mandala

…In light we become

In order that “We face this moment as a call for a personal and institutional conversion toward the world of the vulnerable and impoverished” (45th General Chapter 1.15)

  • Take pride in speaking honestly about God and me. We are weak and vulnerable and it may be our greatest strength. It takes courage, compassion and connection to be vulnerable. This vulnerability is the door to innovation, creativity and change.
  • Retirement is a magnificent opportunity to refound ourselves and our mission.
  • The mission changes with the times while the charism stays the same.
  • Focus is on needy young people and their families.
  • If a thing’s worth doing it is worth doing poorly—spirituality of imperfection.
  • Waiting for ideal conditions is rarely an option.
  • Discussion, disagreement, dialogue and debate are healthy and attractive.
  • Potential leaders are everywhere in our organization (remember Peter Bray’s summers at LLI).
  • Mission preservation is the responsibility of every Lasallian (woman, man, youth, Brother).
  • District & mission councils need members or a plan that will value thinking out of the box, focus on new needs and imagine the future. The world is changing dramatically. (Brother Bob Schieler’s think tank).
  • Generativity needs affirmation and expression. Study the improbable Biblical parents to find ways to continue generativity beyond our child bearing years.
  • Listen to the Spirit within each of us before going to experts like Francis or Bob.
  • Information overload is for the website. Meetings are for sharing of ideas from within, for learning and for ownership of the future. We discover the truth that exists within by listening to each other with open hearts.
  • Go forth from our comfort zone to reach the ”peripheries.”
  • Conversations can be about meekness, mercy, austerity, tenderness, vulnerability, grieving, connection, courage, compassion, wholeheartedness
    and surrender.
  • “With” the poor, trusting in them, learning from them, allowing them to be in charge. They are active participants in their own lives; not the mere recipients of our largess. We are the ones on the periphery. Time to play down white and male privilege that some call biased common sense.
  • Promise all Brother recruits a life of sacrifice, uncomfort, on the periphery, serving with poor people and living responsibly in religious communities. (without employees) “Life weakens in comfort” Pope Francis
  • God is a verb not a noun. God reveals God’s self in what God inspires us to do with our one simple life. We trust.
  • Find God’s dream for me developing in my imagination. “God comes to us disguised as our life.” Paula D’Arcy
  • Share with people our plans for the present and our hopes for the future.
  • Network with the record number of circles of Lasallians in DENA – associative groups, young Lasallians, Lasallian Women, Retired Lasallians, Lasallian associations, Committees, formation groups (22 at last count). We Brothers are not alone—17 partners for every Brother in DENA. The Missio Dei.
  • It’s not going to be easy. Remember Job and Jesus. All disappointment, sickness, suffering, disease, and pain are our salvation history. God suffers with us. God is present to us especially in our tragedies, in our inadequacy, in our failures — and in those of others near and far.
  • Ours might be a vocation of mending, of repairing some of the world’s brokenness.
  • We are on the way to something unknown.
  • “Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.” Heschel
  • Invite partners to share residential and non residential communities.
  • Dream of a new paradigm for the re founding of the De La Salle Christian Brothers of DENA.
  • Our life and our world are full of paradox…both/and.
  • Abundance of Lasallian vocations unparalleled in history. No crisis of vocations if we support our partners and the lay vocation in the church.