I. Charism - La Salle.org

IV. DISCOVERING, LIVING, SHARING THE GIFT OF GOD 169
These quick reflections on the formulae of the vows and to what
the vows commit us, show the close relation which existed, for the
first Brothers, between their three vows. These vows are at the service
of the end of the Society: to keep schools gratuitously, to give a
Christian education to children, and for this reason to keep schools.
The vows of our first Brothers are to be interpreted, first of all, in
the perspective of the Mission. It is for this that they have become
associated and are associated, it is for this that they obey, it is for
this that they form a Body, it is for this that they express the conditions
of stability, in the Society as in the Mission.
It is to be noted that Brother Irénée divides the vow of association.
He begins thus: “by the vow of association…”, then, in a second
passage distinct from the previous, he continues: “by the vow of
teaching gratuitously…”. What he develops on this point will be
fund in the Rule of 1726, therefore after the Bull of Approbation,
in Chapter 18: “What we are required to do by the vows”. With this
interpretation of the vow, a separation is clearly brought about
between the vow of association and the vow of teaching gratuitously.
While it is difficult to pin down the matter of the vow of association,
the detailed manner in which the vow of teaching gratuitously
is examined shows that we are much more at ease in defining
the content of the latter. Brother Irénée makes clear the shape
of the vow of teaching gratuitously with regard to persons and with
regard to school institutions, but not with regard to the Institute in
general. We see practices emerging, to accept or refuse (more of the
latter than of the former), but no reflection on the significance of
this vow, (if I may take up again the redundant language of the formula
of vows) for the Society of those who are associated to keep
the schools, together and by association.
The force of the “vow to unite myself and live in Society with the
Brothers of the Christian Schools who are associated to keep,
together and by association, gratuitous schools…” passes to the sec-