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News of the Institute and Lasallian Family
Rome, May 13th , 2008 |
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 DEATH OF BROTHER VINCENT MALHAM
Brother Vincent MalhamBrother Vincent Malham was killed in an automobile accident while driving from Memphis to Louisiana to visit his sister.
Police reports indicate that his vehicle crossed the center line and crashed head on into an oncoming pickup truck (two passengers not seriously injured).
The accident occurred at 2:11 p.m. on Friday, May 2. Please pray for Brother Vincent's eternal rest.
(www.lasallian.info)
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 MYANMAR - BROTHERS ARE SAFE: Brother Mark Murphy managed to get a phone call through to me this morning.
All the Brothers and residents of the house at Yangon are fine.
However they have been without water and electricity for two days. The roof of the house is extensively damaged and a tree fell on the adjacent bungalow. The property is littered with debris.
SECOLI has asked if the Brothers in Myanmar need financial assistance at this time. We are awaiting their reply but communication is difficult.
- SECOLI Cyclone
(Brother David Hawke)
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 OUGADOUGOU - BURKINA FASO - BROTHER SUPERIOR’S VISIT TO THE DISTRICT OF WEST AFRICA: As part of his tour of RELAF, Brother Alvaro, Superior General, accompanied by Brother Gabriel Somé, General Councillor for RELAF, visited the District of West Africa from April 16th - 22nd 2008.
When Brother Superior and the General Councillor arrived from Kinshasa, via Paris, on the evening of the 16th, they were met at Ougadougou by Brother Visitor Janvier Dembélé. On Thursday 17th, Brother Superior met the Brother Directors, Brothers from the Ougadougou area and the District Councillors.The following day, our guests drove to Bobo Dioulasso and visited the Provincial Centre They spent the afternoon at the joint African novitiate.
In Saturday 19th, they went to the school at Tounouma, where they met the pupils, the lay teachers and then the Brothers living in the Bobo Dioulasso area. On the 20th, on the road back to Ouaga, Brother Superior decided to make a detour and visit the village of Kassaora, in the diocese of Diébougou, to meet the family of his Councillor, Brother Gabriel Somé.
Despite his tiredness, Brother Superior was on the road again on Monday 21st in order to visit a recently established foundation at Kongoussi, in the diocese of Ouahigouya, with its temporary buildings, primary school, and a site for future expansion. Brother Superior met the clergy, pupils, parents and the other teachers, and strongly encouraged them.
The morning of Tuesday 22nd, the pupils and teachers of the Collège La Salle at Ouaga took the opportunity to express their thanks and affection to our guests before they left by air for Abidjan and Douala.
(Brother Philippe de Montety)
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 BANGALORE – INDIA - A HISTORICAL DAY FOR THE DELEGATION OF INDIA: Sunday 20th April 2008 was truly a ‘red letter day’ in the history of the Delegation of India at the Novitiate, Bangalore.
Twelve Novices took their First Vows as De La Salle Brothers. They are Brothers Anudeep Kumar, Arockia Regan, Arul Jeevahar, Arul Paneer Selvam, Bala Raju, Chiranjeevi, Jesu Raj, Kulundai, Lourdu Jude, Robert Browing, Sudheer and Sudheer Kumar. Six others received the Religious Habit and one was formally accepted into the Novitiate. The six who received the Holy Habit were Novices Arockiasamy, Darryl, Edison, Jeyakumar, John Peter and Suresh. Postulant Arul Doss was received into the Novitiate.
The Brothers who made their first vows had the privilege of being accompanied by their parents who were there to witness and bless their sons on entering the Religious Life. They garlanded them at the door to the Novitiate and accompanied them to the altar where they sat behind them and actively participated during the celebration of the Holy Mass when it came to presenting the offertory gifts and embracing their sons upon the acceptance of their vows by Br Arockia Doss, President of the Delegation.
Br Arokia Doss delivered the homily on the theme of ‘Association’ and why the Institute had adopted the ‘Vow of Association for the Christian Education of children’ as the first and principal vow of the vows the young Brothers were about to take. He traced the history of the vow from the time the very first Brothers along with the Founder JBS de La Salle took that vow along with Obedience and Stability at the very beginning of the society of ‘Brothers of the Christian Schools’.
