Communitas 2010 Issue for PDF File.pmd - University of San Agustin

June 2010 FROM THE PRESIDENT
Evangelization through Values
Education
Aside from announcing, witnessing,
celebrating, and renewing the world with
the Gospel, offering it a new way of being
and living with Jesus’ Real Presence in the
liturgy, the University finds it even more
urgent to work for renewal of the ‘city of
man’ (the earthly city guided by self-love
and lives according to the natural man
whose thoughts, actions, and desires are
not ordered to God as to their supreme
end) by appealing to the values
emphasized by Augustine. This then could
lead to conversion, a change of structures
and models of life contrary to the ‘City of
God’. And so, it is fitting that before we
discuss about the Augustinian values as
the University’s way of discovering her
identity and her unique way of
evangelization, let us first have few words
on values as commonly understood.
It is said that every day we make
choices. And we translate these choices
into action. In fact, some of the choices
we act on make us feel good and happy;
while some of them we regret. Further,
some of our choices are minor and have
little or small implications; others are
major and have great implications. Besides,
for every choice we make, we attach a
personal meaning. The personal meaning
we have identified becomes a definite
value when the choice we act on brings
about positive feelings. In short, behind
Communitas
Augustinian Educational Centers: Venue for Evangelization
(conclusion of a 2-part series)
Fr. Raul M. Marchan, O.S.A., Ph.D.
every choice we act on that makes us feel
good is a value.
In simple terms, a value is commonly
defined as “something which we consider
important and essential to our life”
(Ulgado, 1989). Others would offer a
more functional definition of a value as
“something that is freely chosen from
alternatives and is acted upon, that which
the individual celebrates as being part of
the creative integration of his development
as a person” (Simon, 1972).
By these we can say that values are
important because they serve as “guiding
stars which navigate our life”.
Consequently, knowing our values gives us
a definite direction. Knowing our values
and living according to our values lead us
towards personal integration. The process
by which a value becomes an integral part
of us is known as the valuing process.
This process involves the journeying inward
into the core of our person. It touches the
deepest part of ourselves as we introspect,
analyze, and explore who we are and what is
important to us at a certain moment in time.
As we engage in the valuing process,
however, we have to be aware of the three
dimensions of a person: the cognitive
structure (choose), the affective life (prize),
and the behavioral patterns (act on). The
first requires that the choice must be done
freely, must be made from alternatives, and
must be done after considering
consequences; the second necessitates that
the choice must be cherished and prized for
the person feels good about it, and the
person is willing to publicly affirm that
choice; and the third entails that the
cherished choice must be acted upon, and
it must not only be acted once, but
repeatedly and consistently in life.
The Augustinian Values
With the preceding common
understanding of values, we can affirm
that whatever values that are emphasized
in Augustine’s life, reflected in his
voluminous writings, followed the same
process of choosing, prizing, and acting on
consistently. Furthermore, while he chose
them freely from so many alternatives
present during his time, he publicly
affirmed them in his dialogues with his
friends, shared them with others through
his sermons, and wrote about them for
others to know and to perpetuate them.
Our Augustinian scholars would
estimate that more than five million words
have been preserved from his
autobiographical book “The Confessions”
to his inspiring “Sermons”; from his
catechetic “On Christian Teaching” to his
theological “City of God”. It is from these
sources that these values are wellenshrined;
and from where we will choose
the more common and familiar values that
the Saint mentions. Since we are in an
educational setting, we may say that these
values are those that find relevance in our
educational ends.
Not too long ago that the Order of
St. Augustine came up with a more
systematic approach to value formation
typical of an Augustinian as her way to
assess the educational centers found in
many parts of the world, especially as to
how the stakeholders would benefit from
the Christian integral education, the
Augustinian way. This process is not only
meant to share the values endeared to
Augustine, or to disseminate for the sake
of sharing them, but to give an identity
proper to an Augustinian education. This
can also be a potent means for a new
Augustinian educational evangelization in
the 21 st century as she dialogues with the
times. As experts say, Augustinian values
may define clearly our education and may
be converted into clean air that may be
breathed in our educational communities.
Common Values
For whatever reasons there are, there
is a tendency to simplify the presentation
of the values found in the writings of St.
Augustine. Though several authors’
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