#LasallianLife
Touching Hearts
March 15, 2024
De La Salle instructed the early Brothers, “To touch the hearts of your students is the greatest miracle you can perform.” He recognized that the heart must change before the mind. Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest and theologian, describes this process as “Living yourself into a new way of thinking.” Our lived experiences that touch our hearts form our minds.
“Touching hearts” can come in many forms. The National Association for Music Education dedicates the month of March as, “Music In Our Schools Month.” Throughout this past week, we have celebrated Music Appreciation Week at CBA. Students were welcomed in the morning by various student musicians performing in the main entrance and we continue to recognize the extraordinary blessings that our performing arts students share with our community.
The week will culminate with our first ever on campus high school musical production when we open the curtain for Mamma Mia on the Rocklyn Stage of the Dan Byrne ‘70 Performing Arts Center! The show features 38 of our CBA students on stage and countless students involved in the production aspects of pit orchestra, sound, lighting, stage crew, and set design. Seats are reserved and they are selling out quickly! If you are interested in attending the show, you can purchase tickets through our online ticket website: our.show/cbamammamia
As we celebrate Music Appreciation Week at CBA, may we remember the amazing power of music in touching hearts. Music has a special way to speak to our heart in a way that words often fail. During times of celebration, prayer, sorrow, and excitement we often turn to music that reaches into the depths of our hearts beyond the potential of words alone.
In a similar way, our miraculous calling to “touch hearts” is not done through words alone. We always conclude our Lasallian prayer with, “Live Jesus in our hearts.” Brother Luke Salm, a renowned Lasallian scholar, would describe this as, “When we ask that Jesus live in our hearts we do more than say that we believe doctrines about Jesus. We take the person of Jesus into our very selves, into our subjectivity, into our hearts… we become so united to Jesus living within us that we become other Christs to those we serve.” This call extends to Lasallians from all faith backgrounds, or no faith background, to have the love of God be at the center of our hearts. May music continue to touch our hearts in a way that transforms minds - living ourselves into a new way of thinking!
Happy Music Appreciation Week! Thank you to all of our student musicians, alumni musicians, and our current and retired faculty and staff members for the hearts that you touch by sharing your special gift of music with our community and with the world!
Mr. Matthew Keough
President, Christian Brothers Academy
PS - A special thank you to all of you who responded this past week. I look forward to sharing reflections on those topics throughout the upcoming weeks and months.
