This essay on the spirituality of John Baptist de La Salle
forms part of a series devoted to the history of French spirituality. The title has been
chosen with that in mind. However, in relation to the series as a whole, the approach
taken here may seem to be rather narrow, if not downright irrelevant. Three introductory
considerations will help to explain the reasons for such an approach. Furthermore, this
rather lengthy preamble, while serving as an introduction to the theme, will contribute to
its development as well.
The first introductory point concerns an observation that is commonly heard. The name of
the Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools brings to mind in
the first instance the problems relating to the schools, education in general and teaching
in particular, much more readily than questions of spirituality. De La Salle is usually
associated with an approach to education which, depending on the background or the bias of
the interpreters, is considered to be either realistic or utopian, popular or elitist,
innovative or traditional, liberating or oppressive.
Thus it is rather rare for people to think at first of John Baptist de La Salle as a
master of the spiritual life. Father Andre Rayez, for a long time the chief editor of the
Dictionary of Spirituality and a man to whom the recent renewal of Lasallian studies owes
so much, noted this in an article he wrote in 1952. Perhaps the most outstanding
illustration of the truth of this observation is that the Abbe Bremond's monumental
literary history of French religious thought does not speak at all of De La Salle. His
name is nowhere mentioned in the eleven volumes of this standard reference work.
Nevertheless, the Founder of the Brothers does merit some attention even though he does
not represent any particular stage in the development of French spirituality. It is true
that he authored many pedagogical and catechetical works that for more than two centuries
had an astonishing success in print. There were 24 editions of the Conduct of Schools up
until 1903; 125 editions or reprintings of the Rules of Christian Politeness between 1703
and 1853; and 270 printings of the Duties of a Christian between 1703 and 1928. But he
also produced a number of spiritual treatises: the Rule of the Brothers; an assortment of
short excerpts on different aspects of the spiritual life which were brought together in
one volume that he called the Collection; three series of Meditations, including 77 for
Sundays and feasts in the temporal cycle, 109 for the feasts of saints, and 16 meditations
for the time of the annual retreat. All of these meditations relate to the spiritual
demands and the significance of the educational activity of the Brothers, for which De La
Salle did not hesitate to use the term ministry. Finally, he wrote a treatise on mental
prayer which was published under the title An Explanation of the Method of Mental Prayer,
based on the instructions he had given to the Brothers.
On the basis of these writings, several historians see in John Baptist de La Salle a good
witness to the many spiritual movements in the France of the seventeenth century. These
are so varied as to defy categorization into schools or types. Like most of the spiritual
authors of his day, De La Salle saw in the Sacred Scripture the basis for the spiritual
life of the Christian. Above all, he set himself in the mainstream of the Catholic
Counter- Reformation and so was animated by an enthusiasm for spiritual renewal and
missionary zeal. His spiritual doctrine is marked by the Christocentrism of the school of
Berulle, with its devotion to the Word Incarnate and identification with the
"mysteries" that doctrine implies, adherence to the person of Christ and the
effort to conform oneself to Christ and the mind of Christ, including above all that of
renouncement and abnegation.
However, and this will be the second introductory point, those who have only recently
become interested in studying the spiritual doctrine of De La Salle have been much taken
up with the question of his originality. There is no doubt that John Baptist de La Salle
was original in a number of characteristic traits and in some very specific instances that
we find in his teaching on the spiritual life. Thus, for example, in order to give a
context and a deeper meaning to the routine educational work of the Brothers, he had
recourse to the great Pauline texts on the ministry of the Gospel. In his life and in his
teaching he was, as Father Rayez wrote in 1955, "one of the best representatives of
the spirituality of abandonment that was so widespread in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries." His method of mental prayer is original in the importance he gave to
placing oneself in the presence of God. Finally, the explicit place that he gave to the
Holy Spirit in his spiritual life is remarkable for its time.
