I. Charism - La Salle.org

MAKING THE LASALLIAN CHARISM LIVE TODAY 249
their limits. Their environment could be an obstacle to their salvation.
Their human and eternal salvation is in question: they have no
future.
John Baptist de La Salle underlines the poverty of the situation even
where childhood is concerned, which arouses this particular worry
on the part of God and therefore a response on the part of the persons
He has called to do His work. This poverty is the normal condition
of these children. It is here that God manifests his goodness
by having these children enter the paths of salvation.
The Lasallian school is the place where the salvation of God can
reach these children, because it is put within their reach. There they
acquire the wisdom of God and learn to live the things which concern
their salvation. They change their behaviour, give up impurity,
lies, vengeance, immodesty, lack of respect; they seek to do good
actions such as loving their enemies, always telling the truth,
respecting others and in the first place their parents and their companions.
They become detached from riches. They learn profane
subjects: reading, writing, arithmetic, which prepare them for useful
employment when their parents wish it. The school keeps them
away from bad companions, teaches them to occupy all their time
with things useful to their salvation. There they learn habits dear to
the heart of God. Finally they will be able to appear one day before
God without a wrinkle, stain or blemish and thus proclaim His
glory and call their teacher to it.
Even more than situations met or lived, it is these children which
set fire to the hearts of Lasallians, to the point of “being led to sacrifice
themselves and spend their entire lives giving them a
Christian education and procuring for them the life of grace in this
world and eternal life in the next”. 190
190
MTR 201. 3.2.