archived reflections
From the writings of Saint John Baptist de LaSalle, patron saint of teachers.
Week of December 17, 2007:
"Your business is with what pertains to the service of God and the care of souls, that you may lead your pupils in the way to heaven."
Week of December 10, 2007:
"You act as a mediator in regard to your students, God making use of you to teach them the means of salvation."
Week of December 3, 2007:
"Have as much love for your students as St. Joseph did for Jesus."
Week of November 26, 2007:
"God has called you to teach the poor. Have great tenderness for them, seeing in them the person of Jesus Christ."
Week of November 19, 2007:
"You, like John the Baptist, are called to 'prepare the way of the Lord' in the hearts of your students. Do so with zeal."
Week of November 12, 2007:
"You are responsible to God for those whom you are called to teach -- soul for soul."
Week of November 5, 2007:
"Examine before God how you are acting in your ministry and whether you are failing in any of your responsibilities. Come to know yourself just as you are."
Week of October 29, 2007:
"You should not doubt that God has given you a great gift in calling you to teach the young, to announce the Gospel to them and to bring them up in a religious spirit. God also expects you to fulfill this responsibility with zeal."
Week of October 22, 2007:
"Strive to be worthy of your position by an irreproachable conduct."
Week of October 15, 2007:
"By God’s grace good teachers are master builders who give all possible care and attention to lay the foundation of Christian religion and virtue in the hearts of their pupils."
Week of October 8, 2007:
"Like Jesus, the good shepherd, you too must take care of those entrusted to you. Some of them will require tenderness while others firmness; some need patience, others attention; some punishment and others forgiveness."
Week of October 1, 2007:
"Daily thank God for having called you to teach the poor. The work that you do will give
you fulfillment and happiness as well as lead your students to God."
Week of September 24, 2007:
"Remember that you do not do this work alone. You should be united with your colleagues, your partners in instructing the young."
Week of September 17, 2007:
"Like John the Baptist, you are the voice that prepares the hearts of your students to receive Jesus Christ. Ask God to give you the power to touch hearts."
Week of September 10, 2007:
"You are a minister of Jesus Christ. This requires that you give witness to this ministry. God requires that you teach with zeal those entrusted to your care. Have you done this well?"
Week of September 4, 2007:
"Thank God for the grace He has given you in your work sharing the ministry of the Apostles. "
Week of August 27, 2007:
"Take pride in your work as a teacher by making yourself, as Saint Paul says, a qualified minister of the new covenant."
Week of August 20, 2007:
"Examine before God how you are acting in your ministry and whether you are failing in any of your responsibilities. Come to know yourself just as you are."
Week of August 13, 2007:
"Look upon your work as one of the most important and excellent in the church."
Week of August 6, 2007:
"Young people are not bad because they have bad hearts. They are bad because of bad example. As teachers, you have no greater responsibility than to give your students good example."
Week of July 30, 2007:
"You too can perform miracles by touching the hearts of your students."
Week of July 16, 2007
"You act as the mediator in regard to your students, God making use of you to teach them the means of salvation."
Week of July 9, 2007
"You must be filled with the Christian spirit in order to fulfill your responsibility of teaching young people. You must be a model for them to follow."
Week of July 2, 2007:
"The greatest designs of God upon a soul are only achieved through opposition. Exterior and interior trials invigorate the soul."
Week of June 25, 2007:
"If you wish your disciples to practice virtue, do so yourself."
Week of June 18, 2007:
"Since you are ambassadors and ministers of Jesus Christ in the work you do, you must act as representing Jesus himself."
Week of June 11, 2007:
"You are successors to the apostles in their task of catechizing and teaching the poor."
Week of June 4, 2007:
"You will lead your disciples to practice virtue far more easily by giving them the example of a wise and reserved conduct than by anything you can say."
Week of May 28, 2007:
"It is not in words or in books that young people meet most forcibly the God who calls them by name, but rather in the person of the educator who teaches them."
Week of May 21, 2007:
"Example makes a much greater impression on the minds and hearts of the young than do words. Young people ... ordinarily model themselves on the best examples of their teachers."
Week of May 14, 2007:
"Since many families are fragmented, you must think of yourself as the guardian of your students."
Week of May 7, 2007:
"Since it is your responsibility to teach your students about God, you must first become aware of the action of God in your life."
Week of April 30, 2007:
"You are watched by your students, hence you are obliged to give them a good example."
