Mission Impact Report 2025 - Report - Page 6
6
Mission Impact 2025
Above: Br. Larry with high school principal,
Mr. Bradley Bird, celebrating the Chinese New Year.
Left: Preparing to distribute Ashes on Ash Wednesday.
Saint Mary High School, I can still hear one of them saying,
“We loved the Brothers!” Heartfelt and genuine. My immediate
response was, “And we loved all of you, too.” It was one
of those ‘touching hearts’ moments that St. John Baptist
de La Salle wrote about.
That promised reward of eternal life always seemed like
something “out there,” but the older I get it takes on more
meaning for me. In his 16th Meditation written for the Brothers
for the time of their annual retreat (The reward that a Brother
of the Christian Schools ought to expect in heaven if he
is faithful to his work), De La Salle writes about the happy
heavenly reunion between a Brother and his students:
“Oh, what joy a Brother of the Christian Schools will have
when he sees a great number of his students in possession of
eternal happiness, for which they are indebted to him by the
grace of Jesus Christ! What a sharing of joy there will be
between the teacher and his disciples! What a special union
with one another there will be in the presence of God! It will
be for them a great satisfaction, sharing together the blessings
for which the call of God had given them hope, the wealth of the
glorious heritage of God in the dwelling of the saints.” (208.2)
The thought of such a reunion once seemed far off, even
obscure. From time to time, however, I find myself looking
forward to that reunion. But not just yet!
First day of school at Colegio LaSalle
in San Jose Costa Rica in June 2025.
Tammy Melancon Williamson
Tammy Melancon Williamson teaches Spanish II & III
Honors/Dual Enrollment/Pre-AP and is the director of the
Brothers Around the World Exchange Program at Christian
Brothers High School in Memphis, Tennessee.
For more than a decade, Christian Brothers High School in
Memphis, Tennessee and its Lasallian counterpart, Colegio
LaSalle, in San Jose, Costa Rica have shared a bond beyond
geography. Each year, students from both schools participate
in the Brothers Around the World exchange program that
immerses them in one another’s cultures, communities, and
classrooms. Both schools have partnered with St. Agnes
Academy, also in Memphis, to include girls in the program.
What begins as a travel experience quickly becomes a journey
of faith, service, and brotherhood—a living expression of the
Lasallian mission.
After a pause during the challenges of the pandemic, the
exchange program resumed its full strength, welcoming groups
of young men and women eager to learn and serve. Christian
Brothers High School students were warmly received in Costa
Rica, where they lived with host families, attended classes at
Colegio LaSalle, and engaged in cultural activities that revealed
the beauty of Lasallian education in a different setting. Likewise,
the Memphis community opened its homes and hearts to
