On Sunday September 2, the chapel at Mont La Salle in Napa, California, was filled with smiles, songs, and solemn prayers, as De La Salle Christian Brothers, lay Partners, families and friends, gathered to celebrate the beginning of a novitiate year for three young men. Young they may be, but the three novices, who now embark upon an intensive communal year of study, work, prayer, and discernment, are already deeply experienced in Lasallian education and mission.

Christopher Patiño receives robe from Brother Stanislaus Campbell, FSC

Brother John Luczkowski, 26, a native of Philadelphia, holds degrees from La Salle University in Philadelphia and has taught in two Lasallian schools in Philadelphia, La Salle High and West Catholic High. Brother Peter Nguyen, 29, who grew up in Maryland, earned degrees from the University of Maryland and La Salle University in Philadelphia, and has taught at La Salle High in Philadelphia and Hudson Catholic High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. Brother Christopher Patiño, who is 23, graduated from Cathedral High School in Los Angeles, then from the University of Arizona; both during college and after graduation he worked on the staff of San Miguel High School in Tucson, Arizona, serving most recently as Director of Admissions.

Brother John and Brother Peter, members of the Baltimore District of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, had already gone through a robing ceremony in their home district, entitling them to wear the black robe and white rabat (collar) of the Christian Brother and to append to their names the letters “FSC” (for Fratres Scholarum Christianarum). On Sunday it was Chris Patiño of the District of San Francisco who received the robe and other symbols of the Brothers’ life – a Bible, a copy of the Brothers’ Rule, a crucifix, and a rosary.

"All three of our new Brothers have committed themselves to a year of deepening the name “Brother" in light of Jesus' call in the Gospel to welcome the name of Christ that is within others and themselves,” Brother James Joost, FSC, principal of La Salle High School of Yakima, Washington, told the assembly in the Mont la Salle chapel. "All three have committed themselves to forming community in the name "Brother" in light of Paul’s urging to the Colossians to bear with each other and forgive so that the virtue of love can act in binding them together with each other, with God that is within, with our traditions and mission, and with those to whom we minister."

What does it mean to be a Brother today? After the ceremony, each of the novices shared in a few words his sense of the vocation he was undertaking to explore.

"We’re called to respond to an opportunity of serving others," said Brother John Luczkowski. "As Brothers of the Christian Schools, we serve through education. Responding to the call is a great challenge, similar to parenting or marriage, because it demands constant nurturing, caring, and self-giving. We’re called to orient our lives toward others -- but in doing so we can find our joy, our peace, our happiness. To me, any vocation, including religious life, only finds true fulfillment interiorly when I have accepted that I’m not the sole author of my life's story. Looking back, I can see that both choices I’ve made in life and my responses to situations I did not create or choose have led me to this point. Looking forward, I see that the world of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is one where continual contact with youth, with service, and with community mark the road and brighten the skies."

Brother Peter Nguyen reflected for a considerable time before replying: "I was never good with words, and so I hope that some images might help. The vocation to the Brothers to me is like the boy who delights in tutoring his neighbor in math on Saturday mornings -- while the best cartoons are showing on TV; like the young teacher who, to the surprise of the class, jumps on his desk as he enthusiastically acts out a scene from Shakespeare; like the man in New York City who steps away from Times Square into a small church to spend a moment in silent reverence; like the older brother who sits on the front porch and listens attentively listens to the problems of his neighbor sitting alongside him. Now, that’s the kind of Christian Brother that I hope to be – a person of love, zeal, prayer, and heart."

In the chapel vestibule, from left, Brother Peter Nguyen,
Brother Nick Gonzales, Chris Patiño, Brother John Luczkowski

"The vocation of a Brother of the Christian schools is one of radical faith, radical commitment, and radical hope," declared Brother Chris Patiño. "I can very easily begin quoting from the writings of St. John Baptist de La Salle or tell you about his life to show how he exemplified a radical life, but instead I'll focus on the present-day situation. This past May, I wrapped up four years at San Miguel High School in Tucson. San Miguel is very close to my heart and I think it is a place that exudes this radical spirit. Statistics in the past few years show that fifty percent of Tucson high school students drop out. Specify Hispanic high school students, and the number rises to seventy percent. And among Native American students—it’s ninety percent! Is it not radical that San Miguel opened in 2004 knowing such statistics? Yet, San Miguel opened in the heart of the impoverished Hispanic southside Tucson. The past year and a half there I served as Director of Admissions – a position that I came to call “The Messenger." As the messenger, my job was to recruit students. Recruiting meant sharing the story of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, of our founder, St. John Baptist de La Salle: offering a Catholic, college, and career preparatory education to students of low-income families. It was with radical faith that I shared the story with hundreds of families. It was with radical commitment that I shared the story throughout the city of Tucson: parishes, neighborhood associations, youth clubs, media, and everywhere I could. I shared the story in the radical hope that families, and especially young people would see the gift of San Miguel to them. San Miguel is a place where one could daily recognize the vocation of the Brother in those served. The typical San Miguel student comes from a public school, from a family of four to five people, a family that earns about $29,000 per year, and is typically Hispanic or Native American. It sounds like a risk to enroll such a student. But risking—isn’t that what being radical is all about? The vocation of a Christian Brother today is a call to live radically and above all trust in God for the sake of the salvation of young people through education, especially the poor."

Brother John Luczkowski, FSC; Brother Chris Patiño, FSC; Brother Peter Nguyen, FSC

Before the robing and welcoming ceremony closed with the singing of the Lasallian hymn 'Honneur á Toi," the Visitor of the District of San Francisco, Brother Stanislaus Campbell, FSC, addressed some closing remarks to the gathering. He said, in part: 

"We have just welcomed Brother Chris into the Institute and all three novices, Brothers John, Peter, and Chris, to our District.  The presence of three novices for our Region witnesses to us that young people today, few as they may be, still heed the call to become Brothers.  I think an occasion such as this also reminds us of the challenge of vocation ministry today.  I hope it stimulates us to fulfill better our personal responsibility for vocation ministry.  Besides the efforts most of our local communities make to welcome young men who show interest in us and to pray that they will respond to God’s call to join us, those of us individually who work with young people directly and get to know them well need to have our eyes out for those who demonstrate qualities that would enable them to become good Brothers.  These young men we need to invite, not necessarily directly to become Brothers, but to consider seriously a vocation to our way of life."

After the robing and welcoming, congratulations all around

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Photographs by Brother Martin Vu, FSC
The novices in the 2007 novitiate come from across the U.S./Toronto Region of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. To know more about the Region, visit www.cbconf.org. The novitiate is housed at Mont La Salle in Napa, the administrative center of the District of San Francisco.
For more on the life and vocation of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, visit www.brothersvocation.org. The Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded by Saint John Baptist de la Salle in 1680, have as their mission "to provide a human and Christian education for the young, especially the poor." Lasallian education currently reaches over 900,000 students in some 80 countries.