Let us remember…that
we are in the holy presence of God.
Anyone
associated with La Salle - actually with any Lasallian school in the 83
countries in which the Christian Brothers are to be found - will immediately
recognize this salutation. It begins the prayer at the start of the school day,
it begins every class, it launches administrative and faculty meetings, indeed,
it is even to be found at the start of athletic contests. It is so ubiquitous
that I am fond of telling the story of one La Salle alum who decided to find
out how many graduates of Lasallian schools were eating lunch in his college
cafeteria. So he stood on a chair and
shouted out the first part of the salutation and, not surprisingly, received,
in return, the second part of the response from throughout the room. Needless to say, he struck up quite a few new
friendships as a result.
So,
I was delighted to be in attendance at our recent Junior Class Leadership
Ceremony, in which the students are presented with various symbols of their newly
acquired status as Upperclassmen, to hear Aly Hartman ’17 and Jonny Clarizio
’17 not only begin their student presentation to their classmates and their parents
with this salutation but to then expound on its significance for them as they described
their journey at La Salle. It’s one thing to shout the salutation out in a
crowded cafeteria as a way of identifying those who share the experience of
life in a Lasallian school; it is quite another to get up in front of your
teenage peers and expound on its actual significance in your day-to-day life. Aly began her portion of the talk with this
elegant, but simple observation:
The presence of God is a tricky thing to address.
Indeed. Adults can certainly
empathize with her observation. After all Aly and Jonny – quite naturally -
expect their parents and teachers to help them understand the work of God’s
hand in their lives. Little do they know that we find talking about the
presence of God just as tricky as they do. Yet, it was ever thus…children
become adults only to find that understanding the presence of God is as tricky
in adulthood as it was during their adolescence. Still, it is their adolescent
belief in the transparency of life’s events which sustains their sense of
wonder that God is present even in the smallest of details. How do they come to
trust that, because of the presence of God, their world makes sense? Here’s
Jonny’s explanation:
I experienced the
presence of God every time I stepped onto the football field. I felt the presence of God in each of those
friends and each of the coaches. La Salle became a place where the
presence of God was present every day for
me.
Aly echoed Jonny’s description of
the close-knit quality of the ways in which his teammates interacted with each
other by noting what happens when her fellow actors gather just before a show
opens:
Standing in a circle, holding hands and praying with thirty people that
I had begun to consider as family made me realize I wanted to be a positive
asset in the lives of those around me.
Listening to these two remarkable
young people describe their essential trust in the presence of God and
attributing it to their experience of life at La Salle was not only humbling
but challenging at the same time. I am humbled to think that we can nurture
such a profound experience of God’s presence that teenagers can name clearly
quotidian moments as examples. At the
same time, I am challenged to support my colleagues - who faithfully deliver
the Mission every day – by providing the resources they need to be their best
selves in and out of the classroom. And in being their best selves, they create
the conditions that nurture trust in the presence of God which the young people
entrusted to our care deserve to take for granted. Aly described this dynamic
even more eloquently:
We often forget God in
the simple times. It is typical for us
to only turn to Him in times of need or in times of triumph. Yet it is in the
most mundane of moments of our lives that we
develop the most in the hands of the Lord.
Aly and Jonny remind me of that
wonderful translation of Matthew 21:16 – “out of the mouths of babes…” This
year’s Junior Leadership Ceremony showcased two special teenagers who encouraged
this world-weary adult to pay attention to the myriad ways in which La Salle
High School creates a nurturing space for them in order to develop an
appreciation for the hand of God in their lives. Saint John Baptist de La Salle
probably did not realize that - centuries later - the priorities he set for the
early Brothers would so powerfully impact young people when, in the 1718
edition of his Rule, he stressed the importance of:
…giv(ing) the greatest
attention they can to the holy presence of God
and will take care to renew it from time to time
The 2015 Annual Report is replete
with examples of how De La Salle’s Mission to instill a sense of the presence
of God continues to play itself out here in Pasadena. I encourage you to review
the accomplishments of the Class of 2015 in order to see for yourself how they
have blossomed over the course of four years. And, lastly, thank you for so
generously supporting the Mission so that our young people can discover the
presence of God on a daily basis.