During the felicitations after the liturgy Brother Aroickia Doss took the opportunity to release the publication of the ‘Meditations For The Time Of Retreat’ translated into Tamil that was completed by four young Brothers at Boys’ Town recently.
(Brother Joe Reid) |
 LOS NEGRALES (MADRID) - SPAIN - 1st ARLEP MEETING ON NON-FORMAL LASALLIAN EDUCATION: On April 18th and 19th, 115 Lasallians involved in non-formal educational projects in Spain, Portugal and Italy attended the 1st ARLEP meeting on non-formal education held in the Los Negrales Cultural Arts Centre at the Carmelite P.Poveda Institute.
The meeting began with words of greeting from Brother Alberto Gomez, General Councillor, and Brother Ismael Beltran, President of ARLEP.The meeting focused on three main areas: “La Salle and non-formal education”, developed by Brothers Juan Jose Brunet and Jose Maria Martinez, members of the ARLEP team; “Educational help for young people with problems”, treated by the expert Luis San Juan Minchero; and “Education, the Family and juvenile reform”, presented by the Juvenile Court judge, Vincente de Juan Orlandis.
In the course of the two days of intensive work, a variety of projects involving non-formal education were presented. These projects can be grouped under four headings:
- Reception centres
- Free time and remedial teaching
- Social security and rehabilitation
- Adult education
In the evening, apart from sampling local produce, we discussed with Peru Sasia the work of FIARE in the field of social economy, and with Brother Martin, his work in Naples.
The Brother Visitors of most of the ARLEP Districts attended and took the opportunity to say a few words to the participants at the closing session.
This 1st meeting was coordinated by Jordi Jover from the Fundacion Comtal, and Brothers Juan Jose Brunet and Jose Maria Martinez of the ARLEP team. Logistic support was provided by ARLEP services.
(Brother Nestor Ferrera - www.lasalle.es)
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 TRINITY SUNDAY WITH THE NEW FORMULATION OF VOWS:
Next Sunday the Brothers all over the world, following the tradition of the Institute, will renew, in a purely devotional manner, our consecration to the Holy Trinity. This time they will be using the new formulation, which was proposed by the General Chapter and approved by the Church.
Br. Alvaro, in his last Pastoral Letter to the Brothers says to us: “One of the ideas that struck me personally during our last General Chapter was precisely that of the centrality of the mystery of the Trinity in our lives and in our mission.” (p.2) This centrality is expressed in the Act of Consecration to the Most Holy Trinity when each one says: “I consecrate myself entirely to you” and it is in harmony with the Founder when it says “dedicate yourself entirely to the Most Holy Trinity” (Cf. Med 46.3). For its part the Rule says that, in response to the call of the Holy Spirit, each Brother, freely and without any thought of turning back, risks his whole existence in following Christ in the Gospel and for this end consecrates himself entirely to the Holy Trinity to procure the glory of God in the ministry of Christian education. ( Cf. Rule 22).
In the second paragraph of the formulation, the new version restores the character of a vow to the expression “to unite myself and to remain in society” which makes reference to our specific vows of association for the educational service of the poor and of stability in the Institute, which re-appear in the third paragraph, one before the other after the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, as if wrapping them up in order to make of them all a single unit and they thus express each and all of the dimensions of our life placed as an offering in the hands of the Most Holy Trinity. In this unity of life and surrender the vow of association for the educational service of the poor provides the “unifying element” (Letter p.3). Thus the religious consecration, giving meaning to the diverse commitments which it inspires, “brings into unity the successive moments in the life of the Brother” (Cf. Rule 22).
Ours is a religious Institute and the Brothers from the beginning felt themselves thus “ as much in heart as in mind, by desire and by aspiration…. and with the aim of being so, not alone by fact but also by right, approached the Roman Curia to ask for approbation” (Maurice Auguste). For this reason we Brothers have always insisted on this one characteristic element of the religious life consisting of community life and the last General Chapter was no exception, since it picked out as first priority theme our community life (Bulletin 251, p. 61). In this respect Br.Alvaro reminds us that “we felt an urgent need to renew our community life, to make it more Gospel-centred, to unite our strengths and gifts for the service of the mission.” (Pastoral Letter 2007, p.12); and the Rule says that the Brothers “make every effort to model their community life on the relations of knowledge and love that constitute the life of the Holy Trinity” (48). Finally, the Founder calls us to live among ourselves “the essential union of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit” (Cf. Med. 39.3).
