“The Good Shepherd, an archetype of the Lasallian educator. Commentary on Meditation 33 by Saint John Baptist de La Salle” is the title of the fifth volume of the collection Lasallian Essays of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The author is Brother Josean Villalabeitia, who belongs to the Arlep District (La Salle in Spain and Portugal)
“This meditation on the Good Shepherd is one of the texts I have used most, either literally or more freely, when I have had to deal with some matter related to the Lasallian Mission in the school”, remarks Brother Josean, adding that among the experiences which gave rise to this work “there were community prayers, more massive or more intimate, simple dynamics of an afternoon recollection time, or reflections to begin a teachers’ meeting or to end a day of team work”.
Almost three centuries have passed since the Founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, wrote this suggestive meditation, and yet, as Brother Josean notes, “it continues to be suggestive, provoking reactions, inspiring reflection, in a Christian and educational manner, in almost everyone who hears it, whether they be teachers, Brothers or Sisters, parents, young people in formation”, or even the students themselves.
So this new volume of Lasallian Essays not only takes up the significant path of its author who, in his intention to “bring together in one writing all the themes which, in one way or another, I have seen appear around this meditation 33”, but also reaches out to the whole Lasallian Family in the context of the Year of Spirituality and the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the proclamation of Saint John Baptist de La Salle as Patron Saint of all Educators, as well as the 125th anniversary of his canonisation.
In this regard, during the presentation of the book, on Monday 2 June through an online event, Br. Esteban de Vega, Visitor of the Arlep District, highlighted that ‘by reading this book we will be able to get to know the Founder’s view better, not only in terms of what we have to do, based on the image of the Good Shepherd, but also to reflect on how we should be Lasallian educators’.
For his part, Brother Santiago Rodríguez, Director of the Office of Lasallian Heritage and Research, acknowledging the qualities of the author as ‘a researcher who is very careful about details, a lover of not leaving things unfinished and of directing the themes towards something concrete’, considered that this work is ‘the result of a long, careful, repeated and insistent formative practice. It is a rich proposal which opens up thousands of paths of intertextuality within the works of John Baptist de La Salle. An inclusive text, because it is intended to be an instrument, with activities for the reader to explore in depth’.
“I hope that all readers will find in this work some light to guide them in the increasingly complicated adventure of educating our children and young people by means of the Gospel”, concludes Brother Josean.
Download below the book ‘The Good Shepherd, an archetype of the Lasallian educator. Commentary based on Meditation 33 by St John Baptist de La Salle’ at
