May 15, 2022: ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE

May 15, 2022: COMMEMORATION OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE, CONFESSOR

[Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools]

“Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord: he shall delight exceedingly in his commandments.”
(Ps, cxi. 1)

“The just shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus.”
(Ps, cxi. 13)

“The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom: and his tongue shall speak judgment. The law of his God is in his heart.”
(Ps, xxxvi. 30)

Prayer (Collect).

O God, You raised up the holy Confessor, John Baptist, for the Christian education of the poor and to confirm the young in the way of truth, and through him You brought together a new family within Your Church; mercifully grant that through his intercession and example, we may burn with zeal for Your glory in the salvation of souls, and become sharers of his crown in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in unity of the Holy Ghost, God, World without end. Amen.

Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, St. John Baptist de la Salle is called the father of pedagogy. In 1678 he was ordained to the priesthood and received his doctorate in theology in 1680. In 1691 he founded his first novitiate of Brothers at Vangirard, France. He died at Rouen, in 1719, and was canonized on May 24, 1900.

Click here, to read The Story of St. John Baptist de la Salle, Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, by Most Rev. Patrick J. Hayes, D.D., Archbishop of New York, Imprimatur, 13 April 1921.

Taken from: Saint Joseph Daily Missal, Imprimatur 1957; and
The Divine Office for the use of the Laity, Volume II, 1806.

St. John Baptist de la Salle, pray for us.