{"id":117618,"date":"2025-09-06T11:04:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T09:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/hno-alvaro-lopez-dios-me-llama-a-ser-testigo-de-lo-que-he-visto-y-oido\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T08:45:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T06:45:22","slug":"brother-alvaro-lopez-god-is-calling-me-to-be-a-witness-of-what-i-have-seen-and-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/brother-alvaro-lopez-god-is-calling-me-to-be-a-witness-of-what-i-have-seen-and-heard\/","title":{"rendered":"Brother \u00c1lvaro L\u00f3pez: “God is calling me to be a witness of what I have seen and heard”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"PDF<\/span><\/a>\"image_print\"PRINT<\/span><\/a><\/div>

On August 28, 2025,\u00a0Brother \u00c1lvaro L\u00f3pez Falc\u00f3n<\/strong>,\u00a0(Arlep District- La Salle in Spain and Portugal)<\/a>\u00a0pronounced his perpetual vows, thus reaffirming his option for the consecrated life, as a Brother of the Christian Schools, willing to dedicate his entire life to the mission and to the charism inherited from Saint John Baptist de La Salle.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod calls me to \u2018be a witness before all to what I have seen and heard\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>(Acts 22:15). I have seen and heard his action in my life, among my family members, my friends, in my initial formation, up to the present day\u201d, remarked Brother Alvaro, a few hours before making his perpetual profession, adding that \u201cI have also seen and heard a God who uses apostles, to get close to the excluded children, those from the slums, from the peripheries, and to offer them a different future through education\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Rereading the vocational history<\/h2><\/div>

Likewise, upon reading his vocational journey, Brother Alvaro recalls the words of the Holy Founder in one of his Meditations: \u201cYou are consecrated to God to live in this Community (\u2026) To settle down in this Community, you ought to consider the day you made this move as the one on which your happiness on earth began, to be completed one day in heaven\u201d (MDF 191.1.2).<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout much precision and with more heart than academic rigour, I wish to echo these words in my own life. Hence, I can certainly corroborate that\u00a0my joy began the day I set foot in this Institute<\/strong>\u201c, says the young religious from Arucas, Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands (Spain), who began his Lasallian journey in his home town at the age of 3 at the Colegio La Salle. There he grew in his human and Christian education until the age of 16, when he moved to a public secondary school to complete his pre-university studies.<\/p>\n

Brother Alvaro recalls that in those years \u201cI had the good fortune to share the journey with other Lasallians from the heart who passed on to me values to acquire a comprehensive education. Not only the hours in the classroom and the conversations with Brothers and teachers helped me to develop myself in an integral way, but also\u00a0thanks to the participation in the Christian Groups \u2013\u00a0Salle Joven<\/em>, which gave me the opportunity to deepen in the Lasallian spirituality and to feel part of a family\u00a0<\/strong>wider than the limits of the islands\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The centrality of community life<\/h2><\/div>

\"\"With regard to the centrality of community life, Brother Alvaro also comments that \u201cthe dialogue with\u00a0Brother Luis Rubio\u00a0<\/strong>and the approach to the Brothers\u2019 community was the \u2018trigger\u2019 to recognise the consecration to which the Lord was calling me\u201d. In this regard, he says that he has always been struck by the fact that, in the formula of vows which John Baptist de La Salle makes with the first Brothers, \u201che always mentions the name of each one of them\u201d, that is to say,\u00a0\u201che did not associate himself with an abstract group of persons, but with concrete faces and stories\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why, with the passing of the years and the experience in different communities and ministries, today I treasure\u00a0concrete names and faces which have shaped my own vocational journey\u00a0<\/strong>and continue to be a source of joy in my consecration\u201d, added the young Spanish religious.<\/p>\n

The celebration of Brother \u00c1lvaro\u2019s perpetual vows took place in La Salle Gri\u00f1\u00f3n, with the participation of family members, friends and accompanied by Brothers from different communities, led by the Visitor of the District,\u00a0Brother Esteban de Vega<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Superior General of the Institute,\u00a0Brother Armin Luistro<\/strong>, and two General Councillors,\u00a0Brothers Mart\u00edn Digilio and Jo\u00ebl Palud<\/strong>, also took part in this event, in which some Brothers also commemorated their silver and golden jubilee of their perpetual profession, and others renewed their temporary vows.<\/p>\n

Recalling the words that Pope Leo XIV addressed to the Brothers of the Christian Schools on 15 May 2025, during the audience he granted on the occasion of the third centenary of the Bull of Approbation of the Institute and the 75th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of the proclamation of St. John Baptist de La Salle as the heavenly Patron of all educators, Br. Armin stressed that just as young people are \u201ca volcano of life, energy, feelings and ideas, as can be seen in the wonderful things they are capable of doing\u201d,\u00a0\u201ctoday\u2019s event in the District is like a rupture in the crust of our Institute: an explosion of many wonderful things that God works through us\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Small decisive steps<\/h2><\/div>

\"\"Recalling that \u201cthe Lasallian Mission is not planted and nourished by noise and fireworks, but by small decisive steps\u201d, the Superior General asserted that \u201clike the leaven that works silently and patiently so that the dough will ferment, the Lasallian story is best understood and appreciated in those privileged moments of encounter<\/strong>: between teacher and student, between sisters and brothers, far from our comfort zones, in the peripheries, and always with many moments of silence walking with the God of the Way\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my hope and prayer that the great celebration we will enjoy today will strengthen our determination to\u00a0undertake the \u2018wonderful adventure\u2019 of our fraternity<\/strong>, bringing the light of Christ to those who are \u2018far from salvation\u2019,\u201d concluded Br Armin Luistro.<\/p>\n

As a Lasallian Family we join in these intentions and give thanks to God for the vocation of so many Brothers who have undertaken \u201cthe adventure of fraternity\u201d in the footsteps of St. John Baptist de La Salle and the first Brothers.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>

* Article written in collaboration with the Arlep District. Photos: Arlep.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":117605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3367,3528],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-relem-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117618"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117652,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117618\/revisions\/117652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}