I. Charism - La Salle.org

III. CHARISM IN THE CHURCH 47
form of collaboration, which makes it possible to unite forces to
ensure greater missionary efficacy. The presence of laypeople at your
side reflects in an appreciable manner the ever increasingly important
place they are called to occupy in the life of the Church. This is something
I should like to encourage strongly, as I have already in the past,
in the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata (cf. Nº 56).
It is your responsibility to give laypeople who wish to be associated
members the necessary formation for their spiritual life and apostolic
service. This will enable them, with the inspiration of the teaching and
spirituality of Saint John Baptist de La Salle, each according to his
state and with all due respect for the respective identities involved and
the special nature of the consecrated life, to find ways of developing
their spiritual life so as to put it into practice in the educational service
that will be entrusted to them as they strive all the while to become
model Christian teachers. (3)
Prepare yourself to labor for the Church according to the gift that
is yours. (John Baptist de La Salle - Meditation 170,3).
Paul GRASS, fsc.