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Become a Brother

Contact Program

The Contact Program is for young men who are interested in the Brothers’ life and their educational mission to the young — especially the children of the working class and the poor.

The Contact Program is designed to help a young man "discern" if the vocation of a Brother of the Christian Schools, with the grace of God, is his life’s path. Contacts attend any university they choose or continue in their current work situation and may participate in the program up to four years. The Contact Program has a number of discernment components:

  1. Visits by a Brother to help you in your growth in prayer and personal spirituality.
  2. Opportunities for an annual retreat.
  3. Opportunities to live and work as a brother for 4 weeks during the summer months.
  4. Visits to local Brother’s communities.


Too Blessed to be Stressed Radio Show 10/9/09Brother Edward Shields

“Am I my Brother’s Keeper?” Our dioceses does not only have priests, but we also have brothers. Come and meet Br. Edward Shields (Brothers of the Christian Schools) and Dayonel Mejia aspiring to be a brother himself. These two young men, one younger than the other (we will let you figure that one out) will speak to us about this order of brothers and how you can also get involved. Check out the video >>

 

A Discernment Story

Five college-age young men who are members of the District’s Contact Program spent a month living and working with the Christian Brothers in the Philadelphia area. Along with Brothers Richard Buccina, Leonard Rhodes, Richard Galvin and Peter Killeen, the contacts lived the Brother’s life at the Jeremy House Postulancy.

They worked in, and experienced first hand, our educational mission at the service of the working class and the poor at San Miguel School in Camden, New Jersey.

The purpose of the program was to help these young men discern and learn about the vocation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Participants included Michael Carlson (a Lasallian Volunteer originally from Illinois), David Deradoorian (a graduate of De La Salle Collegiate near Detroit), An-John Nguyen (a recent graduate of De La Salle College High School in Toronto), Stephen Schmidt (a Minnesota native and member of the Lasallian Teacher Immersion Program), and Killian Smith (a recent graduate of De La Salle Collegiate near Detroit).

These young men were each paired with a Christian Brother. The four Brothers served as mentors and guides to the young men during this month-long immersion into the world of Catholic middle school education for disadvantaged youth.