner, when they are unable to answer properly the question

which has been asked them; 2) they will encourage and even help them to

say what they have difficulty in recalling; and 3) they will offer rewards,

which they will give from time to time to those who have been the best

behaved and the most attentive, or sometimes even to the more ignorant

who have made the greatest effort to learn

well. They will employ various other similar

means, which prudence and charity will

enable them to find, to encourage students

to learn the catechism more readily and to

retain it more easily.

[Conduct: Catechism: Article 3]

How to teach the things of

faith

A gentle approach

9

One of the French school central theological preoccupations concerned the

relationship between God (the Creator) and human beings (the creatures).

God is all: we are nothing. Our life in God is entirely dependent on the

action (grace) of God. God invites us into a relationship with himself,

inviting us to participate in his nature and perfection.

However, according to the proponents of

the French school, we have an important

role to play: We participate in our own

salvation by means of 1. faithfulness to

Christian practice, 2. detachment from the

world and its ways, 3. and self-denial.

These were among the means at the

individual’s disposal to bring about the

living of ‘true devotion’ – a concept

understood to signify having been

converted to such a degree that one was now living for God alone. We are

all called to this state of being – the creature living with his or her eyes

fixed firmly on the Creator.

A central emphasis for the French school thinkers was on the Incarnation

(the 2nd Person of the Blessed Trinity becoming human). They sought to

redress the prevailing negativity towards the ‘human’ around at the time.

It was thought that anything human was unhelpful and negative. Thanks

to the work of St Francis de Sales (see below) and the proponents of the

French school, the Catholic perspective on the human was rescued from

such negativity.

To understand this is

to understand

something important

about De La Salle’s

approach to the things

of faith.

In many way he was a

man of his time…

Influences

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Instead, it was highlighted that if God

could become human then the human

must be inherently good and worthy

of respect. Rather than being an obstacle

to be overcome, our human nature is in

fact the means through which we are

united to God.

“It was not surprising that so many would

take to Francis so enthusiastically, for the

horizon of all his writings was the personal.” [Buckley, p. 33]

“Absolutely central to (his theology) and in

the face of the much of the theology of his

time, Francis de Sales placed the universal salvific will of God, a will

extended to every person…What was central to his understanding of God

was the universal, emphatic call of God to all human beings and in every

form of human life to that charity which was friendship and salvation.” [Buckley, pp. 34 – 35]

“The emphasis on the universal salvific will of God was the theological

foundation of Salesian piety, calling all human

beings from every walk of life to live out their

baptismal consecration in a deeply Christian

holiness.” [Buckley, p. 35]

“If Francis de Sales brought to the formation of

the seventeenth-century spirituality a sensitive

blending of the pastoral and the mystical, Pierre

de Bérulle associated the mystical with great

enterprises and with religious and secular

politics.” [Buckley, p. 42]

Influence of Francis de

Sales

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“When all students have left the school, and the last two have reached the

street door and greeted the Inspector of Schools or the teacher there, one

of them will make a hand sign to this teacher that there are no more

students and that the teacher may go in. The teacher will reenter the

school immediately. When all of the teachers are assembled in one of the

classrooms and are kneeling before the crucifix, if the school is in the

Community House where the teachers live, the Inspector of Schools or the

Head Teacher will say, “Live Jesus in our hearts.” The others will answer,

“Forever.”

The invocation “Live Jesus in our hearts” was not, however, original with De La Salle. It is found in a variety of forms in many of the French spiritual writers of the 17th century. St. Francis de Sales (d. 1622), for example, writes in his Introduction to the Devout Life “Live, Jesus! Live, Jesus! Yes, Lord Jesus, live and reign in our hearts forever and ever. Amen.” And again, in his Treatise on the Love of God “Live, Jesus! Jesus, I love! Live, Jesus whom I love!” Similar sentiments can be found in other writers of the French school of spirituality, as it came to be known. Saint John Eudes (d. 1680) developed a theological spirituality, sometimes called a “heart-spirituality,” based on the love of God as exemplified in the heart of God, the heart of Jesus, and the heart of Mary and so implanted in our hearts.

