This June 28, 2025, the District of North Mexico is celebrating with joy the definitive consecration to God of two Brothers of the Christian Schools who profess their Perpetual Vows, that is to say, for all their life. They are: Brothers Eduardo José Cardosa Ramírez and Juan Pablo Reynoso Ramos, aged 29 and 30 respectively.
Both express their passion and deep trust in God as they reach this stage of their vocational journey, the fruit of a profound discernment and apostolic commitment to the Lasallian charism.
“God is calling me to pedal even further”
Brother Eduardo recalls his origins, in the heart of his family and in the Colegio La Salle Guadiana in Durango (Mexico) “where I was born and grew up, hand in hand with Brothers, teachers, teachers, friends and companions”. Later, God’s call intensified while he was doing the Lasallian Volunteering in the Sierra Durango and when he entered the Postulancy in 2015, “this call has been shaping me as a Brother of the Christian Schools”.
Referring to his vocational journey, Brother Eduardo draws a beautiful and singular similarity with cycling: “without being an expert, I consider myself a fan of road cycling. […]. In road cycling, there is usually a prize for the riders who cross the high mountain passes […] that stand out for the altitude and the degrees of gradient in reference to the average altitude of the stage. There are also points where there are sprints, where the speed specialists make a greater effort,” says the young religious man.
“I make reference to cycling because these sprint points and mountain passes are well marked on the routes of each stage of these great competitions, and I think something similar happens in my life as a Brother“, continues Brother Eduardo, pointing out that, in his case, “the route began some years ago, when I finished high school and joined the Lasallian Volunteers, where I felt that God was calling me to cycle even further. The race was just beginning and I didn’t know what was to come. As the years went by, some stages began and ended.
Explicitly, recalling his passage through various stages of his formation process, Brother Eduardo points out that “some stages have passed and have had their demands, their breaks, their joys, stumbles, falls, ups and downs, mistakes”. However, just as happens in competitions, “in the larger group of cyclists, called the peloton, you often operate as a team and even form a community and build friendships. This also happened to me during the Postulancy, Prenovitiate, Novitiate and Scholasticate”, he says.
Recalling some verses from Psalm 116, Brother Eduardo confesses that, in the last phase of his preparation for Perpetual Vows, the words of the psalmist have been a permanent source of inspiration: “The Lord has been good to me. How can I ever repay the Lord for all the good he has done me? I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people”. He is aware that the road he has travelled as a Brother has been made in faith “and that it requires even more [faith] for what is to come”.
“As a young Brother, now in Perpetual Vows, I recognise and take on even more strongly the call I have received to be a witness of brotherhood in the world. I know that I am called to be leaven in the peripheries. I know that I am called to continue to sensitise my heart to be able to touch more and more hearts”, Brother Eduardo says with hope, and this is where his dreams come from: “I dream of an Institute that continues to break down barriers and frontiers. It fills me with hope to see the history of La Salle and the Brothers and to think that I am part of an enormous family. I dream of bringing my vitality, my creativity and my spontaneity to this work that God has wanted to share with us. I dream of an Institute that grows in the number of Brothers and Partners that grows in spirituality, that seeks to innovate in ways of bringing the Gospel and education everywhere, even to the peripheries“.
From the essence of the Spirit of faith
For his part, Brother Juan Pablo, originally from Guadalajara, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, and a former student of Colegio Febres Cordero, is aware that “to look upon anything but with the eyes of faith, not to do anything but in view of God, and to attribute all to God, is the essence of the spirit of faith, which makes it possible to be a Brother”.
“It is a fact that the path of being a Brother has allowed me to discover more and more reasons that move me to feel that I am in love with this vocation“, states Brother Juan Pablo, while recognising that, nevertheless, “to walk this path implies making a sacrifice in which it is indispensable to develop talents or virtues”.
A simple, everyday event such as playing volleyball with the young people of the Colegio Miguel de Bolonia in San Juan de Lagos, Jalisco, the educational community where he currently lives and shares his vocation, has allowed him to understand that “as simple as it may seem, it requires me to practice skills that I do not possess, and actions such as these provide me with the opportunity to be a Brother in spaces where fraternity is strengthened in a creative way“. In the words of Anselm Grün, “discretio (discernment of spirits) is the art of awakening in every human being the life and capacities hidden within him”.
Sport is just one of the realities through which Brother Juan Pablo puts his talents into practice so that they can be “the engine that leads me to where Jesus calls me”. Currently, as a fifth-grade teacher, he feels challenged to “put into practice what lead me to improve myself and to get closer to other people”, with the conviction of “how valuable it is to be an active listener and to recognise the needs of others“.
Contemporary pedagogical needs are also part of his concerns and lead him to question himself constantly: “How does my being a teacher give creative answers to the current educational urgencies? “This question confronts me and motivates me, together with the teaching team to which I belong, to ask more questions that lead us to commit ourselves to our educational work”, adds Brother Juan Pablo.
These and many other experiences lived along his journey of formation as a Brother, have guided him to feel happy with the decision to make his perpetual vows as a Brother of the Christian Schools, a decision that also matured as he went through moments of crisis, because “without the difficulties that arise when advancing along the path – unpredictable and infinite – of being a Brother, I would not enjoy the enthusiasm that I now experience in living this vocation”.
“This was, moreover, the teaching left us by Saint John Baptist de La Salle, when on 21 November 1691, together with two other Brothers, he made the heroic vow, an action in which they committed themselves to consecrate themselves for life and went beyond facing all adversity”, concludes Brother Juan Pablo, recalling also a significant phrase of the mystic Eckhart: “the real foundation of that which is or can become is found in the being of God”.