Now, with Trinity Sunday approaching, we can make ours the words of Circular 456: “God willing, the new formulation will give us new impetus and energy to live our consecration to the Trinity in community for the educational service of young people, especially the poor” (p.43).
(Brother Leonardo Tejeiro)
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 SAINT DENIS - FRANCE - TERCENTENARY OF JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE - OUR LADY OF COMPASSION SCHOOL: On April 7th, John Baptist De La Salle- Our Lady of Compassion School, one of the leading educational establishments of the Lasallian network in France, organised a conference to consider “what founders of teaching congregations can contribute today to society and to the Church”.
“If we are asking this question today”, began Brother Nicolas Capelle, Visitor of France, “it is no doubt because the last fifty years have been marked by a growing absence of signs, due to a lack of knowledge about founders and to a decrease in the number of members of religious congregations. It addition, the overall expansion of education has stimulated a constant search for new pedagogical approaches. And now, the search for meaning leads us to turn our attention again to founders”.In this search “in order to keep alive the audacity of the early years”, continued Sister Jeanne Danion, superior of the St Denis community of the St Louis Sisters of Charity, “it is important to dare to be coherent in our dealings with young people so as to enable them to adjust better to being part of society”.Denis Bouchard, Regional Électricité de France Employment Director for the Ile de France - who employs a number of apprentices - said he was happy to associate himself with an “approach which transmits skills, values and social solidarity”.
For Brother Nicolas Capelle, the words “audacity” and “dare” struck a chord: “Our Lasallian community is not afraid of anything; it is open to a vast range of possibilities. Where other religions are concerned, John Baptist de La Salle is a model of compassion who explains what our relations with them should be. It is a requirement, however, for all our establishments to have a Christian community which can reveal the source of this compassion”.
It was in fact his observation of this vigorous response on the part of religious congregations - their establishments teach almost 30% of pupils in the Catholic education system - which led Éric de Labarre to express what he expected from them: “to be faithful to their charism in order to respond to present-day educational challenges; to be daring, in order to develop innovative pedagogy; to cooperate closely with the diocesan educational network”. It was a way for the Secretary General of Catholic Education to say to Lasallians how much “he counted on them to contribute to the project to develop Catholic education”. This was a project which required us “to live with eyes wide open and burning hearts, in order to discover new kinds of poverty and to respond to them”, concluded Brother Alvaro Rodriguez Echeverria , Superior General of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, who recalled that “the educational mission is the mission of the Church to spread the Gospel”.
(Éveline Geoffroy)
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 CHICAGO – USA - GROUNDWORK TO ORGANIZE YOUNG LASALLIANS BEGINS: An ad hoc committee of young Lasallians and Brothers met in Chicago from April 11 to 13 to develop a structure and organization for the Young Lasallians movement in the United
States/Toronto Region.
The group shall consist of Lasallian teachers, staff and collegians in their early 20s and mid-30s.The committee agreed to focus on three specific areas for the next 12 months:
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1) utilize technology to connect Young Lasallians;
2) rally Young Lasallians around an annual thematic project (the Institute’s emphasis on migration will be the project for 2008);
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3) identify existing activities andprograms for Lasallian collegians and organize this age group. |
(Brother Thomas Lackey) |
 MANADO – INDONESIA - DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY: On 7 April 2008, Signum Fidei community of De La Salle University Manado Indonesia the university celebrated Easter together with the scavengers.
Taking place at the 'garbage dumping place' at Sumompow area of Manado, this collaborative project between Signum Fidei community, Institution of Development and Cooperation and PT Unilever Indonesia (Manado Branch), as the major sponsor, is intended not only to 'do something' for the needy but also to foster the spirit of giving within the members of Signum Fidei as it is displayed by the activity's theme "Living a true life through compassion".
(Margriet Utami Taher)
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