predication.net

The prophecy of Isaiah that we have heard is about the Messiah, the Redeemer. Still, it is also a prophecy about the people of Israel, about God’s people: we can say that it is a prophecy about every one of us. The prophecy emphasizes that the Lord chose his servant from the womb: he says it twice. His servant was selected from the very beginning, from birth or even before birth. God’s people and each of us were chosen before birth. Not one of us has come into the world by chance or accident. Everyone has some purpose, some free lot, much election by God. I was born with the lot of being a child of God and a servant of God, with the task of serving and building. And that from the womb.

Yahweh’s servant Jesus served until death: it seemed a defeat, but it was a way of serving. And this highlights the way of service we must embrace in our lives. To serve is to give of yourself, to give yourself to others. To serve is not to demand benefits for each of us who do not serve. To serve is glory; and the glory of Christ is to serve to the point of giving up oneself, to the point of death, death on the cross. Jesus is a servant of Israel. God’s people are servants, and when they have moved away from this attitude of service, they are apostate people: they move away from the vocation that God has given them. And when each of us moves away from this vocation to serve, we move away from God’s love. And we build our lives on other loves, often idolatrously.

He chose us from our mother’s womb. There are lows in life: each of us is a sinner and can fall and has fallen. The only exceptions are the Virgin Mary and Jesus: we have all fallen and sinned. What is essential, however, is the attitude before God, who chose me, who anointed me a servant; it is the attitude of a sinner who can ask for forgiveness, just like Peter, who at first swears: “No, Lord, I will never deny you, no way!” – but after the cock crows, he cries. Regrets. That is the way of the servant: when he slips, when he falls, he asks for forgiveness.

On the contrary, when the servant cannot understand that he has fallen, when passion takes hold of him to such an extent that it leads him to idolatry, opens his heart to Satan, enters into the night, and this is what happened to Judas. Let us think today of Jesus, the Servant of the faithful in ministry. His vocation is to serve, even to the point of death, namely death on the cross. Let us think of each of us, a part of the people of God: we are servants, our vocation is to serve, not to benefit from our place in the Church.

Servants mostly obey orders, are subjects, and are often oppressed. They must be perfect in everything and fulfill all the wishes of their master… However, God thinks differently about his servants. He doesn’t want us to serve Him in one piece. He wants to win us over.

Furthermore, he doesn’t want us to be His slaves. First, she wants to snuggle us up, like a mother wants her child. He longs to hold us in his arms, to bandage our wounds, because he chose us and has a crush on us.

However, we often confuse Him with some strict policeman who watches our every move. We think he only wants performance from us, good deeds, and 100% perfection, and then maybe he will notice and help us. We don’t know… Or we’re afraid to accept His love – just like that. We often want to deserve it and do everything to please Him and prove that we are not that bad. However… We don’t have to. He loves us after all. 

He loves you because you ARE and not because of WHAT you do. Let Him. Let Him love you and run away from Him, even if you have messed up many things and failed. He always looks at you the same way. You are no failure for Him… You no longer have to compete with anyone. To compare yourself with no one. You are precious in His eyes, so be good to yourself and don’t underestimate yourself anymore. HE loves you. You are His beloved child. Don’t forget it!

Prayer: Lord, You are in love with us. You love us endlessly. We ask You for grace so that we seek love only from You and do not wander around this empty world. Amen.

Questions to ponder: Do I allow God to love me? How could I avoid worrying about what I messed up and failed at? I believe God longs for me because I AM, not because of WHAT I do for this world.

Activity: Try to come before the Lord today. Find a quiet place, take a pen and paper, and write a Letter of Forgiveness in your own words – to yourself. Give the Lord all your failures. He forgives them and looks at you with love. He only wants one thing – that you, too, forgive yourself and accept yourself as you are, even with your weaknesses. 