Week of April 23, 2007:
"Guard against any human attitude toward your disciples; do not pride yourself over what you do...you owe all to God."
Week of April 16, 2007:
"You must be filled with the Christian spirit in order to fulfill your responsibility of teaching young people. You must be a model for them to follow."
Week of April 9, 2007:
"You must love your students in order to lead them to God and to fill them with his Holy Spirit."
Week of April 2, 2007:
"Be satisfied with what you can do, since God is satisfied...be convinced that with divine help you can do more than you imagine."
Week of March 26, 2007:
"By love and patience, win over the hearts of those whom you teach. This is one of the best ways of helping them to live the Christian life."
Week of March 19, 2007:
"Examine before God how you are acting in your ministry and in your responsibilities. Come to know yourself as you really are."
Week of March 12, 2007:
"Get to know your students so that you will be able to understand them completely. Ask God for this insight."
Week of March 5, 2007:
"You are coworkers with God in his work, and the souls of the children you teach are the field he cultivates through your labor."
Week of February 26, 2007:
"Your faith must be your constant light and guide as well as a beacon for your students. You must be a model for them so that they will see Christ in you."
Week of February 19, 2007:
"To teach, you must first know. Make sure that you put into practice what you teach."
Week of February 12, 2007:
"Reflect on what St. Paul says, that God has established in his Church apostles, prophets, and teachers, then you will be convinced that He has established you in your ministry."
Week of February 5, 2007:
"The work that you do will give you fulfillment and happiness as well as lead your students to God."
Week of January 29, 2007:
"Look upon your work in the schools as one of the most important both for the Church and for society."
Week of January 22, 2007:
"Resolve to act with firmness of purpose and faithfulness in doing well. Pray often for the grace to persevere in that resolution."
Week of January 15, 2007:
"The seriousness which is demanded of a teacher does not consist in a severe or austere appearance or in becoming angry, but in great reserve in word and action."
Week of January 8, 2007:
"You must not doubt that it is a great gift of God, this grace He has given you to be entrusted with the instruction of others."
Week of December 18, 2006:
"Father, please guide me in all your work so that I can touch the hearts of my students and inspire them with your love."
Week of December 11, 2006:
"Whom must I forgive so that I can teach forgiveness?"
Week of December 4, 2006:
"How do I unconditionally care for the souls of my students?"
Week of November 28, 2006:
"What do I do each day to accomplish good in the souls of my students?"
Week of November 20, 2006:
"Do you have a faith that is such that it is able to touch the hearts of your students and inspire them with the Christian spirit? This is the greatest miracle you could perform and the one that God asks of you, for this is the purpose of your work."
Week of November 13, 2006:
"Consider Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd of the Gospel who seeks the lost sheep, places it upon his shoulders, and carries it back to restore it to the fold. Since you are taking his place, look upon yourself as obliged to do the same thing. Ask him for the grace needed to procure the conversion of their hearts."
Week of November 6, 2006:
"What must I do each day to model the Christian spirit for my students?"
Week of October 30, 2006:
"How can I open the eyes of my students so that they can see the good in themselves?"
Week of October 23, 2006:
"God wills not only that all come to the knowledge of truth, but also that all be saved. He cannot truly desire this without giving children the teachers who will assist them in the fulfillment of his plan."
Week of October 16, 2006:
"By your life you are held to the love of prayer in order to attract the power needed for your own holiness as well as (that of) others."
Week of October 9, 2006:
"Often recall to mind the purpose of your vocation, and let this arouse you to do your part to establish and maintain the kingdom of God in the hearts of your students."
Week of October 2, 2006:
"As children of God, my students have much to teach me. How can I open my heart to hear God's message through them?"
Week of September 25, 2006:
"Your zeal for the pupils under your guidance would be very imperfect if you expressed it only in words. It will become perfect only if you practice yourself what you are teaching them."
Week of September 18, 2006:
"Let it be clear, then, in all your conduct towards the children who are entrusted to you that you look upon yourselves as ministers of God, carrying out your ministry with love and a sincere and true zeal."
Week of September 11, 2006:
"God has called you to your ministry in order to procure his glory and to give children the spirit of wisdom, the insight to know him, and to enlighten the eyes of their hearts."
Week of September 5, 2006:
"Example makes a much greater impression on the mind and heart than words."
Week of August 28, 2006:
"It is for you who are teachers to take all possible care to bring those under your guidance into that liberty of the children of God which Jesus Christ obtained for us by dying for us."
