As we prepare for the upcoming Year of Lasallian Spirituality in 2025, Christian Brothers Conference will publish occasional reflections to provide spiritual inspiration and stir continued dialogue around Lasallian spirituality.
By Brother Michael Phipps, FSC
In November, I sat on a vocation panel with an array of individuals that bear witness to the depth and breadth of experience in the church. During the evening, I had the privilege of sitting next to a Little Sister of the Poor, a wonderful woman who ministers in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Traversing the world, she has walked with hundreds as they approach death, offering solace, encouragement and presence. She carries herself with a quiet strength, deliberate in her words and warm in demeanor.
One of the young people in the audience asked the poignant question, “How does one become holier?” This sister leaned forward, beckoning for the microphone from one of the other panelists. Without skipping a beat, she succinctly replied, “Pray.” While I had had a similar first thought, the vigor with which she embraced the question and urgency with which she offered her answer inspired me to reflect more deeply on the legacy of prayer in Lasallian spirituality.
“Prayer is first of all a gift the Brothers receive from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. For their part, the Brothers welcome it in all the events of their daily life in a way that it inspires a response in the form of praise or thanksgiving, intercession, or asking for forgiveness. They never tire of saying, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’” (Rule of the Brothers)
When researching Lasallian spirituality, it does not take long for the practice of prayer to rise to the surface. Saint John Baptist de La Salle, certainly a product of his time, relied on prayer throughout his life for spiritual sustenance and guidance. As a young man, De La Salle’s position as canon afforded him the opportunity to pray multiple times a day, embedding the ritual prayer of the Church into his professional and personal life. This foundation carried through the Founder’s life, offering solace in the loss of his parents and infusing faith and zeal into his encounters with Nicolas Roland, Adrien Nyel, Sister Louise, the early teacher Brothers, and countless others.
Prayer in my own life has gone through several iterations, ebbing and flowing over years of exploring my faith and spirituality. Alongside attending Mass with my family, traditional Catholic practices like the rosary and Stations of the Cross made up the foundations of my prayer life growing up; I remember kneeling with my grandmother in the hours after school, hands running rhythmically over beads and cord. For a time, I enjoyed the slow pacing of the ritual, leaning into the mental serenity I experienced when saying the rosary. However, my wandering mind had other plans, often finding it difficult to stay engaged in the prayer and, as a result, surmising that the practices were not of great importance.
It was not until my later years of high school that I would again appreciate the place of prayer in my spiritual life. One of the most impactful classes I have ever taken was Prayer and Spirituality, an experiential religion elective offered at La Salle High School. Ted Kanelopoulos, my teacher and a former Christian Brother, offered a welcoming reintroduction to practices buried in my psyche for years and an intriguing introduction to rituals I had never encountered. Each Friday, Mr. K would offer us the opportunity to meditate for a significant portion of the class period. These quiet moments of rest and reflection offered me a much different experience of prayer than that of my childhood. I connected with the guided meditations and slowly began incorporating them into my spiritual practices. I began to fall back in love with prayer, feeling as though I was communicating with God.
As a Lasallian Volunteer, prayer became a ritualized part of my daily routine, embedded in the fabric of community life. I learned the Liturgy of the Hours and truly began to connect prayer with community and the Church. Creating prayers to share with the community resulted in the expansion of my spiritual willingness to allow others more deeply into sacred spaces with me.
During my initial time in discernment with the Brothers, the historical breadth of prayer experiences came to bear, offering a variety of ways to search for God’s call in my life. Mass and the rosary and meditation and a host of other devotions each had their unique part to play in me discovering my vocation. In reflecting on my Lasallian journey, prayer has been the sustaining backbone for creating community, growing faith and rekindling zeal.
As I continue to grow and nurture my spiritual life, I return to the simple response of the Little Sister of the Poor and the example of De La Salle’s life: Prayer is at the heart of connecting with God, our chief avenue of communication with the divine. May each of us continue to encounter the sacred through prayer, allowing God to transform our lives and those of the people entrusted to our care.
Brother Michael Phipps, FSC, is the spirituality project manager for Christian Brothers Conference, the office for the Lasallian Region of North America (RELAN).