Listen to yesterday's psalm: https://youtu.be/DwFq1HrNiuU

The line for Open House yesterday began outside the gym doors before 11:00 a.m. As the clock reached 11:30, the line reached past the garden and toward the gates. Parents, students, grandparents, clutching paperwork, nervous, excited, cargo shorts, blue colored hair . . . the entire gamut of applicants.

"[W]e are called to work more and more directed in the service of these peoples; 'basic education is the primary object of any plan of development. Indeed, hunger for education is no less debasing than hunger for food. . . .'" The Brother of the Christian Schools in the World Today: A Declaration, 33.3 (1967), quoting Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio

After each family group finished turning in all of their application paperwork, they were assigned a student ambassador. who gave them a tour of the campus. In the times that I left the gym to check on things in the 300 building, I heard many of the parents and student ambassadors talking about what kinds of classes were available. Even in the gym, as prospective students heard about various clubs, parents were quizzing students and teachers about classes.

"One of the main duties of fathers and mothers is to bring up their children in a Christian manner and to teach them their religion. But . . . some are taken up with their daily concerns and the care of their family; others, under the constant anxiety of earning the necessities of life. . . You, then, whom God has called to this ministry, work according to the grace that has been given to you to instruct by teaching and to exhort by encouraging those who are entrusted to your care, guiding them with attention and vigilance. . . ." (De La Salle, Med. 193.2)

The club section of the gym was fairly busy. Our guests listened attentively to our students describe clubs and extracurricular opportunities, and only rarely did a family skip a club or organization. You would, as always, have been proud of the students who represented the clubs. They were engaging, inviting, and welcoming; they gave a sense that they, personally, would not be complete without the prospective student being a part of extracurriculars here.

"So many people lack a significant 'local' community. . . [Y]oung people today are hungering for community and for spiritual depth." Brother John Johnston, FSC, "Being Brothers Today: The Enduring Challenge of the Declaration" (1997) (emphasis in original)

"Confronted with an often disintegrated family, young people are looking for a reference group and want a community which accompanies their development, shares their dreams and projects, offers moments of gratuitousness, understands their weaknesses." Brother Alvaro Rodriguez Echeverria, FSC, "Reflections on Lasallian Vocations" (2013)

It is rare, I think, to find a student truly alone in the times before and after school or during break or lunch. Groups form and re-form, meeting in different places. Over the last month, a group of volleyball players has taken up residence in Mission and Ministry before school. But no matter where the conversation starts, it seems to always get back to classes, assignments, or upcoming school events. I do not think this is uncommon.

"For us, there is no clearer teaching from our faith tradition and ongoing Lasallian story that we respond in justice to the plight of the poor, the migrant, and the young through education." Lasallian Reflection 1 (2015-2016): A Gospel Adventure

Yesterday's psalm speaks of God hearing the cries of the poor. What we saw yesterday and see today speaks of a Lasallian community that has heard, and has accepted a journey, to be "his ministers in order to reconcile [children] to him." (De La Salle, Med. 193.3). But the poor continue to line up at our gates, show us their broken hearts, their lowliness, and express their pleas. Tomorrow, will we continue to be near to the brokenhearted? Be safe shelter for their fears?

Live, Jesus, in our hearts . . .

"For you hear the cry of the poor"