Dear Souls and Hearts Member,
Especially in the election season, especially in this U.S. election season, I am reminded that we live in difficult times.
- Plunging rates of Church attendance across all faiths in recent years; fewer than a quarter of Catholics attending Mass weekly at present (see also here)
- Despite the repeal of Roe vs. Wade, record high numbers of abortions in 2023 in the US
- Nondemocratic countries such as Iran and North Korea advancing their nuclear weapons programs
- Multiple regional wars, threatening to broaden into wider conflicts
- Economic insecurity in the US is at record levels, with 106 million Americans, nearly a third of our population, living below 200% of the federal poverty level (see here)
- Deaths by drug overdose in the US were more than five times higher in 2022 than in 2000 according to a NIDA report
What shall we do?
Let’s listen to the master Catholic novelist, J.R.R. Tolkien:
“How shall a man judge what to do in such times?’
‘As he has ever judged,’ said Aragorn. ‘Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.”
Through the wisdom of Aragorn, Tolkien reminds us that even amid troubles, good and evil do not change and we must discern them. We must decide how to respond.
How do we do that?
That’s what this series on vision, values, and mission statements is about. We started with writing your personal vision statement, defining “who you seek to become, who you are called to be in the future.”
And in our last reflection, Understanding Values More Deeply, I wrote:
“The bottom line is that we need to choose our values. Consciously. Deliberately. Thoughtfully. Prayerfully. Through discernment. Not blindly follow the values we already have, because they may be disordered, maladaptive, and even sinful.”
How do we discern and choose our aspirational values, the values that will guide us on our way, and inform our decisions and judgements in these times?
Here are some recommendations.
Prayer
We can and should pray to our God for guidance in choosing our values.
A few weeks ago (on August 30, 2024), the Church in her official liturgy gave us an example of such a prayer in the concluding prayer for the Office of Readings for Friday of the 21st week of Ordinary Time reads as follows:
“Father, help us to seek the values that will bring us everlasting joy in this changing world. In our desire for what you promise, make us one in mind and heart. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”
We need to seek and find those values that will bring us peace and joy in this world; not as the world gives peace or joy, but as God gives them in relationship with Him. That requires prayer and the sacraments.
Sacred Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are other rich sources from which to discern our aspirational values, though neither provides a comprehensive list.
I’m recommending in this reflection an additional source – the lives of our saints and our spiritual traditions.
Saints and spiritual traditions
Sometimes just seeing a list or even a word can help us in our discernment of the values we aspire to possess. And many Catholics have an affinity toward one or more of the spiritual traditions of the Church: Augustinian, Carmelite, Benedictine, Franciscan, Dominican, and Ignatian, just to name a few.
In this reflection, I offer you summaries and descriptions of the values of each of these traditions, based on their founders and their charisms to help you discern which values you need to possess on your journey toward your vision.
The saints and the spiritual traditions they represent offer us authentic values, “values that will bring us everlasting joy…” as the prayer above states. And, “in the life of each saint,” according to St. John Henry Newman, “we have a microcosm, or whole work of God, a perfect work from beginning to end” (from Letters and Diaries, 12:399). The values the saints hold are lanterns that light our way, that illuminate the path to sanctity and salvation, on our journey to a deep intimacy with God, as depicted in the art for this reflection (see above). The saints and their traditions offer us these lanterns that have burned clearly, brightly, and truly for centuries.
So let’s get started.
Augustinian values
Fr. Albert Esmeralda of the Order of St. Augustine, in an excellent article I highly recommend titled Augustinian Values, (downloadable PDF here) wrote:
“Whenever we talk of Augustinian values, we refer to values which are Christian and which Augustine of Hippo has colored with his saintly life and deepened by his teaching. A “value” is a “good that contributes to the perfection of being (not having or doing).”Christian values are values based on the Gospel proclaimed by Christ and handed on to us by the apostles. Augustinian values are Christian values which Augustine lived and taught in the conviction that such values contribute to the fulfilment of the Lord’s two-fold commandment of love in the spirit of the Beatitudes. Below are ten of these values, selected because of their importance in the thought of Augustine…”
Fr. Esmeralda selected these ten core Augustinian values and explained the significance of each in depth:
- Love and the order of love
- Interiority
- Humility
- Devotion to study and the pursuit of truth
- Freedom
- Community
- The common good
- Humble and generous service
- Friendship
- Prayer
Carmelite values
Most Rev. Fr. John Malley, O.Carm in his presentation Fundamental Values of Carmelite Spirituality (downloadable PDF here) proposes for consideration his distillation of the ten fundamental values of Carmelite life, derived from the three Carmelite Doctors of the Church, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, illuminating each one at some length:
- The presence of God
- Allegiance to Jesus Christ
- Dignity of the human person
- The journey of Faith
- The primacy of Love
- The importance of prayer
- The significance of community
- The commitment to service
- The beauty of creation
- The need for balance
Benedictine values
An excellent article titled Benedictine Core Values from the St. Benedict’s Holy Rule website lists silence, prayer, obedience, stewardship, listening, humility, peace, work, community, and hospitality as the ten Benedictine values and describes each one in a paragraph.
