Lasallian Spirituality Christian spirituality is?

A Lasallian is an individual who integrates in his life and 1. about totality of the whole person.
lives the spirituality and mission of St. John Baptist De 2. about the Trinitarian God of love and grace.
LaSalle
3. is a prophetic spirituality.
Spirituality – a path which connects you to yourself and
almighty in the purest form 4. is a contemplative spirituality.

– derived from the Latin adjective ‘spiritualis’, which 5. is a healing spirituality.

means "concerning the spirit” 6. is Christian spiritualities.
– ‘spirit’ means "animating or vital principle in man and 7. sustained in the journey of faith by grace.
animals”. derived from the Latin word spiritus (soul,
courage, vigor, breath) and is related to spirare (to
breathe).
SPIRITUALITY

Spirit
Three Lasallian Core Virtues
1. not Material: Simple
Faith – to rest in God, despite the uncertainties that we
2. not Time: Space bound
experience
3. infinite, but not necessarily eternal
• to open our hearts for the Word of God through
prayers Eternal – no beginning and no end

Service – doing all our actions for the love of God Infinite – no end but with beginning

• the act of kindness and generosity with our fellow Temporal – with beginning and end
Lasallians or to our less fortunate brothers and sisters
Aeviternal (angels)
Communion in Mission – an act of solidarity, or
individual’s dedication to his goal or mission
Spirituality
• unity within the community
– something within us

– not quantifiable
Essential Elements of Christian Spirituality
– that connects us beyond our material limitations
Christian Sprituality is
– that makes us relate to someone greater than us
1. about Knowing God.
(pure spirit – God)
2. about Experiencing God to the full.

3. involves Transformation of existence on the basis of

the Christian faith and truths.

4. attaining Christian authenticity in life and thoughts.

We connect to God through

1. Prayer,

2. Bible Study
Characteristics of Christian Spirituality
3. Faith Sharing Types of Spiritual Path
4. Going to Mass Devotional
5. Sunday worship and service – spending time with God through prayer, reflection,
meditation and contemplation
6. Rosary/Novena
Practical
7. Procession
– through learning, listening to teachings, self-
8. Fasting and Abstinence
experience of God’s presence in their lives

Moral
Being Religious
– sense of (respect for life, right or wrong,
1. Act of Devotion family/upholds the value of life), hates any form of
injustice
2. Prayer Life

3. Liturgical/Worship Obligation Ministry

Common Features to the 3 Spiritual Paths
4. Pastoral Work
1. Benevolence (Kindness of Heart)
5. Spiritual Life
2. Sense of Respect
– many times, it reflects our spirituality
3. Not Materialistic
Spirituality – a relationship of man to God, a way of life
4. Peace loving

5. Charitable – poverty can be a means of God’s Gift /

Who is this God?
Grace
1. One if 3 Divine Persons – Mt.28:19-20

2. Creator – Gen.1-2 (Saan ko galling?)

Living one’s Spirituality – Mission
3. Omniscient – Jer.1:5 (Sino ako?)
Mission (Mitere: to send)
4. Immutable – Exod 3:14 (Paano ako?)
Spirituality – enables us to go and reach out to others
5. Omnipotent – Ps 68:34 (Anong gagawin ko) (Missionary)

6. Love – 1 Jn 4:16 (Sinong Kasama ko?)

 Humble-Servant
St. John Baptist de La Salle
- Went into Solitude at Parmenie in 1712-14
– a French priest, educational reformer, and founder of
an international educational movement who spent over - Serious attack of Rheumatism
forty years of his life to educate poor children. - Period of Self-Effacement & Doubt
Birthdate: April 30, 1651 - Received letter from the Brothers to return
Death: April 7, 1719 on Good Friday (at age 68) - First General Chapter
– Died at St. Yon near Rouen - Election of Brother Barthelemy
Birthplace: Rheims, France

Educator
Who is St. John Baptist de La Salle? – Pioneered in training college teachers
1. Risk-Taker – Reform schools for delinquents
2. Decision-Maker – Technical schools
3. Servant-Leader – Secondary schools for modern languages, arts and
4. Humble Servant sciences

5. Educator – Educational Institutions spread across the globe

Risk-Taker How did our Founder St. John Baptist de la Salle

become more Christ-like?
- Devoted his talents to open schools for poor children
– His generosity served as the hope of the unfortunate
- Abandoned his family and wealth children in education.
- Established a community of brothers – Passionate human being who distributed his personal
wealth to the poor or his community.

