Lasallian charism is a gift received from the Holy Spirit, through the Founder and the first Brothers. It allows people to discover, value and respond as co-workers in the service of the Reign of God to the human and Christian educational needs of children, young people and adults of each historical moment, especially those most in need.
The charism is participative and open and is to be shared because it generates a special spiritual bond among many people from different faith traditions. It is one more charismatic family making the journey towards God as one People.
The Lasallian Family includes different ways of living the Lasallian vocation:
- a. Institutes of Consecrated Life: the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Guadalupana de La Salle Sisters, the De La Salle Sisters, the Lasallian Servants of Jesus.
- b. Associates and various configurations of lay fraternities (of Brothers and lay people) associated by a public commitment: Signum Fidei Fraternities, Lasallian Educational Fraternities, and Communities of Associates.
- c. Persons who integrate personal commitment, spirituality and other fundamental features of Association, with some form of recognition, but without public commitment.
- d. Organizations recognized by the Institute or District, or by the Lasallian Family: the World Union of Lasallian Former Students (UMAEL), the Young Lasallians movement, the International Association of Lasallian Universities (IALU), the St. Benildus Club, Lasallian Mother’s Club, etc.
- e. Other persons committed to the Lasallian Educational Mission: educators, parents, catechists, volunteers, sports and recreation animators, administration and service personnel, student.
- f. Other groups including Benefactors and Affiliates to the FSC Institute.
The three hundred and forty years of Lasallian history have been possible, in part, because Lasallians feel we are the heart and memory of this charism, which is God’s work. It continues to be enriched when:
- ways of looking at the world and spirituality with the eyes of faith are shared
- people engage with the inter-relationship between faith, culture and life based on the demands of the contemporary world.
- there is human promotion and the integral formation of children, young people and adults, especially those most in need.
- Lasallians live in communion. Communities are constituted, “together and by association,” responding in a charismatic way to the challenges facing the educational mission.
- communities become the place where faith and the experience of God is shared,
- where there is communal reading of the signs of the times, attentive listening to the many voices encountered and discernment of concrete responses to these challenges.
- fraternal, close, and supportive relationships build a sense of belonging.
- there is responsibility to the educational needs of our world and to the struggle for human rights and justice, peace and integrity of creation.
Vocation is always a personal response to the call of God. It is He who takes the initiative. One of the key elements of a “culture of vocation” is the recognition that God calls everyone and calls continually …
We live our Lasallian vocation as a religious or lay person, male or female, celibate or married, in the diversity of cultures and contexts that make up the Lasallian map of the world, whether as a Catholic, Christian, member of another religious tradition or other beliefs, and we all share the same commitment for the dignity of people. The Spirit blows where it wills and its charisms, its gifts, surpass any type of structure.
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