10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 6)

At Saint Vincent Archabbey many of our monks are involved in our College Apostolate. Some serve as Professors in departments such as Theology, Philosophy, Mathematics, English, Science or Business, while others work in the Library or Campus Ministry. Needless to say, our Benedictine Heritage influences the way that we educate our students as a WHOLE human person, Body, Mind, and Soul.

Thus, this series of posts will focus on the 10 Hallmarks of a Benedictine Education. 

6. Discipline: a way toward learning and freedom

Discipline is a way of focusing energy and attention on what matters. Benedictine life is built around
a fundamental discipline of prayer, work and relationships that is set forth in the Rule and that seeks to free a monastic to take delight in God's presence within the self, the community and the world. New members are taught how to cultivate the discipline of monastic life and to realize that it takes a lifetime of practice to develop fully the skills needed to engage the passion and direct the cares of a person's life.

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Family Fosters Vocations!

Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992

I appeal especially to families. May parents, mothers in particular, be generous in giving their sons to the Lord when he calls them to the priesthood. May they cooperate joyfully in their vocational journey, realizing that in this way they will be increasing and deepening their Christian fruitfulness in the Church and that, in a sense, they will experience the blessedness of Mary, the virgin mother: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Lk. 1:42) (#82)

10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 5)

At Saint Vincent Archabbey many of our monks are involved in our College Apostolate. Some serve as Professors in departments such as Theology, Philosophy, Mathematics, English, Science or Business, while others work in the Library or Campus Ministry. Needless to say, our Benedictine Heritage influences the way that we educate our students as a WHOLE human person, Body, Mind, and Soul. 

Thus, this series of posts will focus on the 10 Hallmarks of a Benedictine Education. 

5. Obedience: a commitment to listening and consequent action

Benedictine life is unthinkable without obedience, a value that cuts against the grain of much in
contemporary life. It is often forgotten that the root of the word obedience is found in the Latin
word audire, "to listen." When Benedict begins the Rule with the exhortation "Listen," he emphasizes
the stance of obedience required of all who seek wisdom. Benedict asks for obedience not only to
the Abbot, but to the other members of the community. Each has something of value to say about true fullness of life. For the monastic, obedience is putting into practice what is learned by listening to the other with the ear of the heart (RB Prol. 1). Centuries of Benedictine experience show that such listening requires the cultivation of silence and an atmosphere of leisure.

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Family Fosters Vocations!

Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992

The communities from which the candidate for the priesthood comes continue, albeit with the necessary detachment which is involved by the choice of a vocation, to bear considerable influence on the formation of the future priest. They should therefore be aware of their specific share of responsibility. Let us mention first of all the family: Christian parents, as also brothers and sisters and the other members of the family, should never seek to call back the future priest within the narrow confines of a too human (if not worldly) logic, no matter how supported by sincere affection that logic may be (cf. Mk. 3 :20-21, 31-35). Instead, driven by the same desire “to fulfill the will of God,” they should accompany the formative journey with prayer, respect, the good example of the domestic virtues and spiritual and material help, especially in difficult moments. Experience teaches that, in so many cases, this multiple help has proved decisive for candidates for the priesthood. Even in the case of parents or relatives who are indifferent or opposed to the choice of a vocation, a clear and calm facing of the situation and the encouragement which derives from it can be a great help to the deeper and more determined maturing of a priestly vocation. (#68)

10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 4)

At Saint Vincent Archabbey many of our monks are involved in our College Apostolate. Some serve as Professors in departments such as Theology, Philosophy, Mathematics, English, Science or Business, while others work in the Library or Campus Ministry. Needless to say, our Benedictine Heritage influences the way that we educate our students as a WHOLE human person, Body, Mind, and Soul.

Thus, this series of posts will focus on the 10 Hallmarks of a Benedictine Education. 

4. Conversatio: the way of formation and transformation

The aim of life is the same for Benedictines as it is for all Christians - to be transformed in every part
of one's life so that God's own image, in which each is created, becomes transparent and
palpable. The Benedictine word for this way of life is conversatio, the process of letting go in day-to-day life of one's predilections and false securities so the divine life at the core of one's being can
become manifest in a trustworthy pattern of living. Conversatio is a commitment to a lifelong
conversion into the likeness of Christ. This transformation proceeds according to small steps and it is tested in surprising ways over a lifetime. To come to fruition conversatio requires stability, discipline, faithfulness and resilience. Along the way it is strengthened by symbols and rituals that each monastery has found useful in supporting its members' journey into newness of life.

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Assumption of Mary & Vocations

Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992

Every aspect of priestly formation can be referred to Mary, the human being who has responded better than any other to God’s call. Mary became both the servant and the disciple of the Word to the point of conceiving, in her heart and in her flesh, the Word made man, so as to give him to mankind. Mary was called to educate the one eternal priest, who became docile and subject to her motherly authority. With her example and intercession the Blessed Virgin keeps vigilant watch over the growth of vocations and priestly life in the Church. (#82)

Family Fosters Vocations!

Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992

A very special responsibility falls upon the Christian family, which by virtue of the sacrament of matrimony shares in its own unique way in the educational mission of the Church – teacher and mother…. The Christian family, which is truly a “domestic Church” (Lumen Gentium, 11), has always offered and continues to offer favorable conditions for the birth of vocations. Since the reality of the Christian family is endangered nowadays, much importance should be given to pastoral work on behalf of the family, in order that the families themselves, generously accepting the gift of human life, may be “as it were, a first seminary” (Optatam Totius, 2) in which children can acquire from the beginning an awareness of piety and prayer and love for the Church. Following upon and in harmony with the work of parents and the family, the school is also called to live its identity as an “educating community” by providing a correct understanding of the dimension of vocation as an innate and fundamental value of the human person. In this sense, if it is endowed with a Christian spirit (either by a significant presence of members of the Church in state schools, following the laws of each country, or above all in the case of the Catholic school), it can infuse in the hearts of boys and young men a desire to do God’s will in that state in life which is most suitable to each person, and never excluding the vocation to the priestly ministry. (#41)

10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 3)

At Saint Vincent Archabbey many of our monks are involved in our College Apostolate. Some serve as Professors in departments such as Theology, Philosophy, Mathematics, English, Science or Business, while others work in the Library or Campus Ministry. Needless to say, our Benedictine Heritage influences the way that we educate our students as a WHOLE human person, Body, Mind, and Soul.

Thus, this series of posts will focus on the 10 Hallmarks of a Benedictine Education. 

3. Stability: commitment to the daily life of this place

Stability shapes a Benedictine monastery. All of its members commit themselves to seeking God
together. They resolve to pursue this, their heart's deepest desire, in daily interactions with one
another, in good times and in bad, throughout the entire span of their lives.

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Pope Paul VI on Priestly Celibacy

Encyclical Letter on the Celibacy of Priests, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, 1967

We readily grant that the natural and lawful desire a man has to love a woman and to raise a family is renounced by the celibate in sacred orders; but it cannot be said that marriage and the family are the only way for fully developing the human person. In the priest’s heart love is by no means extinct. His charity is drawn from the purest source, practiced in the imitation of God and Christ, and is no less demanding and real than any other genuine love. It gives the priest a limitless horizon, deepens and gives breadth to his sense of responsibility—a mark of mature personality—and inculcates in him, as a sign of a higher and greater fatherhood, a generosity and refinement of heart which offer a superlative enrichment. (#56)