Brothers,
In Chapter Two of I, John Baptist de La Salle, entitled, "The Seed Years," we are given an account of de La Salle's radical sacrifice in which he gave up everything for the sake of educating the poor of France. Acting as St. La Salle, Bro. Leo Kirby, FSC, writes, "I gave up my salaried position to a poor pirest, and I gave away my money to feed teh hungry. From that time on, I got much closer to the children they taught. I could now truthfully say, 'We Brothers'" (25). Here, we get a sense of how important self-sacrifice is in the life of a Christian. Only when one "takes up his cross"--or dedicates himself to a cause greater than himself--can he truly begin to experience God's kingdom of love on earth.
That said, I would like you to discuss one theme (a unifying idea or subject of a given text) portrayed in "The Seed Years". Support your discussion with back-up from the text; use quotes and format them properly (as modeled for you above)! Notice above how I discuss the theme of self-sacrifice as being an important part of the Christian's call to duty and relate it to De La Salle's life using a quote from the chapter.
Please be thorough and thoughtful in your response. This blog should be at least one paragraph in length, but may very well exceed that length, especially if you get involved in your discussion of the theme you choose. Always ask yourself "how" and "why" when discussing the points you make about a particular theme. When you insert quotes, you must interpret what the author means by them.
This is due Tuesday, March 17, 2009 by class-time.
Brother Rob Peach, FSC
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15 comments:
Robby Mazeski
Relgion
In chapter two of I John Baptist de La Salle Sainit John gives up his entire salary to feed all of the hungry poeple. Saint John also set up a school for all of the poor less furtunate kids in France. John baptist again showed in another point of his life how selfless he is, and how much he really cared about others.
Mitch House
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Religion 011.05
March 16, 2009
A theme that is portrayed throughout the chapter, "The Seed Years", is the theme of St. John Baptist de La Salle's dedication to his work. Throughout the text, Bro. Kirby explains how much de La Salle sacrificed and how dedicated he was to his sacrifices. Examples such as "...I gave up my salaried position to a poor priest, and I gave away my money to the hungry."(25) and "Toward the end of this period, i opened a school to train teachers."(25) show us St. John Baptist de La Salle's commitment to God. He gave away all his money and his payed job so he could truly live with the Brothers. Also, even after all the schools he had opened and taken responsibility for, he still opened a school to train the teachers. We see that he fully went through with God's plan. He did not half heart it and stop at just making a few schools, he cared so much that he made sure that the teachers teaching those students knew what they were doing and took pride in their work. That is commitment that you can't buy. That is a commitment that only a person truly devoted to God and truly devoted to his cause can show. And it is a commitment no ordinary person can show...St. John Baptist de La Salle was no ordinary person.
Brett Cerussi
Bro. Peach, FSC
Religion 011. 05
March 16, 2009
In "The Seed Years" there are many themes. One theme is La Salle's sort of impulsive decisions. Although his decisions were impulsive the were unselfish and saint like. One example of his impulsive but still unselfish is the way he gives up his salary to help feed the hungary. Another example is how he let teachers into his home even when his brothers didn't exactly go along with it.
Dan Raimondi
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Religion 011.05
March 16, 2009
I think that one of the major themes of self sacrifice for De La Salle is him giving up his home, already filled with his siblings, so these teachers could live descently. His brothers thought he was crazy, but he did it out of good intentions. As said by Brother Kirby,FSC, "None of them was really angry about the teachers' coming into our home, but they weren't exactly happy about it either." They all still supported him in his descision about the move, and the rest of his work, even the brother that moved out, because of he teachers.
In The Seed Years of Bro. Kirby's book on Saint La Salle, there is one theme that sticks out to me. That theme is sacrifice for what you belive in. He show this over and over again in this chapter with unyeilding dedication to the ideas that he believes should happen. He is obsessed with getting the less forutnate educated, even when that is completely unheard of in his time, and he, as Bro. Kirby writes
"I opened a school to train teachers."pg. 25.
Teachers were usually people without any skill who teach as a last resort, but As La Salle said, he wanted to give teachers a sense of pride in their work. He also just doesn't start a school and then just leave it to survive, he creates schools in his targeted areas (mostly the cities) and not only develops them but establishes them and gives them a reputation as said in the book. That is true sacrifice for what you believe in. Saint La Salle works hard for the things that he knows to be right, and that is something that I think God instilled in him so he could accomplish his goals.
