Young Hands, Old Fields

Roots in the Soil

From Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option:

“Stability. Along those lines, a tree that is repeatedly uprooted and transplanted will be hard pressed to produce healthy fruit. So it is with people [and their spiritual lives].

“If you are going to put down spiritual roots, taught St. Benedict, you need to stay in one place long enough for them to go deep. The Rule requires monks to take a vow of ‘stability’—meaning that barring unusual circumstances, including being sent out as a missionary, the monk will remain for the rest of his life in the monastery where he took his vows.”

In the face of Modernity’s global reach, which homogenizes all who partake in international trade, finance, culture, and education, the ability for communities to retain local youth, wealth, and culture has become urgent. Thus, Aurelia seeks to embed students in an intellectual tradition and fulfilling career at home rather than “abroad”. When healthy communities begin to develop around these, Aurelia will have satisfied its purpose. For, like a graft over healing wounds, Aurelia will ultimately become the very thing it seeks to save.