I. Charism - La Salle.org

IV. DISCOVERING, LIVING, SHARING THE GIFT OF GOD 73
been reduced to silence…” to “…devote myself over to the care of
the schools…” He moves from one state to another while recognising
that he is being led by God. He faces up to a choice of life: “If
these two duties cannot be reconciled, I will have to commit myself
to one or the other”. The choice now appears clearly: to make the
Community of the Christian Schools exist, he must enter it and
show solidarity with these men who are risking their lives in the
adventure of the schools for the service of the poor. The Lasallian
charism is rooted in the response of the Founder to the call of God
heard through the words and the situation of the school teachers.
3. The teachers become Brothers.
The teachers of Monsieur de La Salle were present in Reims,
Rethel, Guise and Laon. In fact, in 1684, it was still Adrien Nyel
who was running the school in Laon which he had opened; in 1685
he returned to Rouen and Monsieur de La Salle had to install a
community there to keep the school going. There existed perhaps,
between the two men, a division of work, with John Baptist de La
Salle looking after the teachers and the schools of Reims, while
Monsieur Nyel looked after the schools outside that city. The group
in Reims started to become more complex: teachers, young men in
formation, perhaps the beginnings of a Seminary for Teachers for
rural areas, following that of Rethel John Baptist de La Salle gave
away his fortune and began taking steps to give up his canonry. He
ran into opposition and criticism from his native area in Reims. His
friends and his family felt that he was going too far. The teachers
had been living together for at least two years. They knew each
other and they were learning to open their horizons beyond their
native city. They had the sense of a common educational practice
and were beginning to consider themselves as more than simply
carrying out an occupation.