St. Martin’s University provides a slightly different list of 11 values in an article titled Benedictine Values. A bonus in this article is that the description of each of the following 11 Benedictine values includes a reference to where the value can be found in St. Benedict’s Rule.
- Awareness of God
- Community living
- Dignity of work
- Hospitality
- Justice
- Listening
- Moderation
- Peace
- Respect for persons
- Stability
- Stewardship
Franciscan values
I found dozens of discussions of Franciscan values in web searches. One of the best was from St. Francis College in Crestmead in Queensland Australia. The college provided a list of Franciscan values with descriptions on their website with references back to St. Francis and St. Clare:
- Simplicity
- Harmony and Peace
- Compassion
- Hope, Perseverance and Resilience
- Reconciliation
- Service and Stewardship
- Prayer and Reflection
Dominican values
St. Dominic established four pillars of life in the Order of Preachers in the 13th century, and these pillars can be considered Dominican values. Among many other good resources, and excellent discussion and description of the pillars/values are available from the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great on their website. The four Dominican pillars are
- Study
- Prayer
- Common Life (or Community)
- Preaching
Ignatian values
Many Jesuits seem to enjoy discussing values, so there’s quite a quantity of writing on the Internet about Ignatian values with varying degrees of quality (and orthodoxy). One helpful resource might be the article Ignatian Values and Principles from Xavier University (download PDF here) with listed these ten values:
- Creation
- Indifference
- Magis (“more”), discerning the greater good in a given situation
- Love is expressed in deeds, not words
- Cura personalis (care for the person)
- Tantan Quantum (valuing temporal goods rightly)
- Non multa sed multum (not many things, but one thing deeply)
- Contemplatives in action
- Ad majorem Dei gloriam (for the greater glory of God)
- Discernment
Other Catholic spiritual traditions
I encourage you to look on your own for others sources from other traditional Catholic spiritual traditions. An EWTN article by the Archbishop Angelo Amato, SDB titled Four Pillars of Salesian Spirituality reveals four core values for the Salesians of St. John Bosco.
- Devotion to Mary, Help of Christians
- Devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist
- Educational system based on joy and hope
- Devotion to Christ and the Vicar of Christ
The Little Sisters of the Poor list and expand upon these five main values that undergird their mission “to offer the neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they will be welcomed as Christ, cared for as a family, and accompanied with dignity until God calls them to himself”:
- Reverence for the sacredness of human life
- Family spirit
- Humble service
- Compassion
- Stewardship
The Knights of Columbus website claims that “All the good works we do are informed by our four core principles” and they list the following, which could be considered their values:
- Charity
- Unity
- Fraternity
- Patriotism
The values of Souls and Hearts
And while we at Souls and Hearts have only five years of history, here are our core values:
- WWYHMTD – “What would you have me to do, Lord?”
- Cherish every part
- Commit and deliver
- Prepare the way
- Dream big
- Nurture community
Looking ahead
I am excited to report that more than 100 are now on board with our ongoing project of writing our own personal vision, values, and mission statements and many have been able to join us for the Zoom workshop on personal vision (video here and audio here) and the first Zoom workshop on values (video here and audio here).
On Tuesday evening, October 1, 2024 from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM Eastern time, I will host our second Zoom workshop on values – it’s an opportunity for you to join in the conversation, ask questions, and discuss. For those who have already contacted me, I’ve sent a link to you; I will send it again on the afternoon of October 1 as a reminder.
If you haven’t let me know you’re interested, you can email me at crisis@soulsandhearts.com and get the link. We will record that meeting and provide a link in my next semimonthly reflection. Let’s light your lantern so that God can shine on the world through you.
In my next semi-monthly reflection, I will argue that we should consider secular or non-spiritual aspirational values in addition to the spiritual ones discussed in this reflection, ones that are essential for our human formation. So stayed tune for that when it comes out on October 14. 2024.
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Resilient Catholics Community
Hundreds of Catholics have found the RCC to be helpful in their human formation. Part of the reason it works is that we don’t journey alone. As the African proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We want to go far. In the RCC, we use the best of both secular and spiritual resources to help you experience what love is at a bones level across all your parts, so that the you can love wholeheartedly. It’s not just for your head; it’s for your heart, for all of your being. Check out more at our RCC landing page and considering doing our 19-minute experiential exercise to help you discern whether it’s a good idea to apply to the RCC. If you apply, there still is a mutual discernment process that lasts some weeks and includes the PartsFinder Pro.
RCC members enjoy optional benefits, too, such as a monthly office hour with me, the annual RCC retreat, extra workshops with Marion Moreland, and so much more. Check it all out on our RCC landing page
IIC podcast episode 150 released: Money, Personal Formation, and WalletWin Coaching
In this 47-minute episode, Jonathan Teixeira shares how 2000 years of Catholic wisdom on money can inform how you react to, respond to, and manage your financial issues. He dives into the different meaning money has for men and women, described the top three mistakes that Catholic spouses make with their money, and teaches you how to bring God into the realm of your personal finances. Check it out in video or audio.
This is the last in our subseries on personal formation from the National Eucharistic Congress – the next IIC podcast episode will release on October 7, 2024.
Prayers, please
Please pray for us. Any and all the good we do at Souls and Hearts is fueled by prayers. We are praying for you.
Warm regards in Christ and His Mother,
Dr. Peter