The daily life of St. Gregory’s seeks a balance between prayer, work, and play, providing an ordered structure for boys to grow. Outside the daily schedule, the boys are also given the chance to participate in a wide range of wholesome activities such as athletics, the Academy Juggling Troupe, symposiums, talent shows, concerts, dramatic performances, local community services, and both cultural and liturgical celebrations. These festive and playful occupations provide equilibrium to the rigors of academia and physical labor. Scripture tells us that Wisdom was with God from the beginning, playing in his presence and in the world. From this we see that play is not to be dismissed as a frivolity, but is central to wisdom, the highest goal of education. A well established virtue, even intellectual virtue, is characterized not by strain, but by the ease, virtuosity, and freedom of play. Education should aim for this virtuosity, and even anticipate it just as we practice in order to play well in a game. At St. Gregory’s we take play seriously, and strive (with due playfulness) to always rejoice with charity in the good things God gives us and to celebrate in affirmation of the goodness of His creation.
St. Gregory’s Academy promotes an environment of technological poverty in order to free her students from the distractions of the modern world. This freedom enhances the development of the imagination and wonder since the current vogues of technology can easily become a barrier keeping our hearts from being touched by reality. Furthermore, restricting technological dependency allows a student to focus on the important aspects of reality, such as the development of virtue, the cultivation of good friendships, and the contemplation of the Divine. C.S. Lewis, in The Abolition of Man, argues that in modernity “there is something which unites magic and applied science [technology] while separating them from the “wisdom” of earlier ages. For wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.” Such preoccupation with technological advancement greatly inhibits the search for the true, the good, and the beautiful and, therefore, the boys at St. Gregory’s are not permitted to bring personal music devices or computers, to watch television, to use cell phones, or to access the internet.
Since the practice of physical work imparts a sense of duty and common purpose, the boys are responsible for much of the cleaning and maintenance of the school building and grounds. In this environment of healthy activity and manual labor the boys of St. Gregory’s come into direct contact with the roots of human culture and are thus challenged and encouraged to try their hands at many different pursuits. G.K. Chesterton tells us that anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Too many activities are too delightful to be left solely to the professionals. According to the etymology, an amateur is a lover, and just as charity covers a multitude of sins, so the love of an activity excuses our initial blunders and opens up the road to our eventual proficiency. The true amateur says not that any old job is good enough, but rather that although no job is ever good enough, no job at all is worse. At St. Gregory’s we encourage everyone to try everything so that each boy will become someone.
A notable result of this life in community is not that the boys can or will practice the social virtues and partake in a wide range of activities but that they do them with such satisfaction and pleasure. And what is remarkable about St. Gregory’s is how ordinary such activities are. Such wholesome pastimes, pleasures, and small charities are the stuff of daily life at the Academy, a life deliberately removed from the technological distractions and spiritual deficiency of modern adolescent life. This is the secret to forming brave and well-disposed Catholic men. We do not merely take away the banal and sometimes dangerous or disordered pleasures, thus losing our boys to resentment. Rather, we strive to replace them with new activities which are well-ordered and good, and, as a consequence, are better able to fill the desires of the soul.
What's my life like at St. Gregory's?