We are convinced that, whatever our situation, our commitment to Lasallian education and to the spirit of the Founder can take a concrete form if we take a certain number of measures:

In all your work as teachers, as individuals or as members of a community; by the witness of your family life; by your commitment as a Christian to the society and Church to which you belong, always be concerned about the way children and young people live: about their emotional, educational and spiritual deficiencies; about the way they are accepted or rejected by society; about the respect owed them as individuals; about their preparations for their future.

Many of you are already involved in implementing a Lasallian educational plan, and your contribution is both valuable and generous. You are fully aware of its implications. You know its importance for improving the service we offer the young; for reaching the underprivileged; and for helping everyone to find unity in their lives through a balance of culture and faith. You constantly seek to improve your professional competence as well as the quality of your relationships with others as a teacher.

Because of his faith, John Baptist de La Salle dared to face the social problems of his day squarely, and feel deeply about them. We cannot act differently, especially as there is so much serious poverty and deprivation in our rapidiy evolving society. Let us be prepared to make a genuine commitment to tackle social problems in our own country and in those parts of the world where the need is greatest. Let us become more sensitive to the needs of the missions and of Lasallian voluntary help groups, and offer them our help.

This is the challenge Pope John Paul II set us at the last General Chapter. Let us always show by our personal lives, by our dealings with society, by the commitments we undertake, that we respect the values that go to make up the culture of our country, and that we wish to promote them. Let us work together to ensure that, in our schools and wherever our work takes us, there is more justice, peace, friendship, solidarity and faith.

We call upon those among you who are willing to do so -and this may mean a very brave decision - to involve yourselves directly ~n announcing Jesus Christ through catechesis, religious instruction and pastoral care. This can be done either within the confines of a school or outside, according to local conditions. One of the principal aims of the Institute's mission is '~to announce the Gospel to the poor through education".

Since we come together as believers to share in a common task, let us not fight shy of involving ourselves more fully in the practice of our faith. We will be led to live it more completely, to share it with others and express it with joy. In this way, we will be part of the living Church, a proof of its dynamism, its creativity and its influence. We are of the opinion that all establishments and Lasallian groups should be moving in the direction of becoming such communities of faith, each organising its own life, its own pace and its own ways of expressing itself, and workmg closely with the local Church.

You will no doubt realise that what we have described here is a gradual process. The measures we suggest are for all Lasalhans, wherever they work, whatever the community they are attached to. We appeal especially, however, to those who are most fully committed, either because they have agreed to occupy posts of responsibility in Lasallian establishments, or because their personal lives are already committed to God and the Church.

The list of six measures we have suggested is not an exhaustive one. We are sure you are quite capable of discovering other areas where urgent action is required, and of taking it. What we thought was important, however, was to point out clearly areas that were a priority, because we realise that there is an enormous amount to be done, that we are all involved, and that there has to be some coordination in what we do: the task is so complex that it calls for everyone 5 cooperation.