As we approach the feast of Easter, we strive for a greater connection with God, through prayer, repentance, contrition, and an end to sin. There can be a temptation here: when progress is made, and we rid ourselves of grievous sins in confession, we cease our efforts. We stop struggling with the little sins, not realizing that they, too, may be the reason for our unfruitfulness. But the challenge is clear: “Cast away from yourselves all your sins, says the Lord” (Eze 18:31).

One successful farmer started by buying land, mostly just pasture. Turning them into fertile arable land was very difficult. It was no problem to remove the boulders that were on the land. There was no problem with the larger rocks either. The problem only arose after the first sloughing. When he looked at the plowed area, he could see that the ground was covered with small stones everywhere. But he didn’t give up. He and his wife set about picking. For days, they collected small rocks. Then he sowed for the first time. The following year, when sloughing, many tiny stones appeared again. They picked them all again. And so on for years to come. Today, this particular plot of land is one of the most fertile. Removing the little sins, weaknesses, and habits can seem never-ending. But the result is always a beautiful and holy soul that yields much spiritual harvest.

Cast away from you all your sins, says the Lord, and renew your heart and spirit (Eze 18:31) . Now is the time to meditate on Christ’s suffering, his love for us, when he conquered death and sin to redeem us. Let us renew our hearts and spirits to enjoy the gift of Christ’s redemption.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me strength today to fight even the more minor things that cause separation from You. Help me maintain inner peace and discernment in everything I do. May today be, once again, an opportunity for me to renew my heart and spirit. I pray that I may keep only good things in my heart. Amen.

Questions for reflection. Which are the small stones that I still need to pick up? What “new” way of renewing my heart will I still choose before Easter?

The prophet Jeremiah lived in the 6th century BC, when idolatry flourished. He predicted God’s punishment and therefore had many enemies. They humiliated him. They cut to his statements so they could trip him up. Furthermore, they also relied on the work of whistleblowers. Even those who lived in friendship with him took care of his fall. The prophet’s situation is described by the statement: Horror from all sides! In this situation, Jeremiah confidently surrenders himself to God, who has remained a powerful support. To him, he entrusts the solution to his dispute. God will thwart the plots of the enemies. They wanted to vilify the prophet, but shame will overtake them. The prophet’s trust is so strong that he calls for the glorification of God for delivering the poor man from the hands of criminals. Plots against Jesus › Jn 10, 31-42. The prophet Jeremiah is a type of Jesus. His enemies also plotted against him. When he confirmed his unity with God, referring to his deeds, they wanted to catch him and stone him. Jesus got out of their hands, because his hour had not yet come. We can experience suffering in the same way. We do not observe pitfalls, humiliation, slander, or name-calling around us. Let us entrust it to God, who is a righteous Judge. Let’s trust and entrust ourselves to God’s protection. The prophet Jeremiah teaches us to glorify God in situations of suffering. To thank him for setting us free. We will receive even greater gifts if we do this with great confidence.

In the first sentence of today’s Gospel, we heard how Jesus went to the Mount of Olives: a meeting place with his heavenly Father, a meeting place with himself, a place of isolation and silence, two necessary conditions for a full meeting. A place where God’s mercy embraces the merciful self and becomes merciful. A place of infinite horizon where there is no condition, no need, no circumstance in the relationship, but only the desire to stay and be alone.

The Mount of Olives is a place of grace, where pure, good oil is obtained to anoint the king, priest, and prophet, who represent submission and obedience only to God.

From this place, Jesus came to the temple in the morning: he went from seclusion to liturgy, to testimony, teaching, guidance, and application; he went from a relationship with himself to a relationship with others. And all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. When the evangelist John used the expression „all people“, he wanted to express God’s deep desire that all God’s people should find a way to reach him. They would see in him the unity of heart and wisdom of this age.

