“Our heart is in the peripheries” is the title of Lasallian Reflection 10 (2024 – 2025) which is part of the global campaign Lasallian DNA, in continuity with Lasallian Reflection 9: “Where is your focus?“ (2023 – 2024).
“That reflection recommended that we delve deeper into the meaning of ‘our focus’ in the spirit of The Leavening Project, enriched with a profound biblical reflection which illustrates and deepens the need to focus and the kind of gaze which these times demand of us”, remarked Brothers Carlos Gómez, Vicar General, and Martín Digilio, General Councillor, authors of the Lasallian Reflection 10.
“In this reflective saga, we propose to focus on the heart and from there to recognise that the present times and the realities the Institute is living today invite us to dwell in the the peripheries“, Brothers Carlos and Martin continue, evoking the classic work of the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, which has inspired so many generations: “‘what is essential is invisible to the eye, it can only be seen with the heart’. So let us try to look with our eyes and contemplate with our heart.
Accordingly, Lasallian Reflection 10 addresses the necessity of focusing on the ‘margins’ in the manner of Jesus in the Gospel, who “reveals to us in the parable of the Samaritan the attitude of the one who behaves as a true neighbour: he is the one who leaves his path, goes to meet the one who is fallen, looks out for the life of the other, provides the means to assist him in his unfortunate situation, and takes care of him. This is the meaning of Pope Francis’ invitation to live a Church in service to the poor, a Church that goes forth”.
Hence the basic question which accompanies the Lasallians’ journey to the peripheries is the same one which Jesus addresses when he responds to the question: “And who is my neighbour?
Inspired by the invitation of the 46th General Chapter, Lasallian Reflection 10 proposes some paths that we should take so that our heart may dwell in the peripheries: commitment to justice, building peace and contributing to a sustainable world in terms of integral ecology are some of them.
“To have our heart in the peripheries is to discern our educational and pastoral projects, opting for God’s preferred ones. From there, find the courage to generate new responses, shake off those things that bind so we are freed from prescribed constructs, and overcome prejudices so we can give the educational responses needed by so many children, adolescents and young people who day after day are on a pilgrim’s journey in the peripheries”.