{"id":125258,"date":"2026-05-11T11:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T09:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/?p=125258"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T09:45:10","slug":"the-dreams-of-an-institute-that-is-constantly-renewing-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/the-dreams-of-an-institute-that-is-constantly-renewing-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"The dreams of an Institute that is constantly renewing itself"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"PDF<\/span><\/a>\"image_print\"PRINT<\/span><\/a><\/div>

\"\"\u201cThe Lord makes all things new<\/b>\u201d. With this statement \u2013 inspired by the Book of Revelation (21:5) \u2013 Brother Carlos G\u00f3mez Restrepo, Vicar General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, before the 50 participants at the Gathering bringing together, between 8 and 15 May at the Generalate, Brothers involved in formation and those responsible for Pastoral Ministry of Vocations \u2013 including two Guadalupana Sisters of La Salle \u2013 from various Districts and Regions of the Institute. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Transforming hope<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

\u201cTo make things new does not mean erasing the past, but rather giving them new meaning and bringing them up to date, through memory and forward-looking\u201d, emphasised Brother Carlos. It is, therefore, a matter of accepting that \u201cChristian hope is lived out in the historical practice of transformation and the search for equity, justice, peace and care for our \u2018Common Home\u2019; that is to say, <\/span>committing ourselves to the education of the poor, transforming unjust structures <\/b>and anticipating, imperfectly but genuinely, that promised newness\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDoing all things thus becomes <\/span>an act of resistance that sustains the struggle for the dreams of an Institute that is constantly renewing itself<\/b>\u201d, continued the Vicar General, urging us to look towards the horizon of a new beginning to celebrate the 350<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary of the Institute\u2019s foundation \u2013 in five years\u2019 time \u2013, for which \u201cthe task of this Gathering is to co-create with the Lord the formation plans that will lead us to a new beginning\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The value of experience, the responsibility of pastoral ministry of vocations, careful discernment, the global challenges of formation, and unity in the Lasallian Mission have been some of the categories proposed to carry out this work.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

In a synodal spirit<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

\u201cIn the spirit of synodality, <\/span>our formation ecosystems are called to be homes that expand, laboratories of proximity and closeness<\/b>\u2026<\/span> that is the best antidote in a broken world<\/b>\u201d, proposed Sr. Gloria Liliana Franco, a Colombian religious of the Company of Mary, who participated in the recent Synod on Synodality and has presided over the Latin American Confederation of Religious (CLAR).<\/span><\/p>\n

Sr Liliana\u2019s address \u2013 delivered online \u2013 took place on the morning of Saturday 9 May, and focused on some perspectives for embracing synodality in the formation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, <\/span>\u201cwith our gaze fixed on Jesus and cultivating the human dimension<\/b>\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In contexts as diverse as they are challenging, \u201ca major challenge is to form and train ourselves to live in otherness\u201d, continued Sr Liliana, emphasising that to do so it is necessary <\/span>to \u201cnurture spaces for relationship and encounter<\/b>\u201d. This requires \u201cbecoming more capable each day of carrying out the tasks of the Kingdom ever more effectively, with boldness and creativity, from our identity as brothers and educators\u201d, avoiding falling into the \u201cassimilation\u201d that \u201csometimes makes us mere repeaters of absurd traditions\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

The mystique of \u2018us\u2019<\/b><\/h2><\/div>

Originality lies \u201cin preserving the essential\u201d, with innovation and faithful responses, not in \u201csterile homogeneity\u201d, proposed Sr. Liliana, recalling that <\/span>\u201cin a synodal Church we are not only asked to walk together, but above all to learn to come together, to work and to discern together<\/b>\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFormation is movement\u201d. Therefore, \u201cthe formation ecosystem is the place for encounter\u201d, and from this perspective \u201c<\/span>synodality propels us to transcend all individualism, places us in the realm of <\/b>the<\/span> common <\/b>good, fostering listening and enabling the expression of diversity\u201d, asserted the Colombian nun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Spirit of God continues to act and speak to the Church, and today calls out to us, inviting us to \u2018walk together\u2019. <\/span>This paradigm shift, this transition from a clerical Church to a more synodal Church, will require listening and conversion, placing ourselves in the plural and developing the mystique of \u2018us\u2019<\/b>\u201d, concluded Sr. Gloria Liliana Franco.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":125254,"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":[3347,3772,3272,3269,3367],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brothers","category-commission-on-consecrated-life","category-general-council","category-generalate","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125258","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125259,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125258\/revisions\/125259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasalle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}