By his statement: „he sat down and taught them,“ wanted to express his desire to show God’s closeness to his holy people, so he began to interpret the Scriptures to them, thereby supporting his statement in the Gospel according to Matthew: „ Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.“

While he was teaching them, the Pharisees and scribes, teachers of the law, came to him with a woman caught in adultery, brought her to Jesus and asked him to judge her according to the law of Moses, that is, by stoning. In this situation, when they told him “Teacher”, they recognized him as a teacher of the law, but they did not accept that he should teach them what to do in this matter, so they dictated to him what he should do. They did not realize that Jesus was the same yesterday, today, and forever, and his only need was to love.

He bent down to the ground and began to write with his finger. One of the church fathers compares this movement to the act of God creating man. In the description of creation in the Book of Genesis, God took dust from the earth, formed it, and created man, calling him Adam because he was taken from the earth. That is so that those Pharisees and scribes who stood before him may understand that you, the creatures, tell me, your Creator, what to do, and you want to kill a man, who is as much a creature as you, whose Creator I am. On what authority do you pass this judgment? Who created these rules that you practice?

This text is a sensitive and vital issue that is a daily theme of many people and cultures and represents a burning social problem, especially in our Middle Eastern societies and traditional religions. Jesus comes to solve this question by outlining a methodology for solving this problem, first by hearing the second community, accepting its social wound, and expressing the truth. However, the solution cannot be based on the law because the Law Lord is present here and now, and it is he who decides.

There was a great silence, and one by one they started to leave and left the woman alone in the middle of the square, in great sadness, confusion, wonder and with the thought: „ What will the teacher do to me? I wonder if he is like the teachers I met.“ It was enough that he looked at her to remove all doubt and confusion, and she felt, that this man is different from all men, and that his view of her draws her to a different value, because she is a woman different from all the values and views given to her by other men, when they look

Beloved, the sin of adultery that this woman represents is the reality of today’s weak, restless and suffering world as a result of the many wars that are taking place in more than 60 countries of the world. These are primarily internal civil wars caused by external interests.

Jesus comes here to tell the lords of this world and the great countries whose interests lead this world to war, destroy and kill thousands of defenseless people whom God created to live like the rest of humanity. By what authority do you rule these countries to live in conflicts, to kill and destroy towns and villages, and to deprive people of their right to life and to live in dignity? Why do we live in Syria, as well as in Ukraine, in your neighboring country, and in many other countries without water, electricity, food, health care, work, and a clean environment?

Today, as we meditate on this text from the Gospel of John, let us lift up our prayers and ask God that all men return to themselves in solitude and that every arrogant one, a proud and influential person in this world heard what the Lord Jesus said: „ Let one of you be without sin to throw a stone at her first.“

No one in this world has the authority to wage wars, kill people, relocate, and expel them. It is a disgrace to the world today that there are refugee camps in many places. If that suggests anything, it indicates the bankruptcy of our world in terms of justice, sound morals, and dignity, because the dignity of tyrants and leaders is derived from the dignity of their people.

Let us ask God to give true peace to the world by stopping all forms of armaments and the arms trade, which bring nothing but destruction and death, by halting all death sentences and torture in detention centers and prisons and stopping trafficking in human beings, developing means of peaceful dialogue, activating international justice, respecting human rights, the, freedoms of the individual and human dignity and by punishing countries and individuals who contribute to the humiliation of people and violate their rights and dignity.

Today, there is an opinion that the Catholic Church is incompatible with the modern state. The contemporary state professes a doctrine of sovereignty that cannot be reconciled with the Catholic Church’s claims, and this inevitably results in conflict. It can be spread over three objections:

1. The Catholic Church claims the universal right to judge in matters of faith and morality, and this means—theoretically and practically—the right to destroy by any means all subjects who disagree with it (heretics, schismatics, and others). For the secular state, even the presence of the Catholic community is a mortal danger.

2. Catholics’ reason is subordinated to the general authority of the Church and especially to papal authority, which is incompatible with the concept of citizenship in the modern state—it is based on the belief that all issues are decided individually by each citizen, in complete freedom from any authority, and the free decision of the majority commits the minority to obedience.

