Underscoring all activities at the Academy is a spirit of reflection upon God, the Source of all that is good and true and beautiful. Students are given instruction in the doctrines and moral teachings of the Church, stressing orthodoxy and obedience to the Magisterium of the Church. The classes in religion include the memorization of prayers and catechism, the reading of Holy Scripture and other significant Catholic texts, and instruction in salvation history, morality, and the sacred liturgy. In the upper grades students study basic apologetics and begin some dogmatic and moral theology. These are approached from a historical perspective – using, for example, the history of Church councils to present Church teaching as it unfolded in its historical circumstances.
In all, the religion courses are intended not just to test the students’ memory or attention span, but to nourish their interior lives and reveal to them different aspects of the mystery of Christian life, a living union with the Blessed Trinity through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Naturally, this instruction both leads to and builds upon the sacramental life in which the boys routinely participate.
One of the prime goals of St. Gregory’s Academy is that our boys learn the importance of ordering the whole of their lives toward God. We seek to impress upon them the merit of offering to God all that they do, in work or play. In this we follow the injunction of St. Paul, who says in his letter to the Colossians, “All whatsoever you do in word or work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father by Him.” It is indeed our hope that whatever the boys do—be it in the classroom, the dormitories, the chapel, or on the athletic field—it is seen as an offering to the glory and honor of Our Lord. This Catholic offering provides the best motivation for noble action, to be devoted to one’s vocation, and to avoid placing all one’s hopes and desires in material ambitions.
