Dear Friends of the Lasallian Educational Mission,
In thinking about this issue of Lasallian Notes, one of my favorite poems to teach when I was a 9th grade English teacher came to mind, Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Its subtitle is “What the Heart of a Young Man Said to the Psalmist.”
The first three stanzas set the scene of this dramatic monologue.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
The poem develops the theme of living with intention and purpose—facing challenges head-on with the confidence Christian faith provides, rather than with a prosaic and somber approach where one passively shrugs his or her shoulders at the vicissitudes of life.
Isn’t that the heart of our Lasallian Mission? For generations, Brothers and Lasallian Educators have inspired students to engage in life with faith and zeal and to put their gifts and talents at the service of society. Our schools continue to be places where young people come to discover the many opportunities that life offers and motivates them to do good, to make the world more like God intended it to be.
The last stanzas of the poem describe the legacy of living with this attitude. It is a legacy reflected in the many Brothers who have gone before us, after years of faithfully living their vocation.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing shall take heart again.
Thanks to your ongoing support, we can continue to touch the hearts of students, and encourage them toward lives of purpose and significant meaning, to discover their God-given vocation in life. What an opportunity we have!
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Live Jesus in our hearts! Forever!
Br. Robert Schaefer, FSC
Visitor/Provincial