3. The universal claims of the Catholic Church conflict with the claims of the modern lay and absolute state. The term „laic“ means that the state must not adopt or support any particular transcendental philosophy. The term „absolute“ means that the modern civil state, like the ancient pagan state (which is getting closer and closer), does not allow the distribution of its sovereignty. It requires its citizens to commit themselves to obedience exclusively to the state and no other power.

The modern state differs from the medieval one in that it claims complete independence from any authority other than its own, while the medieval state considered itself only part of Christianitas and felt bound by general moral laws and the order of the Christian world. Modern state absolutism began in the 16th century with the belief of Protestant princes that their power was independent of the Church and its doctrine. Thus arose the doctrine of „divine law kráľov“ and its heir is today’s modern state – whether monarchist, republican, or other – when it claims the complete allegiance of its citizens.

The fear that the Catholic community in a non-Catholic society will use all available means to destroy the non-Catholic elements in it and force it into Catholic discipline is unfounded. The Catholic community will not do so – and not out of fear, but out of its principles. These principles define Catholic doctrine as accurate and sound, thereby implicitly labeling anti-Catholic doctrine as false and evil. A Catholic considers heretical and pagan morals harmful and believes that society should get rid of them. However, a Catholic must not strive for their destruction other than by free conversion. Catholic society has the right to defend itself against internal subversion, promote Catholic education and culture, and preserve Christian civilization’s unity. However, it does not have the right to violently attack a non-Catholic society that has been established somewhere for a long time, because it also has its rights (e.g., the right of the family to raise a child), the violation of which would be unfair.

Catholics will always—so they should—strive to convert the society in which they live. Sometimes, as in the case of the Roman Empire, they succeed, and other times, as in the case of Japan, they fail. But the effort to convert must not be violent. The Catholic State has the right to defend itself against attempts to destroy itself. However, the Catholic minority in a non-Catholic state does not have the right to speak out violently against it.

All claims of „catholic danger“ are based on misconceptions about Catholic claims and their application. Although the Catholic Church claims to be the only authority in matters of faith and morality, it exercises this authority differently than its opponents say. The Catholic faith does not allow forcible conversion because it understands that moral action must be free. If there have been violent conversions somewhere in history, it was wrong. Furthermore, it is rightly pointed out that an individual Catholic accepts the judgment of the Church and, in some instances, the judgment of the Pope as superior to his own. However, the general idea of non-Catholics how it goes is wrong. The fault lies in the notion that the Catholic attitude is irrational and unreasonable, while the attitude of a non-Christian is reasonable. It doesn’t work that way.

All people accept some authority. The difference lies in the type of authority they accept. A Catholic has come to believe – or obtained it through education – that Divine Revelation once occurred. He will discover and recognize the unique action of God on this earth. He discovers and recognizes the voice of the Catholic Church and an elaborate doctrinal system that is internally consistent and correct. The incarnation of the Deity in man Jesus Christ, the immortality of the human soul, its responsibility towards the Creator for good and bad deeds, its subsequent fate after death, the sacraments, the teaching about the Eucharist – it forms a continuous whole, which is the only consistent guide to the exemplary life, and a proper set of statements about the nature of essential things. To be Catholic is to accept this guidance, this set of claims. To doubt or deny it is to reject Catholicism.

This attitude is adopted under the sharp light of reason. It is not true, as people ignorant of history believe, that these truths were accepted without vetting in barbaric and pre-critical times. That logical argumentation is a modern invention. From the first apologetics in the 2nd century to today, during the Dark Ages, and when society reached a high intellectual level, Catholics universally and continuously invoked reason. Even today, Catholics are the only organized group that consistently invokes reason and the laws of thought and does not accept the a priori ideas of materialistic scientists and the confused views of emotional and fantastic philosophical systems. A Catholic acts based on reason when he recognizes the Church’s goodness, holiness, and authoritative divine character, just as a person acts based on reason when he acknowledges an individual voice or face. Once he has recognized such authority, his reason necessarily requires submission to the decisions of the Church. With his reason and experience, one can know that the Catholic Church is the only divine authority on earth. However, he cannot come to the certainty with his mind that a disturbed human nature can achieve eternal bliss without help. Reason can only accept it indirectly, based on authority.

