One Lasallian's thoughts

A thought for the nineteenth week in Ordinary Time

Posted by Jerry Meyer on August 13th, 2017

Today's first reading: "At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter. Then the LORD said to him, 'Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by.' A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire—but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave."

"By faith, [Lasallians] learn to discern in every event, and in every person, especially in the poor, a sign and a call of the Spirit." (Adapted from Rule of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, 6)

Where is the face of God? Where is the sign and spirit of God in our lives as teachers? Isn't it in the still, small voice of the freshman who is timid and worried about participating in class? Or the straight A student who is never on our radar because, "hey, her grades are great", but whose home life turned into a wreck this weekend? And how about the double digit number of sophomores who have more than one F right now? How will you see in them, and in so many others, the face of God this week?

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the week of Transfiguration

Posted by Jerry Meyer on August 8th, 2017

One of the things about the first couple of weeks of school that is not quite as joyful as reuniting with our students is the feeling that we often get that we are not quite in control. Schedules shuffle, students are not quite as talented or docile as we remembered them or hope for, the great plan we thought of in the summer that we could not wait to try did not go quite as we wanted. . . the list goes on. What is the remedy?

From Sunday's gospel: "Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him."

From De La Salle (Med. 18.1): "The Gospel tells us that our Lord was transfigured while praying on a very high, lonely mountain. This teaches us that God pours out his consolation on souls who devote themselves a great deal to prayer and who love this holy exercise."

Every student we have needs us, no matter for a moment or for an extended time, whether high on the list of top performers or one who has not shown us much yet, excited to be here or dragged in and enrolled by his abeula. As we get into the nitty-gritty of the year, please resolve to seek help in prayer, that God will extend his consolation to us and strengthen and inspire us more and more for the benefit of these young people whom God has entrusted to us.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the seventeenth week in Ordinary Time (first full week of school)

Posted by Jerry Meyer on July 31st, 2017

From former Brother Superior General John Johnston, FSC: "God is confiding to your care, God is entrusting to you, the children and youth that you have in your schools. . . God wants you to represent Jesus Christ - to re-present - to make Jesus' loving and saving presence a visible and effective reality in their lives. He wants you, in Jesus' name and in his place, to touch their hearts and their minds."

This is a quite a responsibility. To be the presence of Christ to each and every one of our students, to touch their minds and hearts as Jesus would, calls on us to be the very best of ourselves all the time. And the reality is that we are not always our best every minute of every day. What to do?

From yesterday's first reading: "The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, 'Ask something of me and I will give it to you.' Solomon answered: 'O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.'"

We will not be Solomon at his peak, either. But his request to God is a reminder to us of what we truly need to touch the students entrusted to our care: an understanding heart. May our prayer during this first week of school be for the understanding heart that we need to represent Jesus Christ daily in our classrooms, CWSP relationships, and offices.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for Teacher Appreciation Week (Fourth week of Easter)

Posted by Jerry Meyer on May 7th, 2017

From today's gospel: Jesus said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers. . . A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

De La Salle (Med. 201.3): "Tell the parents also what Jesus Christ said about the sheep of which he is the shepherd and which must be saved by him: I came, he said, that they might have life and have it to the full. For this had to have been the kind of ardent zeal you felt for the salvation of those you must instruct when you were led to sacrifice yourselves and to spend your whole life to give these children a Christian education and to procure for them the life of grace in this world and eternal life in the next."

"All in." I'm sure all of us have had those times when we have given everything to see a student succeed. Why do we keep doing this? Why will we do it again even as we approach final exams, as we reach the end of the semester? Because we are like the good shepherd. We know our students and what they need, we want them to have the fullness of life, and, because they know us, they trust that we are offering all that we can for them. Thank you for the times that you have brought your family to an event so that you can be there for our kids, spent your own money, brought in food, given up your Saturday, or woke up in the middle of the night because you had to write down that idea which would make the next lesson even better for your students. It is a blessing to be able to shepherd with you!

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the third week of Easter

Posted by Jerry Meyer on April 30th, 2017

From today's gospel: That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, "What are you discussing as you walk along?" They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?" And he replied to them, "What sort of things?" They said to him, "The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see." And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?" So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, "The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!" Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

From Thomas Groome, Will There Be Faith?: "An amazing aspect of this Teacher’s approach is that he never tells these two disciples what to see. Rather, he crafts the teaching/learning dynamics so that eventually they come to see for themselves. Jesus begins the pedagogy by turning the two to life, to look at and reflect upon what is going on for them and within their own souls."

De La Salle (Med. 194.3): "It is true that a number of doctrines are absolutely necessary for us to know in order to be saved, but what would it serve to know them if we did not take the trouble to practice the good to which we are bound?"