Live Jesus in Our Hearts

Background

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“Very briefly, 17th century spirituality is primarily a Christological spirituality focused on the man Jesus in whom the Word of God became human, the mystery of the Incarnation. For these authors, the mystery of the Incarnation continues to be lived out in the life of the Christian. The goal of Christian spirituality, then, is to identify with Jesus living within us, not only by imitating his way of life but, more deeply, by making one’s own the mentality, the mind set, the “heart” of Jesus in the various events of his life, especially his self-surrender to the will of his heavenly Father. A key text, expressive of this attitude of total self-effacement, is the kenotic hymn in the Epistle to the Philippians: “Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave….” (Philippians 2: 5-11).”

“The spiritual writers of the French school found abundant evidence in the New Testament that led them to contemplate and foster communion with Jesus living within us. Thus, Saint Paul to the Galatians “It is no longer I who live but

Christ who lives within me” (Galatians 2: 20) and to the Ephesians “I pray that . . . Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3: 16-17). In his last discourse as recorded in John’s Gospel, Jesus says very pointedly, “Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (John 14: 19-20).”

Scripture

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“The verb is in an imperative or perhaps optative mood. As such it has an urgency about it. It is akin to the expression “come alive” as when we speak of something that has been dormant suddenly awakens and takes on new energy and vitality. To live, to have vitality, is a dynamic concept and is the very opposite of lethargy and death. Thus we speak of the life of the body, the life of the mind, the spiritual life, community life, or even the life of the Institute, the life of a school. Jesus has said, “I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance” (John 10: 10). Jesus is not only the way and the truth; he is the life (John 14: 6), the life that gives meaning to life in all its other forms. In addition, the verb “to live” implies permanence. Living is not only a momentary thing, it is linked to continuity, as in “Where do you live?” John’s Gospel tells us that the “Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1: 14). His living among us is no longer in his mortal flesh but continues in the communication of his Spirit that he has sent as grace to be living with us and in us always. Viva life!”

“It is significant that our prayer refers to Jesus in this way. That is how he was referred to in his lifetime, that was his name as he grew to human maturity, a created human being just as we are…

To call him Jesus, then, is to invoke the reality of his full humanity which is the same as ours. Unlike the medieval theologians and the 17th century spiritual writers, theologians today do not resume that Jesus had access during his lifetime to all divine knowledge. He had to learn by experience as we do, he had to grow in wisdom, age, and grace and didn’t have it all at once. There were some things, like the timing

Live

Jesus

14

of the day of judgment, that he did not know. When he was sad, he wept; when faced with disgrace and death, he flinched; when his disciples fled, he was disappointed; when the Roman scourged him and nailed him to the cross, he felt intolerable pain; when he died, he felt abandoned.” [Luke Salm: Jesus in Lasallian Hearts]

There is more to Jesus than that, of course. Little by little it dawned on his human intelligence that the relationship between him and the God he called Father was something special and unique, that his humanity had been so graced with God’s self-communication in an unconditional and irrevocable way that his union with the divine could in later centuries be called hypostatic. Passing through death to resurrected life, Jesus, still human like us and united inseparably to divinity, entered a glorified existence freed from the limitations of time and space. His humanity, although not resuscitated to its historical state, was not destroyed in the process, merely transformed. As his first disciples, and then the communities they founded, accepted in faith what they could no longer see, they began to speak of Jesus as the Christ and Lord. They saw themselves as the body of Christ, the continuation of what God had begun in Jesus, that Jesus was the first born from the dead, that God’s self-communication in grace and glory was what God intended for everyone.

We Lasallians are often reminded that it is this Jesus who lives in our hearts. In the spirit of faith that De La Salle wanted to be the spirit of his Institute, we are caught up in faith into the mystery of the Incarnation. This Jesus in our hearts is one with us in his humanity, one with God in his divinity. Lasallians have an answer to the question Jesus once put to the Apostle Peter: “But who do you say that I am?” [Luke Salm: Jesus in Lasallian Hearts]

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What a powerful symbol is the heart! It is used to refer to the seat of emotion, especially the emotion of love, that points beyond emotion to the full reality of self-giving love. The heart thus becomes the symbol of the self. When Jesus invites us

to learn of him because he is meek and humble of heart, he is telling something about himself. Sometimes the heart is set in contrast to the head, as something warmer, more subjective, more personal, more than purely intellectual. Thus when we ask that Jesus live in our hearts we do more than say that we believe doctrines about Jesus. We take the person of Jesus into our very selves, into our subjectivity, into our hearts. As Christians we become so united to Jesus living within us that we become other Christs to those we serve.