A Catholic bases his faith on reason, and this faith, once accepted, prevents him from playing the role prescribed to the ideal citizen of a modern state. A Catholic will not subject all things to separate and individual private judgment, nor will he necessarily and always consider it a moral duty to obey laws passed through the majority voting process. In many questions –, for example, in the question of the indissolubility of marriage, – will accept established learning and prefer it to any possible conclusion arising from one’s own limited experience, judgment and ability. If the majority were to pass a law forcing him to act against Catholic morality, he would refuse to obey it.

About the principles of the secular state

The secular state is built on the principle of political atheism. Society consists of two elements, the ruling, which represents power and authority, and the ruled, or subject, whom the ruler rules to achieve the common good. In this regard, the ruling element, whether it is the king, the prince, the president, the government, the parliament in establishing laws, in enforcing them, or in the exercise of judicial power, can act so that, as if God does not exist and disregard God’s laws, natural or positive?

The political atheist will answer the question positively. It is not difficult to find the delusional principles from which he derived them, because they were already enumerated and condemned in the Syllabus of the errors of Pius IX. Depending on whether God’s existence is rejected, confused with nature or the world, or whether God’s existence is recognized, but His providence (God’s management of the world) rejected – God is in any case excluded from the world and „any divine intervention against people and the world is denied“.

From this, the logic of the political atheist is as follows: Human reason is the only arbiter of truth and error, good and evil. The innate faculties of human reason acquire all religious truths. Reason is the highest law by which man can and must come to the knowledge of all truths and can ensure good for people and nations with his natural abilities. The rules of morality and other human laws do not need authority to come from God. Philosophical and moral knowledge and civil laws can and should be exempted from God’s and the church’s authority. The State, the originator and source of all rights, has unlimited authority. Authority is nothing but the sum of material power. All these delusions are interconnected: by denying God’s existence, man comes to materialism and the tyranny of the stronger. This is both a principle and a consequence of political atheism.

Political atheism dismantles society itself. The last goal of society is the improvement of citizens who cannot achieve it alone, but achieve it through society. This perfection consists mainly in knowing the duties that belong to everyone and in learning the virtues that are necessary to fulfill these duties. The basis of all responsibilities is religious duties. Therefore, citizens should know how better to meet their religious obligations in and through society. Political atheism either rejects or does not care about things that belong to religion. Therefore, political atheism contradicts the most fundamental goal of human culture.

Elements of society are the government and the subjects. The government rules and subjects obey it according to the law. According to the secularist hypothesis of political atheism, state power rests on no moral foundations, only on the stronger one. But state power is not only the sum of material forces; it is something essential moral, because it considers its right to rule over society to be just, whether based on inheritance, military power, chance, by the consent of the people, etc. Therefore, it does not come from individual reason, which by itself has no authority to rule over others, nor does it come from an impersonal source that is abstract and fantastic. Still, it comes directly from God and is a share and participation in God’s power. Therefore, political power cannot be understood atheistically, because it would negate itself with this act.

Civil laws are immoral unless they express or clarify natural law; however, natural law is nothing more than participation in the eternal law from which it takes authority. Therefore, political atheism is a rejection of authority as such. It is a rejection of human legislation, because according to the atheistic hypothesis, it has no power to morally bind it. Power, as long as they move away from God, depends on nothing but themselves. Thus appeared the so-called. The Divine State, which in its essence is nothing more than the will of the monarch, only helps a more vigorous monarch. In political atheism (secular state), human society is not governed by moral authority, but only by the will to rule, just as it is among wild animals.