But it can also be said somewhat paradoxically that John Baptist de La Salle was original
in the very eclecticism of his sources. There are so many of them. He took his treasures
where he found them. He could move easily from Olier to the Carmelite Laurent de la
Resurrection, from St. Francis de Sales to Bernieres, from St. Theresa to Rance, from the
Jesuit Busee to Beuvelet, the disciple of Bourdoise, or again from Tronson to Barre the
Minim, from the Capuchin Jean-Francois de Reims to Canon Roland, from the Maurist Claude
Bretagne to the Archdeacon Boudon. Here his originality comes through in his ability to
assimilate, in his genius for being able to restyle these sources for his own use. If he
had used a multiplicity of raw materials, he transformed them, putting them together in a
new harmony, and so using them to construct an edifice of his own.
Ultimately, the spirituality of John Baptist de La Salle is original in a very special
way. It was developed only gradually and with a distinct audience in mind, a group that he
knew intimately, with whom he was associated, sharing a common vision, a common activity,
and life together in a difficult environment. De La Salle composed practically all of his
spiritual writings for this little band of schoolteachers who had cast their lot with him
and who, under his direction, were little by little becoming a new kind of religious
community. He wrote for them in the sense that it was they to whom he addressed his
spiritual works. Very many of his meditations are formulated in the second person plural.
The fact that he wrote for such a restricted audience no doubt explains for the most part
why the spirituality of De La Salle did not become more widely known.
John Baptist de La Salle wrote for his Brothers in another and quite distinctive sense as
well. It was their concrete existential situation that constituted the basis for his
spiritual teaching. It might even be said that the subject matter of his spirituality is a
mystical realism. He refers constantly to the professional, community and personal
situations of his Brothers, to their daily concerns, their talents, their simple but often
arduous duties, and to their teaching. He refers above all to the lived reality of their
interpersonal relations: with their Brothers, with the youngsters in their charge, with
people generally. He helped them to search more deeply into the mystical dimensions of
this real life experience.
This mystical realism was explored according to a quadruple rhythm, even if its
presentation lacked the rigidity of an artificial systematization. But one can recognize
in the development of the spiritual teaching of De La Salle a four- fold invitation: 1) to
consider the concrete teaching situation; 2) to contemplate the element of mystery
involved within it; 3) to make a renewed commitment to transform the present reality; 4)
to be open to the transcendent and freely given Ultimate, i.e., to the reality of God. A
word on each of these invitations in turn, quoting or paraphrasing the language of the
Founder himself.
The first invitation is to be rooted in the concrete situation. "Look at the life you
are living; be aware of the distressing situation of the youngsters that God has placed in
your path; use that as a measure of what is at stake in your teaching service; look again
at the concrete difficulties; assess what you have achieved thus far." In this way
the concrete act of teaching has already become a spiritual matter. So also was the
struggle that the newly formed community had to endure in order to succeed in introducing
a type of instruction and a concept of the school that would constitute a genuine service
for youth.
The second invitation is to contemplate the fact that within this life experience there is
a genuine element of mystery. "It is God who has called you to this way of life and
to this form of service. Every day God calls you anew by the appeals of these youngsters
and the needs they have. It is his own work that God entrusts to you; your presence among
young people is the way that Jesus brings salvation to them. That is how Christ can make
his salvation real for them, together with the freedom that has been their destiny as
human beings and sons of God ever since their birth and baptism. In you, and throughout
all your teaching ministry, these youngsters can encounter Christ, the Good shepherd, who
knows each of them by name, who loves them, who helps them to grow up to become what they
are in reality, and who goes out searching endlessly for those who have gone astray. In
your efforts to come in contact with young people, to give them the human and technical
preparation they need for life in the world, in your concern to make of them living stones
by which the Church may be built up, in all of this it is the power of the Holy Spirit who
unites you, one to the other, not only that a new kind of school may be created out of
your association together, but also that this brotherhood that is rooted in the Gospel may
spread far and wide. Such a school is a place for mutual evangelization, for sharing and
support, for reconciliation and forgiveness."
The third invitation of De La Salle to his Brothers is to make a renewed and a concrete
commitment to their day to day existence in the classroom and in the community.
