Brothers, those who are the younger among us, you should remember that John Baptist de La Salle was 29 years old when he became involved with a handful of school teachers. That involvement would later result in the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. In you we find the creative forces and vitality in the Institute which will help us to overcome the tendency to keep unchanged the existing structures, even when they become obsolete ( 42nd General Chapter).

Dear Brothers,

On this June 24th, a day so significant in our Lasallian history when we remember that in 1681 the Founder housed the first teachers in his own home and one year later on the same date he left his parents' house and moved along with them to the Rue Nueve. These are two fundamental events in the origin of the Institute. On this significant day in our history I want to direct myself to you, the 593 Brothers under the age of 35 and the 144 novices, according to the latest statistics, because I am convinced that you have to give a major boost to our Institute at the beginning of this third millennium. I was fortunate to participate in the meeting of young Brothers from Europe in Thillois last year and I would like to share with all of you some of the things I said there, while adding new reflections from recent months based on my experience in Institute leadership.

The Rule tells us that "the Lord has willed to place the destiny of the Institute into the hands of the Brothers" (Rule 142). I am convinced that this text applies especially to you who have decided to unite your lives to us by saying "yes" to life in an act of faith in the future. It is you who, in the Institute, are called to keep the dream alive, open new roads, respond creatively to the new forms of poverty and to the challenges that the world of the young presents to us, to risk your lives for Christ, to make our communities a sign of the Kingdom, so that hope is not extinguished. You must be the accelerator and not the brake. You must encourage us so that we act more by instinct than by taking the "safe road."

I want to tell you that if I have any "soft spot" in my Institute life, it is for the young Brothers. I have devoted almost all my life to them, first in my years of service in the area of initial formation and later as Visitor of a District that was gradually passing into the hands of the young Brothers of Central America. I was also fortunate, today I would say that I was graced, to be part of the leadership team that gave four retreats for Brothers who were preparing for perpetual profession. These retreats were organized by RELAL (Latin American Lasallian Region) and young Brothers from many of the Districts within the Region participated. This contact with young Brothers was a very enriching experience for me. It was so enriching that when I made CIL in 1979 and I had to respond to the question of "What formed me?" my response was: I feel that the persons who have helped me most to mature and to grow in every sense of the word were the young Brothers. As I was helping them, I got to know myself better, I accepted myself for who I was, and I learned how to dialogue. As I guided them in prayer, I myself learned how to pray. For me the events that have been most significant occurred during my years in formation work and include my many friendships with young Brothers (CIL 1 June 1979).

I am convinced that in the Institute it is especially you, the young Brothers, who should help us discover new ways that will permit us to find new meaning in our lives of service to our brothers and sisters. For me the presence of young Brothers at our last General Chapter was inspiring. The Brothers who represented you then kept our hope alive. Their dreams and their plans, their prayers and contributions, were really stimulating. But what impressed me the most personally was their determination in bringing forward a proposition concerning the pastoral ministry of vocations even though time had expired! More than the proposition itself, valid or not, what was most impressive was how, through this act, they showed their faith and deep love for the Institute and their desire for its future and vitality. I believe that their presence was a determining factor in achieving a pro-active spirit, as Brother John Johnston often said, and in succeeding in being open to a future which is to come, rather than lamenting the present reality.

It is not my intention to present here an abstract discourse based on ideas but rather to share experiences and feelings. Therefore I thought about letting you speak and then sharing with you some statements and experiences, including my own personal ones.

On January 1 last year two Brothers died in Guatemala as a result of a road accident as they were returning to their missionary community in the middle of a community of "ketchies" natives on the country's Atlantic coast. One of them was a young Guatemalan native Brother, aged 25. The day of his funeral his mother told the story of the time she had asked her son why it was that Brothers had left the Congregation. He responded by saying that it was because they were not "in love." I believe that Adelso had captured the essence of our vocation: Most Holy Trinity, I consecrate myself entirely to you to procure your glory.

In the District of Central America's magazine some of Adelso's letters were published later; in one of them, addressed to the Brother Visitor and the District Council on the occasion of renewing his annual vows, he wrote: I write to you, letting my imagination soar and listening to God's ideas as they flow through my entire being. One of these ideas has to do with freedom. This freedom broadens horizons and is inspired in God's desire to free humankind by and for Love...And it is in this freedom that I have decided, after a period of discernment with a heart that is free, to remain in the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, renewing my vows, attempting to make of love - which is the visible face of God - my religion, my law and my faith. (Guatemala, Friday 31 October 1997).

In November of last year, I received a copy of another letter that a young Brother wrote to request final vows. As I read it, I was moved and at the same time I found it to be very much in tune with the previous letter. As he shared some of the driving forces in his life, he wrote:

	The idea and the feeling that my life is from God, that I am in His debt, I find myself in Him, that He invites me to be faithful daily, to love myself and to love myself again in his Word. The God who has captivated me, is the God of life, who invites me to have more life in abundance, personally, for others, among the poor. At this time I continue to feel that the many things I do have a certain unity. I believe to continue growing in my consecrated life has to do with deepening, sharing and being transparent in this experience.
	The experience in the midst of so much coming and going, of the existence of a community that is associated to run schools together in service of the poor.
	In all of this I feel encouraged, in control, that I belong, pushed, supported. I want to continue walking here, along this path where I discover the will of God as a response to his daily Word.

