Dear Brothers,

"The day's burden and the heat..." (Matthew 20:12)

Brothers, those among you who are fully active, you also know that the gifts and talents you put at the service of your students, of your Brothers, of your Lasallian partners come to you from the Lord. Thank you for sharing those gifts and talents so generously, in your responsibilities of teaching, administration, formation, support work and many other forms of educational service. You are examples of zeal and dedication to all of us. Invite young people to join us in vowed brotherhood so that they, too, can share their talents with others in a special way. To ask someone to become a Brother is to show great confidence in him and to give testimony to the esteem we have for our vocation (Message from the 42nd General Chapter to the Brothers, page 11).

Over the course of the past two years I have written letters to both young Brothers up to the age of 35 and to senior Brothers past the age of 70. And so this letter is aimed at Brothers who are between the ages of 35 and 70. Like the workers in the Gospel who grumbled about their salaries, after having endured the day's burden and the heat, some Brothers whom I shall call "Brothers in the second age" also complained because they had not received a letter addressed to them. This was not an oversight, but a three-year plan. And I am delighted to address each of you, Brothers who are fully active and whose generosity and talents make possible, for the most part, the running of our Institute and its educational and evangelical service to the young, especially the poor and those who are at risk, for the glory of the Trinity.

Within this long stage which medical science has made even longer, we can characterize two periods. The first occurs from age 35 to 55, and is called by many the noontime devil. These years normally bring with them a sense of religious maturity, a strengthening of the energy of our convictions and trust in our resources. For many, this is the period of major responsibility. On the other hand, it is during this period that changes appear that cannot be ignored. There is a need for continued self-formation. Some aspects that we should pay attention to include the affective aspect, existential doubt on the value of life and one's vocation, a certain tendency towards mediocrity, hiding ourselves behind our work and avoiding relationships, a sense of fatigue, closing in on ourselves and being distant from others.

Often in this stage of life, it is necessary to halt our normal activity. What is needed is a renewed commitment, an evaluation of our life as well as our relationship with God, with ourselves and with others. Recent CIL sessions have been organized for Brothers who are in this stage of life and there are many other quality sessions sponsored by Regions, the local Church or by groups run by Congregations of Religious Life, and it would be a good idea to take advantage of these.

The second period in this stage goes from age 55 until retirement. It is the penultimate stage of our life which, like previous stages, has its own challenges. With our personality already shaped and the meaning of life asserted, we feel able to go beyond a continuous centering in on ourselves and living the nostalgia of the past in order to continue offering the best of our person. There is a tendency to carry on what has been acquired in previous stages. If we resist change and fight for maintaining the status quo, we can become embittered persons who fight against new situations and experience a certain disenchantment about everything and everyone.

Tauler (Dominican, 1300 - 1361) spoke often about the age of forty as a turning point in life: Man does what he wants, he begins the way he wants, but he never reaches true peace unless his being is that of the celestial man and this does not happen before the age of forty. Until then a man is busy with many things and his own nature carries him here and there and often it happens that he is dominated by nature and he believes that nature is God himself and he cannot achieve true and full peace and be celestial in everything before that time. Then a man ought to wait for ten years before the Holy Spirit, the Consoler, will truly fill him. It is the Spirit who will teach him everything.

Tauler, then, is describing an adventure which is no less exciting than that of the entire first half of life. The objective of this journey is to reach into the very depths of the soul, the point at which man is really himself and where God dwells. The depths of the soul cannot be reached by one's own energy, nor by means of ascetic efforts nor even by fervent prayer. This depth is not reached by doing but by abandonment and by surrender.

During the first half of life, man is generally concerned about, even in the religious realm, his own acts. He wants to make progress in his journey towards God by means of spiritual exercises - the most important thing is what he does. Nevertheless, he will not reach the depths of the soul through his own efforts, but only when he lets God do the work. And God works in us throughout life. God empties us through disappointment, he reveals our smallness to us through our faults, and he works in us through suffering which he knows we can endure...

According to Tauler in midlife it is important that we allow ourselves to be emptied and stripped by God in order to be dressed in him again by his grace. It is about the birth of God in our inner self. When Nikos Kazantsakis was young he interviewed an old monk on Mount Athos. One of his questions was: Do you still fight with the devil? No, responded the monk. It was like that before but now I am old and tired and the devil is also old and tired like myself. Now I leave him alone and he leaves me alone. Then, your life is now easy, no more fights?, Kazantsakis asked. Oh, no!, replied the monk, it's worse. Now I fight with God (Ron Rolheiser, OMI).

Tauler observes that among men who have devoted years to religious life some undergo a spiritual crisis between the ages of forty and fifty. They lose the sense of what it is they do: prayer, apostolate, community...and the external forms by which they have been supported. This crisis is God's grace at work, who wants to lead men to the truth, lead them to the depths of the soul. Nevertheless, often we react poorly to this grace, by running away or by inhibitions.
Running away makes us put the blame on others, on structures, on changes within the Institute, the Church, and on society for what is happening in us. We project our dissatisfaction outside ourselves and we look for a solution when we grip tightly to our ideas and customs or when we look for new forms of life, new spiritualities, new experiences...

Anthony de Mello gives us the following example in his book Contact with God: Before abandoning the Church, Charles Davis published an article in America magazine in which he said the following. After Vatican II, I felt a real enthusiasm in my outlook on renewal, modernization and structural changes that were being offered to the Church. And I dedicated myself to present before many audiences the new and marvelous theology of Vatican II, which contained such a rich potential for aggiornamento and for reform.

But, little by little, I began to understand that all those faces that were looking at me were not looking for a new theology - they were looking for God. They did not see in me a theologian with a message to offer, but a priest who was able to give God to them. Then I looked within myself and I discovered, to my devastation, that I could not give them God because I did not have him. What I did have was an enormous emptiness in my heart...And, the more I concerned myself with things such as the reform and modernization of Church structures, or liturgical renewal, bible studies and methods for pastoral ministry, the more I found it easy to run away from God and from the emptiness that was speaking in my heart.

From running away to inhibition is just a short step. It is easy to entrench ourselves in great, fixed foundations in order to hide our inner anguish; this leads to a certain hardening, to a lack of love, to complaining about others, or to making judgments about moral or religious weakness. We no longer radiate the kindness or the love of Christ. Deep inside we are afraid that God will break down and destroy the edifice of our security and self-justification and that we will be reduced to being stripped before the true God with a clean body.

In reality, the most important thing to do at this moment is to go deep inside, to return to the depths of our soul, to the reconciled recognition of who we are, the acceptance of our limits, inconsistencies and sins. This is the time to abandon the idea of conquest in order to abandon ourselves completely to God and to do his will: Lord, my will is to do your will. God is not just an external moment in time, nor an ideal to reach, but Someone born in my inner being who is experienced and who lives now in my experience of the ever-present God. I no longer live, not I... The second half of life has as its objective to allow God to direct our lives, fill our hearts with peace, serenity and love, devote ourselves to our Brothers, to the young, to the poor and to the world which he wants to be saved.

Brothers, let us make our own the advice which our Founder gave to an unknown Brother, who could represent each of us: Do not have any anxiety abut the future. Leave everything in God's hands for he will take care of you (Letter 101, Lasallian Publications). May Mary our mother make us docile towards the Spirit (Rule 76).