Four hundred and fifty years ago that same question was answered by Pedro de Ribadeneira SJ when he wrote, as follows, to Philip II of Spain. “All the well-being of Christianity and of the whole world depends on the proper education of youth”. When the Society was founded in 1540 the running of schools was not on its agenda. Yet by 1580 there were 150 Jesuit schools in Europe and they had become the bedrock of Catholic education. The Jesuits developed, and to this day maintain, a wonderful educational network and an inspirational vision of education. In a sign, outside the College, that vision is summed up as being ‘for the improvement in living and learning to the greater glory of God and the common good.’ (Constitutions Part 4, St Ignatius, 1550).

How do we strive to put this vision into practice?
Along with all Catholic schools we seek to build a community of faith, where prayer and worship are at the heart of what we do; where people are respected and treated with dignity; where the sort of person that we become is of first importance and where we have a real sense of duty and of service to others.

Jesuit education, and therefore what we strive to achieve at St Aloysius, takes this further.

It is a false distinction in a Jesuit school to say that to pray is more important than to study physics. Both can be for the greater glory of God. It is a distinctive feature of Jesuit education that we seek to ‘find God in all things’ and that includes finding God in the classroom, the laboratory, on the playing fields and the stage… as well as the Chapel. Taking that further, former pupils of St Aloysius should seek to find God in their daily lives at university, at work, in their family and wherever they come into contact with others.

Jesuit education strives for excellence. The term excellence is easily misunderstood and is often equated with external measurement such as achieving five As at Higher. Whilst that is a very praiseworthy achievement and goal, it does not capture the challenge that every pupil and teacher should accept when we write AMDG on the top of every piece of school work. The excellence that we strive for is our excellence, or to put it in personal terms, my excellence, the best that I can give, the best that I can do.

The third distinctive feature of Jesuit education that should be highlighted is that it tries to engage the learner in what he or she is doing. What Jesuit schools have been trying to do for centuries has rightly become an important theme of modern education. If young people are going to thrive in the 21st century they need to be flexible thinkers, open to new ideas, self motivated, able to work on their own and with others. The first Jesuits knew all about the challenge of rapid change. They experienced the Reformation in Europe, the opening up of unknown cultures in India, Japan, China and the Americas, and the birth of modern science. They wanted to give their students the skills to live and learn in this world of change.

In our time we need to give our young people at St Aloysius’ College the faith, the confidence, the courage and the flexibility of mind and heart to face up to injustice and the challenge of secularism, globalism, consumerism and the implications of modern science, both for their own salvation and that of our world. For, “All the well-being of Christianity and of the whole world depends on the proper education of youth.”

It is also worth reflecting on why the Jesuits and all their works were so successful.

Ignatius and his companions developed a way of proceeding that was based on a profound insight into our human and religious natures.

Their mission was to help souls and to go wherever that help either did not exist or was deficient. Within that overall mission the particular work they could engage in was not defined and they could literally be asked to do anything e.g. teach adolescents, research astronomy, debate with Lutherans, travel to the farthest corner of the known world.

To succeed they needed men who were enterprising and flexible, who could act autonomously, who could show initiative and seize any opportunity to further the mission. Jesuit training focused on regular self review (examen) and always looking for an opportunity to do more, to do better (magis). They did so, not in a rigid, austere system that looked to find fault but in a system that was based on encouragement and tenderness (consolation), always suited to the needs and aptitude of the particular individual.

With that way of proceeding, combined with deep faith and love of Christ, it is not surprising that the Society of Jesus became so dominant a force. It is also a vision and way of working that is very relevant to our own times.

John Stoer