They are two completely different worlds. We enter the one, thanks to the grace of Baptism, in prayer and adoration, allowing us to live more deeply and receive what we receive at each Mass in Holy Communion. The other is the one in which we have lived and to which we keep returning, at least outwardly, and which is the world. We are still in the world, though we should no longer be of the world. The two worlds are quite different, quite opposite! We used to think that sin was only when we did some evil deed. Then we came to understand that it is something more profound than that, and that deeds are only a manifestation of the state of sin in our inner heart. And finally, we began to understand that sin is in its essence a world opposite to that of God, a personality opposite to that of the sons of God, attitudes, relationships, thinking, and inclinations opposite to those that rule in the Kingdom of God. It is a matter of being flesh in the world, but not being drawn into the world with the heart, of remaining in Heaven with the heart as we enter it in the Eucharist, interior prayer, and adoration. For it happens to us that when prayer and devotion are over, and we return to the world, our heart and thinking also adjust to the world out of old habit. And that isn’t good! That first one, God’s world, is real. The other one is just an illusion. “Let us therefore not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (1Sol 5:6). Silence of heart and wakefulness in the sense of being awake, not just some kind of “beware,” are tools and aids to staying in reality and not sinking back into the mists and waves of the world. To stay awake. Awake. Preserving, keeping everything in its place. And to be in your place too, yourself, at Christ, on Christ, in Christ, with Christ, from Christ. He is the Anchor. He is the foundation, the Rock. Or else, to remain holy by that first holiness, that is, separated from the world and “rooted and grounded in it, established in the faith” (Col 2:7). Indeed, the decision to separate from the world and to remain separate from it is fundamental. That is why, as Christians, we are called “saints” in Scripture, separated from and belonging already to God and His world. “You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men” (1 Cor 7:23). Abide fully and completely and openly and publicly and without question (much less any sense of shame) in God’s world, in God’s son ship. To think, perceive, live, act, speak according to him – to the world strangely, even despite. This is the prize.

Feast day: 7 April

* April 30, 1651 Reims (Reims), France

† April 7, 1719 St-Yon, Rouen, France

Meaning of the name John: God is gracious (Hebrew)

(Saint John the Baptist) Patron saint of teachers

Pierre Léger: St. John de la Salle

St. John Baptist de la Salle was born in Reims on April 30, 1651, into a prominent noble family. His parents cared greatly to give all ten children a good religious education. John was the eldest. Three brothers became priests, and one sister entered a convent. At the age of eleven, John – according to the custom of the time – received the tonsure and thus became a cleric. Not quite sixteen, he became a canon of Remes Cathedral, an essential and lucrative position. But this did not spoil John. He was not seduced to a life of ease and comfort. He continued his studies. In 1669, he became a doctor of philosophy. In 1670, he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris. In 1672, both his parents died. John became the head of the family. He returned home from the seminary and cared for his younger siblings. He wondered if he was called to become a priest in this situation. His relatives tried to talk him out of the priesthood. He hesitated. He undertook eight days of spiritual exercises. At these retreats, he became convinced that God was calling him to the priesthood. After that, he never wavered and continued on the path he had set out. He began to mortify himself, fasting and shortening his sleep. He continued his studies in Reims. Furthermore, he was ordained a priest on White Saturday in 1678.

In those days, there was a shortage of good and free schools. Europe was devastated by the wars that raged in the 16th and 17th centuries. Monasteries, schools, and parishes were destroyed. Many children and young people did not receive even a basic education, they were abandoned, on the streets. John observed this with sorrow. He decided to establish schools for them. In the town of Rouen lived a particular relative of his, a wealthy Mrs. Maillefer, who led a worldly life. After a while, however, she turned around and began to support a girls’ school founded and run by Canon Nicholas Roland. Mrs. Maillefer, however, wanted the boys to have the opportunity for education.

