As part of the celebrations for Advent and the Christmas Season Heather Ruple and Br Paco Chiva, Co-Secretaries of Lasallian Association for the Institute, invited Joanne Millea to reflect on her experience of being part of the Lasallian Family, through art and words.
Given the challenges of 2020, Joanne, an artist and committed Lasallian Partner from De La Salle School, St Helens, created a piece which was appropriately entitled ‘Hope’ and has also written about her own positive experience as of Lasallian Association for Mission.Click hereto see the piece created by Joanne and to read her own personal story.
This year, the senior school at De La Salle College Malta decorated one of the big trees on its grounds. Each bauble was brought to school by a student or a staff member, and has their name written on it. This symbolises the coming together as a Lasallian family, even in such difficult and trying times.
On Wednesday December 16th, the Young Lasallians network through the Indivisa Manent (IM) global online community will launch an original Christmas song and a music video — the Miracle of Christmas. This will be part of a prayer-reflection experience to be broadcasted live on Facebook & Youtube via the La Salle Worldwide channels.
The song and music video we are producing aims to feature the different members of the Lasallian family celebrating Christmas. Stella Maris and DLS College Malta students have a performance during the event of Silent Night.
The event will start at 2.30pm (GMT) and 3.30pm (Malta).
The Young Lasallian Council will be gathering together online, December 14th 2020.
We will be welcoming three new members to our team:
- Jason Poole (Beneavin De La Salle College: Dublin, Ireland)
- Theo Arthur (St Joseph's College: Beulah Hill, London)
- Isobelle Cording (St Cassian's Residential Centre: Kintbury, UK)
During our meeting, we will be planning our Student Leadership training and resources, as well as evaluating the most recent International Lasallian Days for Peace resource that the council launched in September 2020.
St John’s House, St Helens
For all readers of these monthly notes the Covid-19 pandemic will have been a very significant feature during the past months. Here in St Helens the month of November brought a very different level of experience to our House and Community, as two staff members and three Brothers tested positive for the virus. The Brothers are required to remain in isolation until December 6th.
Early in the month most Brothers of the Community took part in a Zoom meeting with General Councillor, Brother Aidan Kilty and Brother Nestor, Institute Mission Secretary. Our aim was to gain a Rome perspective on the document recently circulated ‘Declaration on the Lasallian Educational Mission’. It was a very worthwhile meeting.
As this is the last issue before Christmas we wish readers a very happy Christmas. Stay safe.
Drumcondra Community, Dublin
Back in 1859, Charles Dickens wrote in the opening lines of “A Tale of Two Cities” ' It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…’ And, for all of us, it was the age of Covid-19 and the challenges we were presented with. Thankfully, all three of us have remained Covid-free and hope to remain so going forward.
During the initial lockdown back in the springtime we fended very much for ourselves - we took responsibility for the cleaning of the house and our own cooking. As things improved, our ancillary staff returned - and that was a welcome development.
Generally, Covid-time has been a bit of a mixed blessing. On the difficult side, it was painful not to be able to attend funerals of our Brothers and family members. It was also difficult not to be able to attend family functions - and, in some cases, these family events were simply postponed into 2021 when it’s hoped that we’ll all be in a better and safer space. On the positive side, we were very fortunate to have Fr Michael celebrate daily Mass for us - a privilege denied to most communities during the time of pandemic.
We have enjoyed having guests stay with us here in Drumcondra over the past few years - but since Covid has visited our shores, our visitors have stayed away. Brother Nestor Anaya from the Motherhouse in Rome spent a month here during the summer improving his English and Brother Ronald Cheyewa spent some time with us before his return to Kenya. We were delighted that Brothers William Rafferty and Finbarr Murphy opted to spend some time here when the Covid numbers dropped during the summer. Even George and John from St John’s spent a couple of nights with us: they wanted to sample life on the north side of the Liffey. It was a lovely experience simply to hear a different voice in the house.
During the past six weeks or so, Johnny has not been to St John’s Education Centre in Glasnevin during school time. He has missed the social interaction that goes with the work there, but has kept in touch with the occasional Zoom meeting.
What would we have done without the Zoom platform during Covid-time? It has been a wonderful means of linking people together - safely - during a time when we were told to keep apart from each other in order to keep each other safe.