"Since it is the work of God you are doing, do it with enthusiasm and bring to it all
the resources or your talents, your gifts and your inspirations. Show as much creativity
and inventiveness as you can, never losing sight of the true character of the teaching
function that is your ministry. Since you are all ministers of Jesus Christ, be resolved
to live in imitation of Christ by reason of your incorporation into Christ, into the
mystery of his incarnation and nearness to us, the mystery of his role as servant and
prophet, the mystery of his struggle for justice. Only in that way can you bring young
people to assume their share in the full reality of what it means to be a son of God. This
will help you to understand that all the difficulties you experience ‹ the
difficulties in maintaining the gratuity of the schools, the difficulties in changing the
character of the school, the difficulties in overcoming inertia and traditional patterns
of thought, difficulties that often turn into outright persecution ‹ all of these are
expressions of the paschal mystery, of a life that grows out of your suffering and a
certain kind of death. You are agents of the Holy Spirit who in this way renews the face
of the earth. Redouble therefore your pedagogical creativity while, at the same time, you
enter into dialogue among yourselves, with the students, with their families and their
world, as well as with all others who want to serve the Church in this way."
Finally, just as the spiritual teaching of De La Salle challenges the Brothers to be
rooted more and more solidly into the reality of his everyday life, at the same time it
calls him inexorably to clarify the meaning of that life, not by running away from it, but
by living it deeply in its dimension of mystery. De La Salle thus calls the Brother to
open himself in prayers of adoration and thanksgiving, of supplication and confidence. He
invites the Brother to open himself in hope, to begin a new every morning with a wholly
new gift of himself ‹ in spite of the hard choices and disappointments, lack of
progress and insurmountable obstacles. He invites the Brother to open himself in full
confidence by abandoning himself to God. His should be the attitude of the unprofitable
servant who, having given totally of himself, yet realizes that his work is the work of
God and that the seed that has been sown will come to fruition in silence and apparent
futility.
In this sense one can say that the source of the spirituality of De La Salle is the lived
experience of God, but an experience that is reexamined, relocated and redirected in the
context of the history of salvation. And that is the history of salvation that is being
accomplished here and now in every aspect of the ministry of the Brothers, the history of
salvation in its living source who is Jesus Christ, the Christ of the Gospel, the Christ
who is living today through his Spirit. An important aspect of De La Salle's meditations
on the saints is his sense of the salvation that is worked out in history together with
that eschatological expectation that forms an integral part of the Christian commitment,
Christian prayer, and the Christian Eucharist. For De La Salle, the God who lives in this
history is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and it is to this God that his method of mental
prayer invites the Brother to be open. The meditations of the Founder continually remind
the Brother of his commitment and the need to enter into this internal and transcendent
dialogue with the living God who calls, transforms, satisfies, and makes thirsty again for
more.
This observation leads to a third introductory reflection. Much has been said so far of
the lived experience of the Brothers. But the question remains: what was the personal
experience of John Baptist himself and how is it reflected in his teaching on
spirituality?
At first glance, De La Salle seems not to have referred very often to his own personal
spiritual experiences. His language, in fact, seems to be rather impersonal and it
scarcely conveys the reality of his own relationship with God. At the time they were
writing, his earliest biographers had occasion to complain about this reticence. However,
a closer reading of these very biographies, and the Founder's own writings, can bring us
to realize to what an extent John Baptist was in contact with the living God. He was very
much aware of living out his existence in an ardent dialogue and sometimes even in a
violent struggle with that very God who was working in history for the salvation of his
people.
To be more precise, De La Salle himself refers to that decisive spiritual experience which
he went through when he was just about thirty years old. The whole direction of his life
was completely reoriented in a most unexpected manner through a combination of
circumstances that were entirely unforeseen. In this change of outlook that became
progressively more radical, John Baptist had come to recognize the definitive passage of
God in this life, the call to give up everything in
order to follow Jesus Christ. Subtly but irresistibly, the Spirit had pointed him in the
direction of founding a community of laymen consecrated to the Lord in the educational
service of abandoned youth. As he expressed it in his own words: "God, who arranges
everything with wisdom and sweetness and who in no way forces the inclinations of his
creatures, gradually led me to take over the complete responsibility for the schools,
doing so in a manner that was hardly noticeable and over a long period of time, in
such a way that one commitment led to another, without my having foreseen it from the
beginning."
