I. Charism - La Salle.org

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IV. DISCOVERING, LIVING, SHARING THE GIFT OF GOD
a good father owes to his children” 143 . He also had entrusted to him
the remarks and observations made by the assembly on the Rules in
order to edit the articles on modesty and good government.
Thus the Society of the Brothers, while the Founder was still alive,
seemed to have found its definitive appearance, that which the
decisions of 1694 intended: a Superior freely chosen from among
the members of the association, mastery of its life-style and the
participation of the greatest number possible in all decisive choices.
To that must be added the quality of the relationship between
those in charge and the rest of the Brothers. Thus, in facing up to
the departure of its Founder, it would be able to keep its identity.
8. The charism and how the Brothers understood it.
Charism and association.
In the formula of vows of 1694, as in those which would follow, the
Brothers said: “I promise and vow to unite myself and live in society
with…” The expression “vow” disappeared in 1901 and was not
taken up again in the formula of 1987. But, it is one thing to say
explicitly in the formula of vows: “I vow to unite myself, etc.” and
quite another the understanding which the Brothers had of it.
The formula of 1718 is found in the Rule in the form of a formula
for renewal. In this edition of the Rule, the last one produced by
John Baptist de La Salle, there is no chapter devoted to the vows
made by the Brothers. There are, certainly, three chapters following
that on Regularity (17, 19, 20... 18 is missing), which deal with
poverty, chastity, obedience, (the latter continuing with the chapter
on silence), but nothing on the vow of association nor on that of
stability. Neither is there any mention of which vows the Brothers
143
Blain, op. cit., Book Three, p. 678. (CL 8, p. 132).