I can tell my freshmen about moral decision making until the cows come home. And in the same way, we can regularly instruct our students in the meaning of an adjective, the conjugation of irregular -ir verbs in Spanish, the manner of multiplying with imaginary numbers, or the importance of the Cluniac reforms. But until students come to see the importance of these things in their own lives, or encounter them in their daily experiences, their hearts will not burn within them, nor will they see the beauty of God's truth as we break it open for them. May our prayer this week be that we will continue to learn how to invite our students to see for themselves the beauty and reality of Christ in all the things they learn, that Jesus will live in their hearts, forever!

A thought for Palm Sunday, Triduum, and Easter

Posted by Jerry Meyer on April 8th, 2017

"Dear friends in Christ, for five weeks of Lent we have been preparing, by works of charity and self-sacrifice, for the celebration of our Lord's paschal mystery. Today we come together to begin this solemn celebration in union with the whole Church throughout the world. Christ entered in triumph into his own city, to complete his work as our Messiah: to suffer, to die, and to rise again. Let us remember with devotion this entry which began his saving work and follow him with a lively faith. United with him in his suffering on the cross, may we share his resurrection and new life." (Introduction to Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, Roman Missal 2d ed.)

On this Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, we begin again our immersion into the saving journey and work of Jesus. In our own lives, we are drawn into the suffering of the cross, there to begin again the joy of the resurrection. As Pope Francis reminded us this morning in his homily:

He does not ask us to contemplate him only in pictures and photographs, or in the videos that circulate on the internet. No. He is present in our many brothers and sisters who today endure sufferings like his own: they suffer from slave labour, from family tragedies, from diseases . . . They suffer from wars and terrorism, from interests that are armed and ready to strike. Women and men who are cheated, violated in their dignity, discarded… Jesus is in them, in each of them, and, with marred features and broken voice, he asks to be looked in the eye, to be acknowledged, to be loved.

"In instituting [the Eucharist], Jesus Christ changed bread into his flesh and wine into his blood. On this very day he became the living Bread come down from heaven to unite himself with us, to incorporate himself in us . . . He puts aside all the splendor of his divinity to take on the appearance of ordinary bread, an appearance that has no proportion to what it contains. . . The love of Jesus Christ for us led him to institute this divine sacrament in order to give himself entirely to us and to remain always with us. He knew that immediately afterward he would suffer and die for us . . . his body and blood to be for us in the ages to come a precious proof of the tender love he feels for us. . . Admire this holy institution; become worthy to profit from it by a holy life, and today pray to Jesus Christ, who comes to you to destroy entirely your own inclinations and spirit, so that you may have no other inclinations except his and may no longer be guided except by his Spirit." (De La Salle, Med. 26.2, 26.3 (Meditation for Holy Thursday)

What love Christ had for us, to offer himself to the Father fully and completely, that we might always have a model of how to love in our own lives, and to have Christ Jesus present within us, to strengthen us in our love for each other and remind us that ordinary appearances often mark the most extraordinary realities. In this love, may our own inclinations be put aside, so that we will truly see the marginalized, those truly in need of education, the students who suffer from brokenness in their personal or family lives, as Jesus Christ present to us daily.

"If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus." (From the Epistle for the Easter Vigil, Romans 6:8-11)

If we unite ourselves to Christ in his suffering and death, then we are united with him in his resurrection. So as we see the suffering and crucified Christ in the difficulties and tribulations of our students, we must, in our new life, be the agents of resurrection in their lives of education and faith, a human and a Christian education, for them. As Christians, as Lasallians, as an Easter people, it is not enough to recognize and walk where our students are. We must, even in the darkness, lead them to the light of new life, of new knowledge, of the joy of learning throughout their lives. During this Holy Week, may we be ever focused on the reality of the Paschal Mystery so that we may live it daily with the students entrusted to our care.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the fifth week of Lent

Posted by Jerry Meyer on April 2nd, 2017

From today's gospel: "When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Lord, come and see.' Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, 'See how he loved him!' But some of them said, 'Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?' Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, 'Take away the stone.' Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, 'Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.' Jesus said to her, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, 'Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.' When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.'

What keeps us in darkness? What binds us and keeps us from moving into the light?

De La Salle (Med. 193.1): "This is what God does by diffusing the fragrance of his teaching throughout the whole world by human ministers. Just as he commanded light to shine out of darkness, so he kindles a light in the hearts of those destined to announce his word to children, so that they may be able to enlighten those children by unveiling for them the glory of God."