As an expression of Lasallian spirituality, “Live Jesus in our hearts forever!” cannot reflect a spirituality divorced from community and from mission. It is significant that the prayer refers to Jesus living in our hearts. The life of Jesus within us is something we share in a Lasallian educational community. The warrant for this comes from the word of Jesus: “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18: 20). The presence of Jesus among us gives life and motivation to our Lasallian association for the educational mission which is the mission of Jesus himself, that “the poor have the Gospel preached to them.” It is with Jesus in our hearts that we become capable of “touching hearts,” as De La Salle so often urged his followers to do. One in Christ and in one another, “we are all in this together.”

In our hearts

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This traditional conclusion to Lasallian prayer has advantages over a simple “Amen.” It must be granted that as a final prayer the Amen has a long tradition rooted in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, as well as in the tradition of the

synagogue and the Christian churches. Nor is the Amen missing from many of our prayers offered in a Lasallian context. But as a parting sentiment, the Amen is altogether too final. It affirms with vigor what has gone before, but it does nothing to keep the sentiment of the prayer moving and pointing to what is to follow.

“Live Jesus in our hearts forever!” sends Lasallians away from formal prayer in the hope and belief that the presence of Jesus in their hearts is something that continues, that all else that comes from the heart, especially the sense of mission, is energized by the ongoing presence therein of the very self of Jesus. It provides a way of fulfilling the Gospel mandate to “pray always,” that is, to make all that one does a prayer in union with the Jesus who was always at prayer.

What follows the prayer is usually either a session in the classroom or else a formal gathering of some sort. In either case the “forever” assures us that Jesus stays with us even though our full attention now has to turn to the lesson to be taught, the presentation to be made, or the dialogue to be carried forward. Beyond our immediate concerns the prayer reminds us that we carry Jesus in our hearts in whatever else we do, not only for the rest of the day, or the week, or the year, but on and on through a lifetime. That is what forever means.

Finally, “forever” in the context of the Lasallian prayer refers not only to endless time but to eternity. The day will come for each one of us when time will be no more, when “forever” will mean the liberation from the limits of time and space, the experience of absolute mystery

Forever

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as the self-communication of God in timeless glory. That is when the end product of the Lasallian mission, the ultimate salvation of those entrusted to our care, becomes a reality for them and for us who carry on that mission. Then the life of Jesus within us, “in our hearts,” will no longer be a matter of faith but of sight, of an experience so immediate and fulfilling that it has been called beatific. Beatification is the destiny for all of us when we experience what it means to have Jesus living in our hearts for all eternity. Forever! [Luke Salm: Jesus in

Lasallian Hearts]

John Baptist de la Salle

“prayed…that Jesus ‘come and live in our hearts,’

so that his entire existence, most profound

attitudes and daily behaviour might be

transformed by the Lord.

This short prayer was a cry of love and desire.

It must be understood as the dynamic summary of

an entire body of teachings on prayer and texts for

meditation.”

Deville, p. 178

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References:

1. Conduct of the Christian Schools: see https://lasallian.info/wp-

content/uploads/2012/12/Conduct-2007-reprint.pdf

2. Aumann, Jordan. Christian Spirituality in the Catholic

Tradition. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986/1994 pp. 218 –

260.

3. Buckley, Michael. ‘Seventeenth-Century French Spirituality’ in

Dupre, Saliers and Meyendorff (Eds) Christian Spirituality:

Post-Reformation and Modern. (New York: Crossroad, 1989) pp.

28 – 68.

4. Deville, Raymond. ‘John Baptist de La Salle’ in The French

School of Spirituality: An Introduction and Reader. Pittsburgh:

Duquesne University Press, 1994 pp. 171 – 188.

5. Groome, Thomas. ‘Preface’ in Koch, Calligan and Gros (Eds):

John Baptist de La Salle: The Spirituality of Christian

Education (New York: Paulist Press, 2004) pp. 1 – 3.

6. Salm, Luke: ‘Jesus in Lasallian Hearts’: (Unpublished work)

7. Saward, John: ‘Bérulle and the French School’ in Jones,

Wainwright and Yarnold (Eds): The Study of Spirituality

(London: SPCK, 1986/1992) pp. 386 – 396.

8. On the significance of small acts of kindness and love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb_wkZ_H5Ss

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Notes

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