Decision-maker "What is nobler than to mold the character of the

young? I consider that he who knows how to form the
- Heroic Vow in 1691 with his two companions youthful mind is truly greater than all painters, sculptors
and all others of that sort” - (St. John Chrysostom)
- Established Vaugirard Novitiate

- Received Perpetual Vows with 12 brothers in 1693

Servant-Leader

- Use vernacular medium of instruction

- Trained Lay Teachers

- Superior of the Brothers

Lasallian Spirituality Personal Information - includes the affirmation,
adaptation or conversion of beliefs, attitudes values and
– live in God’s presence, and trust in God’s providence behavior brought about by engagement with the
Christian Story and Vision.
– live the Gospel, and pray always
1. forming character towards freedom
– work with the poor, and in the community

Living in Friendship - calls us to transcend self -

centeredness and consider the good of others as just as
A Spirituality (a relationship with God) embraced by St. important as our own. This is because being Christian is
John Baptist de La Salle, and from which proceeds it’s expressed most visibly in our day to day relationships.
related and unique Lasallian Mission Especially on how we treat others.
– No Lasallian Spirituality without and apart from St. 1. forming healthy relationship
John Baptist de la Salle

– Lasallian Spirituality is one of the many means of

Caring for the World - promotes the orientation to
relating to God in the ways of St. John Baptist de la Salle
serve the common good and enter into effective
solidarity with those in need.
Lasallian lived Spirituality: Goal of Religious Education 1. solidarity and service to the common good
– Deepening intimacy and fidelity to loving God
experienced in persons, places, events, and things in
Praying our Experiences
everyday life.
– involves the ability to bring life experiences to prayer
and worship
Seeing with the Eyes of Faith – involves the ability to
– recognizing that God is experienced in persons, places,
regard life experiences and everyday realities in the light
events and things that constitute everyday life.
of the Christian Story and Vision and so bring a faith
perspective to one’s thoughts, words and actions. – The focus will be on acquiring the dispositions for
prayer: (honesty, receptivity, responsiveness)
1. life
– and developing a sacramental vision of reality, as well
2. faith
as facility in using various spiritual practices, prayer
3. life reflection forms, sacred scripture & spiritual texts, symbols and
rituals to grow in one’s relationship with God.
Praying our Experiences – involves the ability to bring
life experiences to prayer and worship, recognizing that
God is experienced in persons, places, events and things
What is Prayer?
that constitute everyday life.
1. dialogue with God.
1. personal prayer
2. time of fellowship with God
2. communal worship
3. power of God through man.

4. being in God’s presence

5. finding the mind of God and agreeing with Him

6. lifting up of our minds and hearts to God.

7. enables us to see, to feel and to love as God do.

 3. THANKSGIVING: To thank God for his favor and
blessings. Everything that we are and have comes from
“for me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look
toward heaven, it is a cry of both recognition and of love, God.
embracing both trial and joy.” – St. Therese of Lisieux

“man achieves the fullness of prayer, not when he expresses

4. SUPPLICATION or PETITION: To lift up to the Lord all
himself, but when he lets God be most fully present in
prayer.” – John Paul II, crossing the threshold of hope
of our needs. God, who knows us through and through,
knows what we need. Nevertheless, God wants us to
Reasons to Pray ask, to turn to him in times of need, to cry out, implore,
1. because we are God’s children and he loves us lament, call upon him, indeed, even to struggle with him
in prayer.
2. it deepens our trust in God

3. it causes us to depend on him

5. INTERCESSION: To pray for the needs of others.
4. because our hearts long to encounter God

5. our prayers move the heart of God

The Basic Forms of Prayer
6. it helps us discover his will
Blessing and Adoration

– in prayers of adoration we praise God and acknowledge our

dependence of Him.
Why do we pray?
Example: The Gloria and the Act of Faith
1. because we are full of an infinite longing and God has
created us men for Himself.
Petition
2. because we need to.
– in prayers of petition, we ask God for things we need both
3. because it purifies, strengthens us in our weakness.
spirituality and physically.
4. because it removes our fear.
Example: Our Father
5. because it increases our energy.

6. because it makes one happy.

Intercession

– in prayers of intercession, we make requests to God on

Motives and Purposes of Prayer behalf of other people

1. ADORATION of GOD: expressing to Him our love and Example: Watch, O Lord (St. Augustine)
loyalty, to give Him pleasure and delight. It is the
acknowledgment of the presence of God, the Creator
and Lord of the Universe.
Thanksgiving

– in prayers of thanksgiving, we thank God for the good things

2. CONTRITION: To ask and obtain forgiveness of our
sins and the remission of their punishment. or to resist Example: Grace before meals
temptation: The insight into one’s personal guilt
produces a longing to better oneself; this is called
contrition.

Praise
– in prayers of praise, we express our love for God, the source According to the Cathecism of the Catholic Church, there are
of all love three types or ‘expressions’ of prayer in the Christian life.

