"Un Mundo"

5th Annual Lasallian Youth Assembly - Summer 2003

The District of San Francisco Office of Education is pleased to announce the fifth annual Lasallian Youth Assembly, "Un Mundo." The assembly will be held at the University of San Diego, California, July 27 - August 1, 2003. A committee of Lasallian Collegians and local Lasallians from the San Diego/Tijuana area has been meeting to plan an engaging week of prayer, service, and celebration

The conference is open to all Lasallian high school students. Cost is $265.00 per participant, and includes food, five nights' lodging, conference materials, and a commemorative tee shirt. Fundraising efforts to support participants' costs are currently underway at individual District schools. Students interested in attending the assembly should contact the Lasallian Youth Moderator or Director of Campus Ministry at their school. For more information, contact Robert Jordan, Associate Coordinator of Lasallian School Programs and Conference Coordinator, at De La Salle Institute, Napa, California, (707) 252-3722, or rjordan@dlsi.org.

We are predominantly but not exclusively students in schools that were begun by De La Salle Christian Brothers, now known as Lasallian schools. Throughout the world, our Lasallian Youth Movement revolves around these three components: faith, service, and community.

For Lasallian Youth these components have particular meaning:

Faith: The primary mark of the Institute St. John Baptist de La Salle founded was the spirit of faith. For us, faith is rooted in the reality of searching and questioning that is so much a part of our adolescent faith experience. It is particularly appropriate, then, that in our Lasallian Youth Activities, especially during moments of group prayer and faith sharing, we are encouraged to emulate the practice of St. John Baptist de La Salle by looking for the movement of the Spirit in the concrete experiences of life. In his writings and in his own life, De La Salle consistently looked to the people and events around him as the locus of God’s presence and revelation for him, and he encouraged the first Brothers to do the same.

Community: For Lasallian Youth, community is a place of support in which we discover a sense of belonging. It is in community that we can "try on" new identities, as we struggle to learn who we are and what it means to be a Christian. As we look beyond ourselves both as individuals and as a group, we find acceptance as well as challenge. In a society where racism, sexism, and class distinctions often prevail, we become more aware of such negative influences and seek to grow beyond them.

Service: As a fundamental element of the spirit of St. John Baptist de La Salle, service encourages commitment to the larger community. It challenges us to look beyond our own concerns, important as they may appear to be, to larger issues. It allows us to see that we have both the gifts and the responsibility to reach out to others, particularly the less fortunate. Such experiences teach us that we are needed and valued by a larger community.

"The Spirit on the Move" (Article about Lasallian Youth in the District, Signs of Faith magazine, Winter 2001)

E-mail links to the schools have been provided where the links are known.