(Prayer offered on the Public Address system for the entire La Salle Academy educational community on Monday, 15 October 2018)

Let us remember that we are in the presence of God…

Relatively recently, we learned about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in my Civics courses. For those of you who may need a quick refresher, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is the story about a prisoner of a dark cave who escapes and attains enlightenment after being able to see the sun.

This story begs quite a few questions, like how can I come to understand what is “the truth”? What “light” should I be looking for to find enlightenment?

Now, I acknowledge that I am far from “enlightenment” myself, but I do believe that we need to only look at the light in the eyes of those around us to get closer to “the truth.”

You see, you can look in someone’s eyes and see light of life in those eyes. To me, that light is Christ. You see, Christ lives in persons. He is not simply someone who lived thousands of years ago that we read about in books. Rather, He is alive now. As we Lasallians pray at the end of prayer, Jesus lives in our hearts. He is a part of every person, including you.

In fact, one of my patron Saints, St. Seraphim of Sarov, would greet every person he met by saying “Christ is Risen!” to remind himself and those around him that the Risen Lord lives in each of us. I keep a small icon of St. Seraphim on my desk in part as a reminder to try to see Christ in everyone I encounter. Even St. John Baptist de La Salle urged his teachers to see Christ in all of their students. Now, I am far from perfect in doing so, but I would say if we can work at remembering that our God is a living God, and we work at seeing the Light of Christ in all of those we encounter, and genuinely treat each other accordingly, maybe we get that much closer to understanding “the truth.”

Let us pray,

Dear Father, we thank you for blessing us with your Holy Spirit that dwells and lives within us all. Help us to see You in every person we encounter.  Amen.

St. John Baptist de La Salle..Pray for us!

Live Jesus in our hearts… Forever!

Nikolai Wojciechowski–Social Studies Teacher