I would also like to share the thoughts of a young Brother who left us this year. I admire his honesty and I wish him the best on this new journey that he has undertaken. My relationship with God has not been altogether satisfactory for some time and I am not saying that religious experience has to be tangible, but I have not lived like a Lasallian religious: I have lost the spirit proper to the Institute, the spirit of faith...I am not dissatisfied with my work nor with my relationships with the young; it is something else. It is thinking about five years down the road and I do not see myself as a Brother...I know that what I am talking about could be lived out as a Brother, but I would have to be completely imbued with a spirituality, completely marked with the radical option for doing the work of the Institute, feeling God present and close in community...My motivations have changed, perhaps due to a series of circumstances, perhaps because of the weight of loneliness that all of us feel, perhaps because of disillusionment...What is certain is that I do not feel comfortable as a Brother.

And finally, the statement of a young Brother who was not accepted for annual vows renewal a few weeks ago. He wrote to the Center of the Institute to reconsider his request. In his letter, he said: I thought that I had already overcome many things. It was not true. God is shattering me inside with a relentless love and the very fact of having to go through this is a call to be totally devoted to Him. I write to you humbly, which is difficult for me. I trust that it is God who will carry us through. Because of all this I ask for your authorization to renew my vows. Yesterday I made a commitment to change and I reaffirm it today in this letter. I ask for an opportunity as a human being and as a Brother who is asking for help, and I place myself in God's hands so that his will might be fulfilled. I trust you and I thank you in advance.

It seems to me that in all these experiences and statements important feelings are surfacing for our lives as Brothers. Really, they all start from a strong experience of God, of a God who is close and not fictional. They all deal with a relationship which can be expressed only in terms of love, a relentless love, religion, law, and faith which becomes an invitation to a daily fidelity and a healthy love of his Word.

The question for you young Brothers and for each Brother could be: Is the ultimate purpose of our life as a Brother to seek above all the glory of God, to make God our Absolute? Up to what point is our religious life an experience of God? At a time when there is a wake-up call to look for the transcendent, are we able to offer a mystique which attracts? Do we demonstrate this basic dimension in our personal and community prayers?

Adelso said that to achieve this and then to discern it with an open heart, he opted to stay with the Brothers of the Christian Schools. And in other statements the Community appears as the unifying place, in the midst of so many comings and goings, of our association to run schools together, in service of the poor, a Community that allows us to feel God as being present and close.

I will not dwell on this topic, because I developed it in the last Pastoral Letter and I refer you to it. Certainly our community is our primary association, an association of persons that weaves fraternal ties among themselves, based on an identical experience: that of being "caught" by God for the service of poor, young people, and based on them, all young people. Certainly, the fact of our being Brothers is our greatest wealth, our strength, our secret. I invite you, Brothers, to be not only consumers of community, but above all builders of community.

It seems to me that what was expressed in the previous statements can be summed up by Proposition 22 of our 43^rd General Chapter. I have no doubt that this proposition is one of the most important and revolutionary ones of our last Chapter, especially as regards you, the young Brothers: In order to enable Brothers, especially the younger Brothers, to choose to work in the educational service of the poor and to lead a meaningful community life, each District, at its next District Chapter:

I believe that this proposition presents a very clear vision to us of what the Institute of the future should be in order for it to continue to have meaning and to be fruitful. Two conditions are indispensable: the priority of the educational service of the poor and a meaningful community life. As young Brothers you should feel called to live out the fourth vow: association for the educational service of the poor as one of the privileged ways of recovering the mystique of our origin.

As I finish this conversation with you I would also like to share some of my personal experiences that have become certainties and convictions that inspire my being and the way I act. There is the certainty of the free and disproportionate love of God, the certainty of his unconditional forgiveness, and the certainty of his ever-close presence. I would add to these three certainties the certainties that enlightened our Founder and which he summarized in terms that ought to be familiar to all of us. The certainty of the presence of God, discovered everywhere, but especially in our own inner self, in the Eucharist, and in community. The certainty of the guiding hand of God, of a God who leads us tenderly and lovingly, from commitment to commitment...The certainty that we are committed to God's work through our ministry of Christian education.

As you young Brothers look back on your lives, what convictions support your existence? What certainties light your path? The future of the Institute today depends on your answer, many young people may find meaning in their own lives, depending on your answer. I would ask you young Brothers to help us:

	make God the Absolute of our lives and make us be sacraments of his presence,
	take risks in the mission and not be afraid of association for the educational service of the poor,
	create affective ties among ourselves and mutually value one another,
	live poverty unreservedly,
	maintain a clean heart and outlook on life,
	allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit,
	feel free in the Lord, being faithful above all to Jesus Christ, the Gospel and the Spirit,
	be multipliers of God's grace for the young,
	be Brothers without borders, open to the needs of the world,
	light the future creatively and with hope and not simply maintain the present.

Fraternally in De La Salle,

Brother Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría
Superior General
E-mail: arodriguez@lasalle.org