Example: Act of Charity 1. Vocal – “by words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes
flesh.” It is the spoken prayer, through which we translate
our feelings externally” e.g. Our Father
Models of Prayer 2. Meditative – “Meditation is above all a quest.” to discover
what the lord wants from us, it engages thought,
Abraham (Old Testament) imagination, emotion, and desire.
Abraham listened to God. He was willing to set out for 3. Contemplative – “Contemplative prayer is silence.” is the
wherever God commanded and to do what God willed. By his type of prayer in which we are one with Christ, it is a
listening and readiness to make a new start, he is a model for communion of love and a gaze of faith.
our prayer.

Blessed Virgin Mary (New Testament)

How do you pray the Rosay?
Profound and constant prayer enabled the Virgin Mary to
embrace God’s will in her life. The Blessed Virgin Mary, The ROSARY is the name of a set of prayer beads and the
“teaches us the necessity of prayer,” through which God gives name of a devotional prayer that originated in the twelfth
believers the courage “to reach the ends of the world and century, particularly among the Cistercian and Carthusian
proclaim everywhere the Lord Jesus, savior of the world.” monks, whose lay brothers did not participate in the Liturgy
of the Hours and had in the Rosary their own form of prayer
(the “Marian Psalter”).
What do Christians express by prayer postures? Later the Rosary was promoted by other religious orders,
1. Standing – in the presence of God expresses reverence especially by the Dominicans. The Popes have recommended
(you stand up when a superior enters) and also vigilance and this prayer again and again, and for many people it is a
readiness (you are ready to set out on a journey beloved devotion.
immediately).

If at the same time the hands are outstretched in praise of

The Holy Rosary
God (the Orante position), the person praying assumes the
original gesture of praise. The Joyful Mysteries (Monday and Saturday)
2. Sitting – in God’s presence, the Christian listens to what is The Glorious Mysteries (Wednesday and Sunday)
happening internally; he ponders the Word in his heart (Lk
2:51) and meditates on it. The Sorrowful Mysteries (Tuesday and Friday)

3. Kneeling – a person makes himself small in the presence of The Luminous Mysteries (Thursday)
God’s greatness. He recognizes his dependence on God’s
grace.

4. Prostrating – a person adores God.

5. Folding the Hands – a person overcomes distraction,

“recollects himself” (gathers his thoughts) and unites himself
to God. Folded hands are also the original gesture of petition.

In Western Christianity (such as Roman Catholicism,

Types of Prayer Lutheranism, or Anglicanism)
Lectio Divina (Latin for "Divine Reading") is a traditional
monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and
What is God’s Presence?
prayer intended to promote communion with God and to
increase the knowledge of God's word. 1. Loving
This method of prayer intends to promote: 2. Forgiving
1. Communion with God 3. Empowering
2. Provide an outlet of reflection and insight for the word of 4. Healing
God.
5. Uniting
3. It promotes a way of praying with the Scriptures that calls
one to study, ponder, listen and finally, pray from God’s
word. Contemplation

– allow God to speak to us

How do you pray lectio Divina? – no words, actions, images (pure and intense sacred silence)
Lectio Divina – is a practice of scriptural reading. It involves “Contemplatibus In Actione” – St. John of the Cross
meditating on a passage of the Bible, preferably the Gospel of
the Day

Steps to Pray Action

1. Invoke – invite the holy spirit – Actualizing what is prayed and contemplated into one’s life

2. Read – what is this passage saying on the bible? – the practical expression of prayer

3. Meditate – moment of silence “ora et labora” – St. Benedict

4. Pray – begin to dialogue with Lord – Done in the Spirit of Love/Charity

5. Contemplate – listen closely with your heart, and practice

what he has told you
Kinds of Prayer
1. Vocal Prayer
Lectio Divina Steps
2. Silent Prayer
Lectio – what does the text say that everyone should
3. Spontaneous Prayer
understand?
4. Formal/Liturgical Prayer
Meditatio – what does the text say to me, today, and to my
life? 5. Divine Office Prayer

Oratio – what can I say to the Lord in response to his word? 6. Praying the Rosary

Contemplatio – what conversation of the mind, heart, and life 7. Meal Prayer
is the Lord asking of me?
8. Holy Eucharist
Actio – how can I make my life a gift for others?

The Holy Eucharist

The Lasallian Interior Prayer
1. Liturgy of the Word
Recollection – an invitation to pause and remember that we
are in God’s holy presence 2. Entrance Procession
3. Prayers of the Faithful

4. Liturgy of the Eucharist

5. Offertory

6. Final Blessing

“Prayer does not change God, it changes the one who is

praying.” – Soren Kierkegaard

The De La Salle Brothers of the Christian

Schools
“FSC” – an abbreviation place after the names of the Brothers
to denote their membership to the institute. It means
“Fratres Scholarum Christianarum” in latin.