John received her recommendation and support to establish a free school for boys in Reims. After overcoming the difficulties, this was achieved. With the help of others, John founded the school, financed by the money he had as a canon or left over from his inheritance. All the time, however, he was thinking about what to do to make the school work even better, so that the teachers would not only teach out of duty but also witness the spiritual life. Finally, he decided. In 1683, he gave up his canonical place and the income that came from it. A year later, he also gave up his inheritance. He remained living in poverty and solely on alms, despite being discouraged from doing so by both priests and the archbishop. John, however, spoke: “How can I recommend poverty if I myself will not be poor?” Soon, several young men joined him and began to teach and educate the boys free of charge. But it was still only a secular association. After much prayer and reflection, John wrote spiritual rules so that a spiritual community could be formed. He decided that all those belonging to the religious order would not be priests, but brothers. It was logical that the superiors would also be brothers only. He therefore excluded himself from the superior position of the religious order. It was only at the insistence of his brothers that he assumed the leadership of the new society.

Thus, the Order of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, popularly “school brothers”, came into being. Their main aim was to fight against ignorance. Many parish priests, especially rural ones, begged John to send them school brothers who were willing to teach children for free. Because of this, John set up the first teachers’ seminary in Reims in 1685, where future rural teachers were educated. A year later, he opened a similar seminary in Paris. In both, teaching was free. There were usually about thirty pupils, who then dispersed to the villages and taught there. John himself had patronage over these institutes.

At the same time, John led a strict life. He fasted, spent much time in prayer, scourged himself, and wore a penitential girdle under his priestly vestments. At the same time, however, he was joyful, without drawing attention to his virtues. He wanted to do everything for the honor and glory of God. His schools spread elsewhere. He also founded the first industrial school in Europe, despite the slanders and persecutions he suffered for his activities. Pupils there were taught surveying, building, drawing, and bookkeeping. This was opposed mainly by secular teachers, who feared losing their jobs. In Paris, the parliament even forbade John from teaching. He was only allowed to teach those whose poverty was undeniable. By the end of the seventeenth century, the School Brothers had sixteen schools with over one thousand five hundred children.

When John saw that the order was sufficiently established, he asked the brothers to elect a new superior general. After much hemming and hawing, the brothers agreed. In 1717, they elected Francis Barthélemy to the post. John settled in Rouen, where he lived in prayer and modesty. He did not cease to help the poor. In the meantime, his health was deteriorating. Before Easter in 1719, he received the anointing of the sick. He died on Good Friday morning, April 7, 1719, at Saint-Yon near Rouen. He was declared a saint in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII.

St. John de la Salle gained enormous merit in schools and education. He is the founder of the vernacular school; he was the first to make the national language the basis of instruction (instead of the former Latin), the first to found an industrial school, and the first to found an institute for teachers. He made schools accessible to a wide range of people. His order continues this activity to this day. John also wrote several writings, such as Instructions for the Administration of Schools, On the Duties of the Brethren, The Duties of a Christian, Meditations, and others.

I was talking to a businessman once. Meanwhile, it came up how he must take all the chances to compete. He is consumed with the thought of the deadlines he is facing today. At breakfast, he looks at a few newspapers drinks coffee ´, in the car on the phone with the clerk, in the office he looks over the most critical files, rushes to a meeting with the heads of departments, negotiates with representatives of other firms, hears complaints, talks with architects, studies signs contracts. Every day, the same merry-go-round. No thought of God, no prayer. Late in the evening, he comes home full of plans and worries. He lies down to a restless sleep, and in the morning, the same thing awaits him.

No matter how great a piety he may have inherited, such a busy life will alienate him from God. And it is understandable. A man who thinks, talks, plans, decides, enjoys, gets angry, rejoices all day without looking at God, without considering God, will be guided in his decision-making solely by the vision of success, gain of benefit, desire for wealth, and so on. God, Jesus, the Church – these will slowly cease to interest them, and after years, if such people are honest, they will lose not only contact but also interest in God and spiritual life. How is it with us? We don’t get carried away by our smaller or bigger worries so perfectly that God has no more place in our lives. In short, we allow ourselves to be so overwhelmed by work, by various interests, that we alienate God. The solution is easy, but challenging to implement. Change the way we live. And that’s not easy.