Center for Catholic Education at UD

By Lindsey Bronder

In the article “I Am A Marianist Educator”, three teachers shared their personal stories of what led them to work at various Marianist-sponsored schools. Former Lalanne alumnus Luis Guerra shared his story of how he first encountered the Marianists as a teenager and has felt called to attend and work at Marianist schools later as an adult.

In the “Characteristics of Marianist Education” the Marianists outlined their philosophy including to “educate in family spirit.” Luis described how, while at St. Mary’s University, a Marianist university in San Antonio, he experienced this family spirit, “The Marianists were so welcoming. They were always like, ‘come over for burgers, come over for Mass.’ The invitation was so sincere and so persistent. I loved it! I was a regular at the brothers’ community.”

Another characteristic of Marianist Education is to “educate for service, justice, and peace.”After graduating from St. Mary’s with a degree in theology, Luis came to the Lalanne program at the University of Dayton, our post-graduate teacher service program specializing in supporting beginning Catholic school educators by combining service and teaching. According to Luis, “entering the Lalanne Program was a very intentional decision on my part; I wanted to be at a Marianist university.”

Lalanne teachers make a two-year commitment to teach in an under-resourced Catholic school while living together in a faith-based community and pursuing their Master’s degree. Luis served at Villa Angela-St. Joseph, a Marianist high school in Cleveland. During this time, he was a teacher, campus minister, coach, and LIFE moderator.

After graduating form Lalanne, Luis continued to teach at Marianist schools saying “I couldn’t see myself working anywhere other than a Marianist school.” Luis returned to San Antonio to teach at Central Catholic High School, where he taught up until 2014.

During his time teaching at Central Catholic, Luis went through the discernment process regarding whether his love for the Marianist charism was leading him to religious life. After spending a year at the aspirancy program, Luis discerned he was not called to religious life.

He has since met his wife through a fellow Marianist educator. The couple now has two sons and live in California. Luis is now the dean of students at Chaminade College Prep Academy. In his role as dean, Luis uses characteristics of Marianist Education in a new way as the primary disciplinarian. According to Luis, “I try to bring Mary’s love for Jesus to my role. It’s both nurturing and insistent. Think about Mary at the Wedding at Cana. She challenged her own son to step up and do what needed to be done. We are called by the charism to do the same for our students.”

Louis goes on to explain that, “It’s impossible not to be moved by this job” and that “I feel really blessed.”

The CCE and Lalanne want to express how proud we are of this Lalanne alum’s dedication to Marianist education and how blessed we feel to have been part of this amazing story.

Edited by Barb Miller