1.1 The Lasallian Association has a period of gestation which coincides with the beginnings (decade of the 1680) of the itinerary of that first community -scattered in several houses- made up by De La Salle and his teachers/first Brothers. Such an itinerary is a meeting point of different lifestyles, brought along by the necessity to give an answer to the educational needs of poor children.

1.2 When revising that period of gestation we can check that the Association is not born out of motivation for itself, but for the educational needs ofabandoned children and young people, "far from salvation". This call, read from the point of view of faith, is also interpreted as a call from God. The willingness to give an answer to that call of God and of the poor becomes the driving force of what will become Lasallian Association.

· 1682-84: De La Salle renounces his canonry and his goods: it is not out of longing for perfection or for setting an example to his teachers, but for strengthening the community that needs to serve the poor. It was the challenge N. Barre' had set him:"to be with them and like them".

· 1684-86: The first gestures of the community to institutionalize its identity: name, habit, regulations...make clear the intrinsic relationship between community and educatlon of the poor. The vow of obedience that they take for the first time in 1686 goes on the same line, to secure the cohesion of the group for the service to the mission.

· 1686-1690: The community matures and takes its first steps towards universality, at the same time as it experiences the first strong temptations, from the outside, to limit the range of the Lasallian community: the expansion from Reims to Paris, against the financial security offered by the Archbishop of Reims if they keep to his diocese; the option for the internal autonomy of the community against the protection derived from becoming functionaries of the parish priest; the decision to maintain a project of a Christian education integral and open to all as opposed to the tranquillity of submitting itself to a school system which was legal but unfair to the poor.

1.3 The itinerary that takes shape in those years becomes a process in which people are being transformed:

they see themselves inside a history of salvation which has concrete names and faces; they experience communion with other people animated by the same spirit;
they are introduced into a ministry which increases their reponsibility to God, the Church and the recipients of its mission.

The result of the process is a new identity shaped by the Lasallian charism.

1.4 The itinerary, animated by the charism - the Spirit- makes clear the importance and the necessity of the community as mediator in fulfilling the educational mission, but also as a sign of the educational offer proposed to society.

2.1 The itinerary also reveals the weakness of this mediation in the measure in which the external and internal horizon of the community is being reduced. The community is threatened by immediate interests, by what is being done and what can be done; it is itself threatened with disappearing as soon as the mission disappears from its horizon. But, above all, the community is threatened by the fatigue or the inconstancy of the people who are part of it, by lack of internal commitment, by the loss of its roots.

2.2 The 1690 crisis - half the Brothers leave the Lasallian community- shows, above all, the lackof internal horizon, the personal commitment which can only arise from the interior man, secured in God, in communion with his brothers and responsible for the work with which God has entrusted him.

2.3 So as to solve the crisis and save "the community for the education of the poor", De La Salle proposes to two of his Brothers in 1691 and to ten more in 1694, to be associated by committing themselves to God, a "vow of association". In that gesture of consecration there are closely linked together: confidence in God, who is credited with the project; the solidarity with the Brothers, on whom they are counting to carry out the project; the responsibility for the receivers of the mission. 

3.2 The formula of consecration or gesture of commitnient of John Baptiste de La Salle and his Brothers expresses on the whole the bond established between the "community" dimension ("together") and the "association for the mission" dimension. The bond points out the lifestyle in community, the radicality with which the objectives of Association are being assumed and the priority order among the options a person has to take in his life. In this case, the link points to an absolute solidarity with the members of the community and with the objectives of Association, to which each one's interests and needs are subordinated. The type of Association that the commitment of John Baptiste de La Salle and the Brothers establishes corresponds to an intentional community.

3.3 In the first part of the consecration formula the Trinity is presented as the ultimate reference of the Lasallian Association, since the Trinity is the communion model for the mission and the ultimate foundation on which the Association is established, and not the associates' capacity for commitment or their generosity.

3.4 The second part of the formula marks very clearly the direct object of the consecration: "to unite myselfand to remain in society...". The Brother's consecrated life is incarnated and has its nucleus in this Association (not in "canonical religious vows").

· The commitment is not, therefore, immediately with the work of the schools but with the Association, that is to say, with the "Community for the schools for the poor". From the very beginning it is very clear which is the centre of gravity, the essential mediation which distinguishes the Lasallian project. It is situated in communion, in the fraternal relationship among the members of the Society, rather than in the apostolic endeavour in itself, even though this is the aim of the communion.

· The purpose is the maintenance of the gratuitous schools for the poor. In this purpose are implied the preferential recipients, poor children. The strength of Association is aimed at the poor, not exclusively, but with a strong preference. It is the aim of the Institute and it must be fulfilled by the Institute itself, not by each member individually.

· "Together and by association": This marks the style in carrying out the work and also indicates the necessary fluitful tension between the immediacy and closeness with those who benefit from it - something which favours the community- and the universality and broadmindedness more peculiar to the Institution.

3.5 In the third part of the formula are specified the links of Consecration, the vows of association, stability and obedience. Each of them reinforces an aspect or dimension of the Association. The vows, as every religious vow, are directed to God; however, all of them have to do with the Brothers with whom one is associated; the fulfilment is carried out in and with them.

We could translate its meaning like this:

Association I unite myself to these Brothers;
Stability = I promise to be faithful to them (they can count on me, come what may);
Obedience = I accept what they decide

The bonds, therefore, confirm the essential importance of the chosen mediation to fulfil the purpose.

6.3 The commitment is inside an itinerary characterized as a relationship process in three dimensions:

God, the community, the children. Each one enters the itinerary through one of the three dimensions; but, once inside, the driving force and the motivation that pushes the process on is the call of the abandoned children and the young, the urge to answer that call. That is the purpose that configures the other two dimensions, the one that justifies the existence and the process of association.