Lasallian Spirituality (Religio, Mores, Cultura)

A simple dictionary definition of the word "spiritual" offers us the following choices:

1. of or concerning the spirit as opposed to matter (spiritual relationship; spiritual
home);
2. religious, divine, inspired (the spiritual life); refined, sensitive.

What, then, does the adjective "Lasallian" add to the common understanding of the word "spirituality"? This suggests that it brings a particular '"flavour" or indeed emphasis, because it is inseparably linked to the life-story of Saint John Baptist de La Salle and the world-wide educational movement of which on his own admission he was the largely unwitting founder. It is then both from the deeds and from the writings of De La Salle that we can expect to set out some of the distinctive characteristics of Lasallian spirituality. This is the importance of the Church's 1951 conferring the all enveloping title, Patron of Christian Educators, on Saint John Baptist de La Salle.

The Spirit of Faith

When De La Salle formulated his original Rule he saw that faithful membership of this community depended first of all on what he called a "spirit of faith":

The spirit of this community is, first, a spirit of faith, which should induce those who compose it not to look upon anything but with the eyes of faith, not to do anything but in view of God, and to attribute all to God.

Among the many other citations on the spirit of faith which can be found in De La Salle's writings the following citations from his Meditations show most clearly the essential link between the personal faith of the Lasallian and its importance for those "confided to their care":

Your faith should be for you a light which guides you in all things, and a shining light for those whom you instruct, to lead them on the path to heaven. (No.178.1) Do you have a faith that is such that it is able to touch the hearts of your students and inspire them with the Christian spirit? This is the greatest miracle you could perform and the one that God asks of you, for this is the purpose of your work. (No.139.3)

The above conviction will lead De La Salle in many of his writings to remind his teachers that they must see Christ in all their pupils, not simply in the better favored or the more intelligent. The Lasallian teacher tries to be constantly aware of God's loving Presence in the course of the day. Teacher and pupils will be reminded of this presence by the tinkling of a bell and a short invocation. "Jesus may live in our hearts, forever!"

The Spirit of Zeal

The Lasallian way of looking upon difficult children was not meant to be a form of Christian stoicism: for De La Salle and for all Lasallians today the spirit of faith should overflow and shows itself through a spirit of zeal: Secondly, the spirit of their Institute consists in an ardent zeal for the instruction of children and for bringing them up in the fear [=awe] of God… This burning or ardent zeal was to be expressed by "being with the children from morning until night" every day of the week, including the Sunday when the catechism lesson took place in the school. This zeal for those confided to their care will lead Lasallians to try "to touch the hearts" of those with whom they work, so that they may more easily lead those with whom they work to God.

De La Salle recognizes the struggle that this may sometimes represent when he occasionally uses the variation that our duty is "to win hearts." The change of verb suggests that sometimes we may have to work much harder to break down forms of resistance. But, 'touching' or 'winning', De La Salle's reminds us, in five different references to his patron John the Baptist in his meditations, that our duty resembles that of John the Baptist in always pointing beyond ourselves to the "Lamb of God," willing that we decrease and that He increase! For De La Salle the essential relationship between 'faith' and 'zeal' is brought out in many of his writings, one of the clearest being in Meditation No.87 on Saint Stephen, the proto-martyr:

This is how faith should make you act and how you should make known by your conduct, as [Saint Stephen] did, that you are true disciples of Jesus Christ, having God only in view in all your actions, and announcing with as much boldness and courage as he did, the maxims of the holy Gospel. In all this what should strengthen your zeal as well as your faith is the fact that you announce these truths in your position as ministers of God.

The Spirit of Community

When historians ask why De La Salle succeeded better than his predecessors or his contemporaries in establishing lasting schools for the education of poor boys, they recognize that he did so because he "launched a movement" by first forming a community which survived him. His ability to attract others to share a form of community life, neither monastic nor clerical, led him to allow his followers to decide for themselves what they would be called and how they would live… If they associated themselves, each one naming each one of his companions in solidarity, it was in view of a common mission, expressed to day as "the educational service of the poor."