The III International Young Brothers Assembly is fast approaching! This time, it will take place in Colombia, in the city of Yopal, home to the ‘Utopía’ Campus of the Universidad de La Salle , an innovative initiative which, for over 16 years, has been offering young, low-income Colombian rural people, affected by violence and social exclusion, the opportunity to be trained as agricultural engineers.
“Twenty-eight young Brothers from different parts of the world will come together to share our experiences, discuss the realities of our Districts and, above all, discern where God is calling us today,” says Brother Eduardo Rivera, who is a member of the Institute’s Standing Committee of Young Brothers .
An international call
Under the theme ‘Service to the poor: an international call’, the III Assembly aims to identify the specific needs of the peripheries and define the kind of mission that the Young Brothers consider most urgent, meaningful and faithful to the Lasallian charism, whilst also providing a conducive space to discern the characteristics of a community model capable of sustaining the proposed mission, integrating the desires, points of convergence and tensions that arise throughout the process, so that each Young Brother may recognise and express his personal and communal availability — its scope, limits, conditions and motivations — in the light of the discerned mission and community model.
“It will be an opportunity to get to know one another better, to share our concerns and hopes, and to ask ourselves how we can live out our vocation as Brothers in the service of young people today, especially those in the peripheries,” says Br. Matthew Kotek, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of Young Brothers, noting that the Third Assembly will promote “listening, fraternity and discernment, but also the courage to imagine new pathways for our Institute together”.
In this sense, the III International Young Brothers Assembly will also be an opportunity to “bring forward the voices, dreams and concerns of so many young Brothers and Lasallians who, from their communities and Districts, continue to build up the Lasallian Mission every day”, as explained by Brother Miguel Marcos, a member of the same Standing Committee of Young Brothers.
“That is why we would like to ask you for something very simple: pray for the Assembly. Pray that we may know how to listen, that we may have open hearts, and that we may discover together what God is calling us to do in our history,” concludes Brother Miguel.