Let us remember...

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.