Through our Lasallian faith
Our mission of service
Associated for 10 years as a community
We invite you, our Lasallian family, to help us celebrate our 10 year anniversary with a day of service. However your ministry feels called to be the good news to others, share the good news with the DENA family!
@fscDENA #10DENA
Be sure to check out other Ministries’ stories and photos from the day, and a video of the District Office’s work for the Day of Service >
Day of Service Prayer
Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God
Gathering Prayer: Loving God, we gather today hearts filled with gratitude for the abundant blessings that you have bestowed upon the District of Eastern North America for the past decade. Lasallians have sought to serve you, as Saint John Baptist instructed, “Lord, the work is yours,” and we Lasallians, “together and by association” are your faithful servants.
Silent +++ Pause
Reflection of the Founder: Adapted from De La Salle: The Rule
Group 1 – Be present in our world of today as part of the Church’s work in spreading the Gospel of Jesus.
Group 2 – Be concerned about the needs of the poor. Help them to become aware of their dignity and recognized as human beings and as children of God.
Group 1 – Be an ambassador and minister of Jesus Christ. Be convinced that any education that respects the human person is a way to open people to God’s grace.
Group 2 – Be attentive to those most in need. Make yourselves available to all and offer them your companionship.
All: Be attentive to developing a sense of social responsibility. Be careful to take a critical stance toward contemporary society and its values. Be a promoter of justice and human dignity through the eradication of poverty.
Help others to encounter Christ.
Silent +++ Pause
Gospel Reading: Matthew 25: 35 – 39
One of them [a scholar of the law] tested Jesus by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The Gospel of the Lord.
All: Praise to you, Jesus Christ
Silent +++ Pause
Contemporary Reading: Adapted from Lasallian Reflection #4- Hearts on Fire!
One Heart: De La Salle and his first companions made the birth of our Lasallian family possible. They let God touch their hearts, which started beating in unison with the hearts of poor children and young people. God touched the depths of their being and enabled them to walk along with others to set their hearts on fire. They became the source of a new charism for the Church and the world. Ours, like any charism, “is a grace, a gift, which is given to someone not because she is better than others or because she deserves it: it is a gift that God gives her, because with his freely given love he can place her in service to the entire community, for the good of all.” We have freely received a charism as a gift for those whom God has entrusted to us, and who are at the center of our mission: our students, especially the poorest among them. This is what our Founder says: “Act in such a way through your zeal that you give tangible proof that you love those whom God has entrusted to you.” (MD 201.2).
One Commitment: His answer to God gradually led him to lead a life of full commitment to others: “One commitment led to another in a way that I did not foresee in the beginning”. (MSO 6) The spirit of our Founder – the Church’s declared patron saint of educators – lives in us today. It is our duty to guarantee its relevance by meeting the real needs of children, young people and adults nowadays.
One Life: A committed heart is only possible when we feel that our life is fulfilled, when we learn to overcome the contradictions and inconsistencies we experience along the way, when we learn to rest in God’s hands. Our vocation is dynamic; it constantly grows and develops. Giving a vocational sense to our life – no matter what our concrete option may be – fills us with enthusiasm, optimism and joy. It enables us to share with others whatever we find valuable along the way.
All: God bless our work. The work is yours!
+++ Day of Service +++
Closing Prayer: Together
Let us pray: Stir up your trust in God’s infinite goodness and honor God by leaving in God’s hands the care of your person. Be not troubled about the present or disquieted about the future, but be concerned only about the moment you must now live. Do not let anticipation of tomorrow be a burden on the day that is passing. What you lack in the evening the morrow will bring you, if you know how to hope in God.
– St. John Baptist de La Salle
Saint John Baptist de La Salle…pray for us
Live Jesus in our hearts…forever