Michael Valenzuela, FSC, PhD
ABSTRACT
Presenting De La Salle’s spiritual teaching in a unified and coherent way is always a challenge given that the Founder never got around to producing a synthesis of his spiritual doctrine. To read his work is to find tremendous spiritual insights scattered here and there like gems on the floor of a treasure cave. In the absence of a Lasallian summa, it follows that any attempt to arrive at a synthesis of the Founder’s spiritual teachings must necessarily be creative as well as reconstructive. This present essay then is an exercise in creative interpretation – an attempt to discern and interpret the underlying gestalt which organizes the Founder’s ideas on the spiritual life into a coherent whole. It is the author’s hope that the present exercise will benefit not just those who have to present the Founder’s works to various publics, but most especially those who want to understand and walk this spiritual path themselves.
KEYWORDS
Catholic higher education; De La Salle; Lasallian; Lasallian spirituality;
FULL TEXT
The Ministerial Spirituality of De La Salle: An Exercise in Interpretation
About the Author
Michael Valenzuela, FSC, Ph.D.
Brother Michael Valenzuela has been a De La Salle Christian Brother for the past thirty years. He holds a Ph.D. from De La Salle University in Manila (2004), and he served as a member of the ‘Rule’ Commission of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (2009-2012). As such, he contributed to the formulation of what is now referred to as the ‘Revised Rule’ of 2015.
ISSN: 2151-2515
© Christian Brothers Conference 2023.