With a strong sense of vocation

94. Our work as educators is not just a career, it is a vocation. Pope Paul VI reminded us that "modern men and women listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses". ⁴⁰

95. It is not a one-sided process. The young people also inspire and evangelise us as we evangelise them. The experience of their trust in us, their energy and resilience, their honesty and searching, their goodness and faith, touches us and encourages us in our faith.

96. Marcellin Champagnat expressed our calling to an early follower in words that remind us of the responsibility we bear towards the young people we educate, but also of the trust that God has in us: "Their whole life will be an echo of what you will have taught them. Exert yourself, spare nothing to dispose their young hearts to virtue; make them realise that ... only God can make them happy, that it is for God alone that they were created. How much good you can do, dear friend!" ⁴¹