I forgot to write my heading, its:
Matt Bradley
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Religion 011.05
March 16, 2009
Paul Costello
3/16/09
Bro Peach FSC
In the chapter The Seed Years, i thikn there is a common theme of leadership. St. John the Baptist De La Salle led the teachers in not only teaching them to teach, but praying with them and helping them with their personal lives. Bro. Lee Kirby writes, "The next thing I knew, I was a sort of leader with these teachers, prayiung with them and giving them some advice with their class work and personal problems," (25). Not only did De La Salle advise these teachers, but he also welcomed them into his home. He also made what historians believe to be the first school for teachers. This was his way of getting the the source of the problem with the education and solving it.
In chapter two of I, John Baptist de La Salle, Bro. Leo Kirby, FSC mentions self-sacrifice in le Salle's later "actions" when he was of the age of thirty (meaning what he did during that "later" period). He writes
In chapter 2 of I, John Baptist de La Salle, Bro. Leo Kirby, FSC mentions self-sacrifice in La Salle's actions when he was of the age of 30. During this time, La Salle was advised by his friend to give away his own privileged, well-paid position in the cathedral and donate his inherited money to poor families who were starving because of the current famine-or to get out, and he did so. Bro. Leo Kirby writes that John Baptist de La Salle thought of himself as a brother. He thought himself to be true, and "one of them". La Salle shows absolute determination in his actions and takes full responsibility for this project that he is a part of, as Bro. Leo writes.
In Chapter 2 of I, John Baptist de La Salle, many themes are discussed from de Lasalle's life. One theme in particular is courage. Courage is a theme because Saint John Baptist de La Salle gave up everything he had to help the poor children in France to school them and house them. He was courageous because he did not know what he was getting into when he decided to let these children into his house. He showed how you could be in the upper middle class and give all of that up just to help out the poor and live as one of them. De La Salle had no idea what he was getting himself into when he made the choice to give away basically what people have to work for in their whole entire lifetime. Obviouslly the choice he made was the correct one since he had success and he is the patron saint of teachers.
Tom Foley
Bro.Rob Peach, FSC
Religion 011.5
March 16,2009
I think one theme in this chapter is decision making. St John was young when he first had to make them. St John created the second school all on his own. "This second school i considered my own responsibility, because i hired the teachers for it and helped out the pastor, a priest friend of mine, with their salaries." (23) He made the decision to invite some of the teachers into his house for dinner and an even bigger one a few years later to have them move in with him. "This move did not sit still with my relatives."(25) One of his brothers even moved out even though they were big supporters of him. He eventually changed their name to brothers and wore a specific type of clothing to destinguish them from the laity. Once they were satisfied as with their salary they wished to spread throught the world.
Claude Scott
Bro. Peach, FSC
Religion o11.05
March 16, 2009
In Seed Years, chapter two of I, John baptist de La Salle.The main theme, is that he is welling to make sacrifices that he really didnt have to do. But its what he wanted to do to help the people that didnt have anything. He shows the character of a Saint. He gives all of his salary up to the poor . And he would give away his money to the hungry.He helped with starting a school for people who really didnt have anything or whov was educated.This shows that he want to see other people happy.
March 17, 2009 10:24 AM
Patrick Vento
Bro. Rob Peach, FSC
Religion 011.05
March 16, 2009
In "The Seed Years" Saint John Baptist de La Salle gave up basically his life (no in a death sense) but in a material sense..here is one example of what he did for others..."I gave up my salaried position to a poor priest, and I gave away my money to the hungry" (pg. 25) and to see him do something like this is just amazing because growning up he had alot and now he doesn't so it's kind of a twist on his own life. He also says that he moves all the teachers into one home. That must of been hard because there are maybe 6 to 7 people living in one house...This just shows how much he really cares about the poor getting a good education and how much he cares for others...
Damion Jones-Moore
Bro.Rob Peach, FSC
Religion 011.5
March 16,2009
In chapter two of I John Baptist de La Salle he gives up alot just to help the people, for example he gave up his entire salary just to feed the poor and he also made a school for children who were less fortuanate than others and couldn't afford the other schools. His actions spoke way louder than words and that made him a true saint.Theme selfless
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