Back in April, Mark Manson gave the following four pieces of advice about dealing with Covid-19: (i) From Today Until This is Over, You Have a New God, and His Name is ‘Routine’ (ii) Build and Repair Relationships; you have no excuse now; (iii) Focus on the Basics of Health and Wellness; (iv) Remember: You Are Not Alone. Good advice, and it became a kind of reference point for us to stay physically and mentally strong during the past nine months or so.
We were delighted to be able to ‘host’ the online District Retreat back in October while Kevin continues his work with men’s spirituality through his work with MALE’s Ireland ( check the website here ). The weekly online meetings proved very helpful to men when physical face-to-face meetings were not an option while the Mid-November online weekend workshop “Alone Am I Among People - Aonar Domsa Idir Dhaoine" proved particularly supportive - especially for men living in isolation.
So we continue to live a life as ’normal’ as possible as we look forward to the festive season and joining our nearest community on Howth Road for dinner on Christmas Day. We wish all our Brothers at home and abroad and all our partners and their families a very happy and peaceful Christmas.
BK
Catch up on the latest news from the Lasallian Family around the globe through the following links.
Keep up-to-date on the events from the Generalate in Rome at https://www.lasalle.org/ and from RELEM at https://www.lasalle-relem.org/.
Read the latest news from RELAN including the current issue of De La Salle Today is now available, which is a combination spring-autumn publication themed “Responding to the Times: Great Things Are Possible. Click https://cbconf.salsalabs.org/november20?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=ca16e772-a3b9-48d6-b469-0360...
News and updates from the District of San Francisco & New Orleans are available here.
The November edition of ‘Lasallian Outlook’ from the District of Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan & Papua New Guinea, is available here.
News from the Brother Visitor can be viewed in ‘In the Know
ANZPPG’ using the followinglink:
file:///C:/Users/35386/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/GG1N8ZKS/ITK%20ANZPPNG%2016th%20November.pdf
The latest news from the De La Salle Holy Cross Junior
School in South Africa is available using the following link:
file:///C:/Users/35386/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/GG1N8ZKS/DLSHCC%20Newsletter%2012%202020%20JS.pdf
The fruits of Pat (Chris) Commins and his cousin Elizabeth Rice's detailed research work over the past few summers will be available to us on Amazon on February 15th, 2021, with the publication of ‘Irish Immigrants in Michigan – A History in Stories’.
As the title suggests, it’s “a history in stories” with roots firmly set in villages scattered around Ireland. To leave or stay was the question for the Irish in the 19th Century. In Ireland, people suffered persecution, poverty and famine. America offered freedom and opportunity.
For those who left and came to Michigan, the land's abundant natural resources encouraged them to become loggers, miners, fishermen, traders and farmers. Others became rail workers, merchants, lawyers, soldiers, doctors and teachers. Governor Frank Murphy advocated for civil rights. Sister Agnes Gonzaga Ryan administered schools and hospitals. Charlie O'Malley provided generously to suffering Irish people. Lighthouse keeper James Donohue never let physical disability deter him. Prospector Richard Langford discovered iron ore and then left others to mine its wealth.
Authors Pat Commins and Elizabeth Rice share one story from each Michigan county about Irish immigrants or their descendants.
Pat - or Chris as he is fondly known among the Brothers - has given his life to the Lasallian mission in his roles as Brother, educator, leader and caregiver to vulnerable youth. He has devoted his latter years to another of his life’s passions: history. His first published work “Irish Immigrants in Michigan - A History in Stories” will be available in February 2021; you can pre-order it now on Amazon by clicking on this link https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Immigrants-Michigan-History-Stories/dp/1467146315.
From November 2nd to 4th there was a live-in from residential students living inaSalesian home which included students and three Carers.
On November 26th, eight Salesian priests attended forahalf day retreat.
Experts calculate that the most fuel consumed is during the take-off of an aeroplane. This is a good analogy for the hard work we put into setting up our new retreat centre ‘Hazelwood House’ and making it Covid-friendly for our staff, teachers and retreat participants.
Suddenly, our dream has become a reality and our determination to make it work has paid off. The coming months look very positive with quite a full programme of school retreat bookings up until the end of March. As we move forward I believe our greatest reward is when you are able to bless those students who come through our door, to be a listening ear, to let them know that God loves and cares about them and to prove that compassion still exists in world of Covid-19
Truly, we have much to thank God for, may He continue to bless our work.
- Eugene Smith, Director
