I. Charism - La Salle.org

IV. DISCOVERING, LIVING, SHARING THE GIFT OF GOD 167
The Collection comes close to the formula of vows, when it
speaks of the “vow of association”: …to unite myself and to live
in society with the Brothers of the Christian Schools who are associated
to keep, together and by association, gratuitous schools,
wherever I may be sent or to work in the said Society at whatever
I shall be employed whether by the body of this Society, or by
the Superiors who have or those who shall have the government
thereof.
Brother Irénée is explicit: “By the vow of association with the
Brothers who are associated to keep gratuitous schools one engages
oneself…” He is speaking of a vow of association but we notice that
it is not a question of an abstract vow: it is “with the Brothers who
are associated to keep gratuitous schools”.
The Collection too sees association as the decision to be associated
with those who are associated to keep schools. One important element
of the formula of vows is made clear: to “those who are associated
in the, Society” are in fact added “those who will be associated
in the future”.
In both cases, the vow of association is understood as “association”
with named persons, or at least with persons who have received the
same call, who wish to live the same response, who see themselves
in the same project. At the moment when one becomes an associate,
one enters into a process which is open-ended: towards those
who already belong to the Society, who are associated, and towards
who will belong to it and will be associated later on.
One aspect, common to both texts, for the vow of obedience, is this
wording which refers back to the formula of vows, with regard to
associates making themselves available and the role of Superiors in
achieving the end of the Society.