College Values

The essential values of Good Samaritan Benedictine Education* are:

Love of Christ and Neighbour

Benedictine life, 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 God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Love tops St Benedict’s list of tools for good works (RB, 5:10, 7:67-69, 4.1-2).

Prayer

Benedictine schools cultivate a fundamental attentiveness to the ways by which God is present in the human mind and heart and, indeed, in all creation. St Benedict directed that nothing is to be preferred to prayer (RB, 43.3). Lectio divina is the slow meditative reading of Scriptures and other sacred texts with the intention of discerning how God is at work right now in the world and calling within the individual’s own heart.

Stability

Stability shapes a Benedictine way of life. All commit themselves to seeking God. They resolve to pursue this, their heart’s deepest desire, together, day in and day out, in good times and in bad, throughout the span of their lives.

Conversation

The Benedictine word “conversatio” means the process of letting go of self-centred preoccupations and false securities so that the divine life at the core of one’s being becomes manifest in a trustworthy pattern of living.

Obedience

Benedict begins the Rule with the exhortation “Listen,” emphasising the stance required of all who seek wisdom. Obedience is putting into practice what is learned by listening to the other “with the ear of the heart” (RB, Prologue 1).

Discipline

Benedictine life is built around a fundamental discipline of prayer, work, and relationships, seeking to free people to take delight in God’s presence within the self, the community, and the world.

Humility

The Benedictine way of life seeks an accurate knowledge of self, a pervasive awareness of God’s presence and dependence on others and creation itself. Benedictines recognise their limitations without losing hope and accept their gifts without becoming arrogant because the measure of their lives is not found in themselves alone.

Stewardship

At its core the Rule seeks to foster a fundamental reverence towards the creation that God has made. St Benedict exhorts his followers to regard all the tools and goods of the monastery as the sacred vessels of the altar (RB, 31.10).

Hospitality

St Benedict accords special attention to Christ’s unexpected arrival in the person of the guest, whom he describes alternately as poor and as a stranger. A blessing accompanies both the offering and the receiving of hospitality.

Community

The Benedictine community is rooted in a particular place in which mutual service, especially in mundane everyday life, is demanded of all with no expectation of individual reward. It is a challenge to contribute to a living, flesh-and-blood community on such terms.

Justice and Peace

The aim of Benedictine life is to find peace. We must pursue it and work for it. It is an active ordering of life so that peace is the outcome. Peace is a feature of just communities – for peace to reign, justice is fundamental.

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*Adapted from Association of Benedictine Colleges & Universities Statement (The Ten Hallmarks of Benedictine Education): Education within the Benedictine Wisdom Tradition Revised August 27, 2007. Source: www.abcu.info