Week of August 21, 2006:
"You must, then, look upon your work as one of the most important and most necessary services in the Church, one which has been entrusted to you by pastors, by fathers and mothers."
Week of August 14, 2006:
"As a minister of God, how do I show love and zeal in the performance of my daily duties?"
Week of May 22, 2006:
"As the year ends take time to examine how faithful you have been in your duties. Persevere in what you do well and correct what you do badly."
Week of May 15, 2006:
"As children of God, my students have much to teach me. How can I open my heart to hear God’s message through them?"
Week of May 8, 2006:
"You must help your students to be gentle and to have a tenderness for one another, mutually forgiving, as God has forgiven them in Jesus Christ, and love one another as Jesus Christ has loved them."
Week of May 1, 2006:
"Look upon the children God has entrusted to you as the children of God himself. Have much more solicitude for their education and instruction than you would have for the children of a king."
Week of April 24, 2006:
"Consider, then, that your reward in heaven will be all the greater as you will have accomplished more good in the souls of the children who are entrusted to your care."
Week of April 17, 2006:
"Prayer also gives us special strength to endure patiently everything we find most difficult."
Week of April 10, 2006:
"Thus when we pray, we are doing what the holy angels do, and although there is a great difference between angels and ourselves, prayer is something common to us both."
Week of April 3, 2006:
"Just as light is necessary in this world, just as we need life in our body to preserve it, and just as a sick person needs medicine to get well, so too prayer is necessary for the soul that serves God."
Week of March 27, 2006:
"God wants all who serve him to recognize that all they possess comes from him."
Week of March 20, 2006:
"When we pray, we address God more with the heart than the lips."
Week of March 13, 2006:
"God established prayer as a special help, constantly at our disposal, which we can make use of at every moment to obtain from God everything we needed in this world to ensure our salvation and to acquire eternal life."
Week of March 6, 2006:
"We need grace constantly to help us perform our actions properly, to resist the temptations that assail us, and to keep us on the right path."
Week of February 27, 2006:
"Apply yourself to interior prayer and try to do all your actions in a prayerful spirit."
Week of February 20, 2006:
"You are in a ministry in which you can touch hearts. But you cannot possibly do this without the assistance of the Holy Spirit."
Week of February 13, 2006:
"One of our chief duties should be to learn to speak of God and to speak well of him."
Week of February 6, 2006:
"Example makes a much greater impression on the mind and heart than words."
Week of January 23, 2006:
"Let it be clear, then, in all your conduct towards the children who are entrusted to you that you look upon yourselves as ministers of God, carrying out your ministry with love and a sincere and true zeal."
Week of January 16, 2006:
"Zeal is an awareness before God of responsibility for the students; it is an assurance that one can collaborate in God's work."
Week of January 9, 2006:
"Pray earnestly to God and wait for the best opportunity to present itself."
Week of December 12, 2005:
"It is chiefly in your actions that your faith should shine forth."
Week of December 5, 2005:
"It is your duty to teach an awareness of social justice to your students. How will you do so?"
Week of November 21, 2005:
"We are never exempt from the duty of mutual forbearance, for it is impossible for people to live together without being a source of mutual suffering. We cause other to suffer and so we ought to bear with their failings also."
Week of November 14, 2005:
"When teachers speak much, they are little heard and less heeded."
Week of November 7, 2005:
"For no matter how much faith your students may have, nor how lively it may be, if they are not practicing any good works at all, their faith will be of no use to them."
Inauguration Week Daily Reflections (September 19-23, 2005)
Monday's Reflection:
"God has called you to your ministry in order to procure his glory and to give students the spirit of wisdom, the insight to know him, and to enlighten the eyes of their hearts."
Tuesday's Reflection:
"You must also lead them to practice well all the good of which they are capable. Example makes a much greater impression on the mind and hearts than words."
Wednesday's Reflection:
"Do not forget to help them acquire gentleness, patience, love and respect...and all the conduct that is proper to a Christian child, in a word, all that our religion demands of them."
Thursday's Reflection:
"You must then look upon your work as one of the most important and most necessary services in the Church, one which has been entrusted to you by pastors, by fathers and mothers."
Friday's Reflection:
"Do you have a faith that is such that it is able to touch the hearts of your students and inspire them with the Christian spirit? This is the greatest miracle you could perform and the one that God asks of you, for this is the purpose of your work."
