Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 10)

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. 

10. Community: call for service to the common good and respect for the individual

Benedictine monastic community is rooted in a particular place in which mutual service, especially
in the mundane areas of everyday life, is demanded of everyone with no other reward than the building up of the community. Yet for Benedictines community also stretches across time and place. There is an awareness of community with the past, with the millennia-old tradition, with past
community members and friends of the monastery, with the communion of saints. There is also
solidarity with other communities across the world, monastic and non-monastic, Christian and non-
Christian, religious and non-religious, that make practical efforts to foster human well-being. Though directly grounded in a particular place, the commitments and aspirations of Benedictine life are
catholic and universal, rather than provincial.

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10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 9)

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. 

9. Hospitality: call to openness

The practice of listening and humility in a Benedictine monastery enables a generous hospitality to friends and strangers. Benedict urges that the weaknesses of all should be supported with the greatest patience (RB 72.5). Particular attention is to be given to those who are weak, poor or marginalized because, as Benedict says of the guest, Christ is found especially in them. Every
attempt is to be made to extend a gracious and respectful welcome to these persons as the sisters
and brothers they truly are.

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10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 8)

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. 

8. Stewardship: respect for the beauty and goodness of creation as a sacrament of God

At its core the Rule seeks to foster a fundamental reverence toward the creation that God has
made. Benedict exhorts his followers to regard all the tools and goods of the monastery as the
sacred vessels of the altar (RB 31.10). Benedictine monastics do not simply use up what has been
given to them, nor do they aim at poverty. Instead, they prize good stewardship, the wise and
moderate use of material things for the good of all, both present and future. This appreciation of
the good use of material things leads to a sacramental stance toward all creation and the
cultivation of beauty as modes of experiencing the presence of God.

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10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 7)

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. 

7. Humility: acceptance of the demand for realism and accountability

Humility is Benedict's word for wisdom. He begins his extended description of the twelve degrees of
humility with awe at the abiding presence of God and ends with the love that casts out fear (RB 7).
Benedictine humility accepts the reality of the day-to-day world - nature, events, other people -
and our true place within it. This practical realism demands honesty and accountability of everyone
in a Benedictine house. Each monastic seeks to acknowledge his or her faults and weaknesses.
Each strives to recognize their own gifts and the gifts of others with gratitude, seeking to contribute
as much as possible to the good of the whole and accepting the care of others.

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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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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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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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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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10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 2)

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 Benedictine Education. 

2. Prayer

Benedictine monasteries cultivate attentiveness to the multiple ways in which God is present in creation. The primary way for doing this is through the daily rhythm of a monastery's liturgical prayer. Benedict calls this the "Work of God" and directs that nothing is to be preferred to it (RB 43.3). Daily community prayer is supported and deepened by individual spiritual reading, a practice that Benedictines call by its Latin name, lectio divina, in order to differentiate it from reading that is done to gain information or knowledge. Lectio divina is the slow meditative reading of Scriptures and other sacred texts with the intention of discerning how God is at work in the world right now and how God is calling within the individual's own heart. For monastics the daily movement between common liturgical prayer and lectio opens up new space within for the development of compassion, integrity and courage.

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10 Hallmarks of Benedictine Education (Part 1)

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.

1. Love of Christ and neighbor

Love is at the heart of Benedictine monastic life. The life of the monastic, like that of all Christians, is first and foremost a response to God's astonishing love for humankind, a love expressed in the free gift of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Benedict uses Jesus' own words which come from the heart of the Hebrew scriptures to urge monastics to ground their lives in a whole-hearted response to that love and to share it freely with others (RB 4.1-2). 

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Benedictine Education

Education within the Benedictine Tradition

The origin of monastic schools can be traced to the beginnings of Benedictine life in the sixth century. Monasteries from their founding became places of reading, study and learning because it was imperative for monastics to be educated to read the psalms and practice lectio divina . Over time, and long before universities or colleges in our sense of the term had arisen, monasteries became places of learning for people who came to learn alongside the monastics. Hospitality simply would not allow these people to be turned away and great life was found in this broader monastic and lay engagement in education.

Through many centuries, monasteries have cultivated arts and letters. They have stewarded knowledge of the past in scriptoria and libraries, and they have promoted understandings of the earth and wise use of its resources. This work has engaged the labors of countless individuals and,
taken together, it has been a source of social, economic and cultural grounding for entire civilizations. Benedictine colleges and universities participate in this great saga, seeking to cultivate understanding among their faculty, staff and students of time-honored values that make full, worthwhile human lives possible.

From: http://www.ben.edu/cmi/upload/Education-within-the-Benedictine-Wisdom-Tradition.pdf