The importance of the personal spiritual journey of John Baptist de La Salle has always
been recognized. But two recent events taken together have served to bring this to the
fore and give it a new significance. Vatican Council II has invited all the religious
institutes to undertake and to pursue what is distinctive and characteristic in their
lifestyle and their apostolic commitments. In this effort, the Council has pressured the
institutes to return, but always with a fresh approach, to the school of their founders in
order to discover in terms of the needs of today the source from which their particular
form of the religious life first had its origin.
For the Brothers of the Christian Schools, this approach became suddenly real and was
given new vigor by the celebration in 1980 of the tercentenary of the foundation of the
Institute. The opportunity to recall the stages in the original development of the
Lasallian congregation became the occasion for a profound and collective spiritual
renewal. In tracing once again, and with greater attention, that path by which John
Baptist de La Salle was led to become the Founder of a Society new in the Church, the
Brothers have become able to better perceive how he lived this human process as a
spiritual experience, a "Gospel journey."
The remainder of this essay will be devoted to an attempt to explain something of this
research. For this purpose, it will be necessary to evoke the decisive spiritual
experience which De La Salle went through between 1679 and 1684, an experience in which he
became in a very real sense a Founder. This is the best way to treat of the spirituality
of John Baptist de La Salle because in this approach we are dealing with its original
source.
As has been the case with the foundation of every religious foundation, the Institute of
De La Salle seems to have come into being by a slow process from laborious beginnings and
a difficult period of growth until it became a living corporate entity. There is even a
sense in which his Institute was not yet completely founded at the death of John Baptist
de La Salle. When he left this world at the age of 68 on Good Friday, April 7, 1719, the
Society which he had labored to establish over the course of forty years as yet had no
legal status either in the Kingdom of France or in the Catholic Church. The journey of
John Baptist had been a long succession of struggles and crises, of compromises and
setbacks. At more than one critical juncture in his life he had to decide whether to begin
all over
again to be a Founder.
To maintain that the year 1680 was the actual date of the foundation of the Institute
involves therefore a certain amount of arbitrariness. Nevertheless, it was on Easter
Sunday in 1680 that a very real event took place that marks the symbolic first step in the
actual beginning of the Lasallian community. On that day, John Baptist decided to invite
to his family table the little group of schoolmasters that for more than a year he had
been helping to get a foothold in the city of Reims. In March of 1679, when he was 28
years old, De La Salle had met their leader, Adrien Nyel, almost by chance. This layman,
55 years old, had come to Reims in order to establish there, as he had already done at
Rouen, schools for the young boys of the poorer classes. De La Salle had put his
experience and his influence at the service of this project. He continued thereafter to be
involved in the early and hesitant efforts of the schoolmasters recruited by Nyel. At
Christmas in 1679,
he had hired with his own money a house for them where they could live together.
De La Salle was thus concerned enough to give these men a little of his time, a little
money, and to show a little interest. But his work of charity remained external to himself
personally. For the rest, he himself continued to lead a comfortable life, following the
routines of his university studies, managing his financial affairs, and being faithful to
his duties as a canon which were relatively few but financially quite rewarding.
In the decision to invite the schoolmasters to his table, John Baptist probably thought
that he was only doing one more thing to help these men succeed in their efforts to become
good teachers. By having them to meals he would be able to meet with them regularly, get
to know them better, and be better able to help them improve themselves. In the long run,
however, this step turned his whole life inside out; it revolutionized his options, his
goals and his values. It was from this moment that he began to become a Founder. By
admitting the schoolmasters to his family table, he began to share life together with
them. He imposed this sharing on his own family, on his three younger brothers who were
still living at home with him. By this very fact, he provoked a brutal confrontation, a
cultural shock between two worlds that for all practical purposes knew nothing of each
other. This shock was to be felt throughout his whole family and the social environment in
which he had lived. It would have echoes in the very deepest part of his own being.
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