Just as we need to identify our darkness and the chains that keep us there, we also need to see how God brings light to our darkness. As we find God's light within, we are called to share it with our students, hoping that they too will walk away from darkness, death, and those things that keep them from flying free. In this last full week of Lent, may our eyes and hearts be open to all that enlightens and frees us, and become even more willing to illuminate the way for the students who bless our community.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the middle of Lent

Posted by Jerry Meyer on March 12th, 2017

Starting with the story of creation and original sin and continuing with the call of Abraham, the gift of water to the Israelites as they traveled the desert, and today's story of the choice of David as king, the first reading for each of the Sundays of Lent has provided us with a basic outline of the important events of salvation history: God's offer of relationship to his people, and their response. These stories remind us that God's offer of love to us is continuing and unconditional, especially as we see it in the life of Jesus.

From "Lasallian Identity" by Brother Antonio Botana, FSC: "We live the experience of the Light which God has placed in our hearts in order to enlighten the young students who are the objective of our mission. We are mediators for them with the God of Salvation. In the same way that the mission leads to experience of the God of Salvation, we enter the field of education to contemplate the reality of young people suffering from poverty. We do this with the merciful eyes of God, full of confidence that each person is capable of growth and renewal. This experience of the ebb and flow of regard for the God of Salvation and regard for the young we have to save is known in Lasallian terminology as the spirit of faith and of zeal. On this journey of mission and contemplation, we discover ourselves and realise the need of cultivating the spirit which makes sense of all we do and of all that we are. That is how the Lasallian spirituality evolves, a spirituality of mediation. We ourselves are links between the God who saves and the poor who need to be saved. And the need we have of finding reasonable answers for the poor, causes us to have recourse to God for the gifts we need in our mission. Through it we discover the kind of community we have to form and the kind of education we have to impart as God's work, and we recognise ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ."

The season of Lent is designed, in part, to give us the time and opportunity to reflect on God's call to us, and on how we have responded to him. But as Lasallians, our call is also to educate. As Brother Antonio Botana explains, this call leads us not only to know and share God in our own lives, but to see the reality of the poor, the marginalized, the underserved. Our response is to be the bridge between the God of salvation and those who live that reality. Our response calls us to take the gifts and unconditional love of God for us, and use them to bring salvation to those in educational need.

Lent invites us to review our response to God. As Lasallian educators, we come to know that our response to God is our response to our students. Is the grace and mercy of God that is shared with us shown in our actions, our belief, that each of our young people is capable of growth, of renewal, of salvation?

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the first week of Lent

Posted by Jerry Meyer on March 5th, 2017

Today's gospel: At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread." He said in reply, "It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone." Jesus answered him, "Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test." Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me." At this, Jesus said to him, "Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve." Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

From De La Salle's Meditation for the First Sunday of Lent: "The Wise Man likewise forewarns us of this when he says that those who enter the service of God must prepare themselves for temptation. . . Have you always thought that to be devoted entirely to God, you must be prepared to be tempted? Are you not upset when some temptation comes to you? In the future be ready to meet temptation at any time and thus to draw from it all the benefit that God wishes it to accomplish in you."

Temptations for teachers can be quite prevalent this time of year, temptations like, "they're not working hard, let's make it easier", "I can't stand (name)", or "there's nothing more we can do for (name)". What inspires me about teaching at San Miguel during Lent is that we are surrounded by educators - all of you - who live as "ambassadors and ministers of Christ" (Med. 195.2) who, like Christ, will be tempted, but, like Christ, never give in. Even during some of our intense small group discussions on Friday about CRN Mission Effectiveness Standards, when some frustrations surfaced, they were always voiced as passionate desires to do better for our students, not to give up. As Megan suggested so well on Wednesday, you have been disciplined, over time, to respond in love to the face of God in our students, not to push them away.

For this week, as we face the joys and frustrations of working with the students entrusted to our care, let us look to the passionate, loving response of all of our colleagues as we face down our temptations, or help others to do so.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the eighth week of Ordinary Time

Posted by Jerry Meyer on February 26th, 2017

From yesterday's gospel: "Jesus said to his disciples: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? . . .[S]eek first the kingdom of God . . . ."

From De La Salle (Med. 67.3): "Jesus Christ assures you that God will take charge of providing your food and your support. Your heavenly Father, he says, knows that you need all these things. He is the one who feeds the birds of the sky. Are you not far more valuable than they? Are you not far dearer to him than birds? . . . If, then, you are devoted to work in the harvest of souls, how can you fear that the One who employs you in this task as his coworker will refuse you the food that you need to do his work? The more you are abandoned to God for what concerns your temporal needs, the more care he will take to provide for you. . .Turn your thoughts to God; place all your trust in him, and he will feed you."

This is a most difficult scripture. For us to truly live what Jesus teaches, we must be immersed in what we do. For God promises, De La Salle wrote, that we will be fed by caring for our students. It is not about the birds or the grass. If we care for our students, how could God fail to provide what we need to carry out this work? Our students, with all of their educational, economic, and social needs, live in the heart of God, who loves them. "Seek first the kingdom of God", "place all your trust in him": seek our students in God's heart, and there you will find all that you need.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!