Spiritual & Virtue Formation
Formation of the Whole Person
Prayer, Scripture and Catechesis
Western society generally produces adults who are increasingly out of touch with their spiritual selves. Just as adults who have never experienced love as children may struggle to love themselves and others, so those who have not been taught to live spiritually may find it difficult to develop a mature spiritual life in adulthood.
To address this, we endeavour to incorporate prayer, dedicated study of Scripture and catechesis into each day of our students’ lives, whether at home or in college. Taking the spiritual life seriously requires a significant investment of time in prayer, catechesis and moral formation. We therefore expect children to spend at least an hour each day, both at home and at college, engaged in these core spiritual activities.
Education as Formation in Virtue
Students are taught that, in the classical tradition, true education is fundamentally a formation in virtue. As Plato recognised, education should form the whole person; every area of education should therefore contribute to the student's growth in virtue.
In the Catholic tradition, the virtues can broadly be understood in two principal areas.
Academic subjects are understood not merely as bodies of knowledge to be acquired, but as opportunities to develop intellectual and practical virtues. Education is presented as a lifelong journey towards human flourishing and true happiness, through which God forms students to share in His divine life and happiness, both now on earth and eternally in Heaven.
Growth in the Divine Virtues
Each day, at home and at college, students grow in the three virtues that lead us to God.
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Scripture & CatechismFaith
Students are encouraged to grow in faith through a systematic engagement with Scripture and the teaching of the Church.
They read through the entire Bible over a three-year cycle and study the Catechism of the Catholic Church over a five-year cycle. Younger children study the Baltimore Catechisms over a two-year cycle.
Mustard Seed childen engage with Maria Montessori's: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
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Prayer & MassHope
Children are encouraged to grow in hope through prayer and a deeper awareness of God's presence.
Both at home and at college, children pray or chant the Divine Office and spend time in silent prayer each day, learning to place their confidence in God and to entrust their lives to Him. Mass is celebrated in the college monthly, under the pastoral care of the parish of Pembury, Kent.
Mustard Seed children pray five decades of the Rosary through the day.
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Daily acts of self-giving
Charity
Children are encouraged to grow in charity through concrete acts of self-giving. Both at home and at college, they are expected to undertake a charitable activity each day, which they voluntarily initiate, going beyond what is required for the sake of God or their neighbour.
At the end of each day, they reflect upon and articulate the ways in which they have sought to practise charity to their peers, in a shared public witness to give an account of themselves for the day.
Mustard Seed children are encouraged to think about God and tidy each day.
Growth in the Human Virtues
Students receive weekly theoretical and practical formation in a particular virtue. In this way, they develop both an understanding and a vocabulary for discussing the virtues, including the forty-two virtues identified by St Albert the Great. This gives students a richer language with which to understand their own character and to speak about the spiritual life.
Once each term, each student and at least one parent, or ideally the whole family, chooses a particular virtue upon which to work throughout the term. At home, the family has a weekly discussion about progress in their virtues, including both successes and failures.
This practice enables families to grow together, recognising and supporting one another's strengths and weaknesses. It also encourages parents to acknowledge their own failures before their children, modelling humility and the need for continual forgiveness and growth. At the same time, it creates an opportunity for children to speak openly with their parents about the things that matter to them and about what is happening in their lives.
When children see their parents learning virtue, they realise that the life of virtue is the work of a lifetime, not just for childhood.
In this way, virtue formation becomes not merely something taught at college, but a shared way of life within the family.