“T O PROCURE YOUR GLORY ” LASALLIAN IDENTITY ACCORDING TO THE BROTHERS ’ FORMULAS OF PROFESSION 1 MEL BULLETIN N. 54 - December 2019 Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools Secretariat for Association and Mission Editor: Br. Nestor Anaya, FSC
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[email protected] Service of Communications and Technology Generalate, Rome, Italy 2 MEL BULLETINS 54 “T O PROCURE YOUR GLORY ” LASALLIAN IDENTITY ACCORDING TO THE BROTHERS ’ FORMULAS OF PROFESSION BROTHER JOSEAN VILLALABEITIA , FSC 3 INTRODUCTION 4 The Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded by Saint John Baptist de La Salle in 1679, have used different formulas throughout their history to affirm their religious profession. Although the basic structure of them all has faithfully respected the outline proposed by the Founder and the first Brothers in the foundation’s early years (1691-1694), it is no less true that the content included in this permanent context has varied substantially over the years. The most recent change was made, precisely, by the Institute’s penultimate General Chapter in the Spring of 2007. A profession formula is not just any text, at least among Lasallians. Since the beginning, all the essentials of Lasallian consecration, what De La Salle’s followers are and should be, are contained therein: God, other Lasallians (i.e., the community), the school, the poor, the radical nature of its presentation. It is therefore an essential part of our institutional heritage, on which it would be advisable to return more often than we usually do.