Our DENA Delegates pose together for a photo in front of the Parmenie backdrop.
By Br. William Mann, FSC
President
The Fragile Hope of a Witness
We’ve just finished the fourth week of the Chapter, and it was quite the week! We began it working in thematic groups (previously called commissions) to chart the course and prepare proposals for the next seven years and finished it with the first formal surfacing of names to be considered for new Institute leadership. In between, we found time for a prayerful and festive celebration of our Founder’s Feast Day and began reading (at least some of us did) the gift we had received from Brother Superior of the newly published story of the life journey of the late Brother Michel Sauvage, The Fragile Hope of a Witness.
Our work groups of about a dozen people each considered the following key themes that emerged during the previous week of the Chapter: mission, formation and accompaniment, vocation, association, stewardship of resources, government, & life of the Brother in the 21st century. Work in groups was balanced with presentations to the whole Chapter in general assembly of the plans and propositions being developed. Thus, all capitulants were allowed time for input and clarification on all themes being studied prior to the formal voting of propositions which is scheduled for the end of week five.
Topics like vocation promotion, catechesis and evangelization, and higher education are getting significantly more attention than they did at the previous three Chapters; and the influence of Pope Francis in “Evangelii Gaudium” is clearly being felt as certain key ideas and phrases find an echo in our deliberations (the joy of radically living the Gospel, the centrality of the Word, concern for the vulnerable, and the call to head out to the periphery). Strong support is felt to move forward with key proposals of the 2nd International Assembly on the Lasallian Educational Mission (2013), chief among them being a declaration on Lasalllian pedagogy in the 21st century & the creation of an international council for the animation and governance of the Lasallian educational mission.
Prayer has been central to the deliberations at the Chapter. Br. Edmundo Fernandez, FSC, of the Philippines, spotted in prayer.
Other topics under discussion, among many others, are: concern for aging and fragile Districts and sectors; assuring adequate and equitable formation for all; maintaining the unity between the educational service of the poor and announcing the Gospel; responding creatively and audaciously to the urgent needs of the vulnerable (immigrants, refugees, unemployed youth); restructuring the General Council; and developing a personal, spiritual, and professional renewal program of some months in Parmenie.
But now it is time, at the start of a new week, to enter once more on Monday into a day of prayer, reflection, and discernment before we move forward with the election of a new Brother Superior.
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- Our DENA Brothers, including RELAN’s General Councilor, Robert Schieler, in a photo with a De La Salle statue, on the Motherhouse grounds.
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- Mini figurines of De La Salle…
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- were presented to the Superior General and his Councilors as a thank you for their service to the Institute. Superior General and Councilor elections will happen later this week.
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- Brothers gather during the Founder’s Feast day meal.
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- A day full of festivities and photos!
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- Br. Robert is always smiling!
Thank you for the insightful review of week 4- I am most grateful for the sharing of the seven themes and the focus moving forward. What I find inspiring is the consistency of the “themes” from the International Assembly, Young Brothers Assembly and the Young Lasallian Symposium- you get a deepening sense of the working of the Holy Spirit infusing grace throughout the Institute! Prayers for tomorrow!