Augustinian Values

(For UNO-R Students of Law)

Augustinian Values is a “companion subject” that complements ”the realization of the vision,
mission, goals, objectives, and values of the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos. It avails
of Augustine’s thoughts and inquiry, which, when applied to the intellectual, economic, moral, and
spiritual aspects of traditional liberal and liberating education (1), “fuel the desire” of students, in
the experience of the transcendental truth (2), to become God-fearing lawyers. Such experience
can then be shared with the members of the family, the church, with fellows at the workplace or in
school, and with society in general.

GUIDE QUESTIONS:

1. Why Augustine? Why Augustinian values?

THE OAR MISSION IN EDUCATION:

The educational mission of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, as an integral part of the Church,
consists of the integral education of the human person as a proposal to society to tend to the
great common project in which we all feel brothers. We want to develop this mission based on the
values of the Gospel and a Christian humanist project.

The ultimate reason for our presence in the educational world is to provide a service to society
that fosters an environment of evangelization (humanization of people and structures; faith-
culture dialogue; transmission of Christian and Augustinian Recollect values).

_____________________

1 J. Clair (ed.), Reading Augustine On Education, Formation, Citizenship and the Lost Purpose of Learning
2 K. Paffenroth and K. Hughes (eds.), Augustine and Liberal Education

MOTTO: LOVE AND SCIENCE: Educating the Mind and the Heart

(OAR School = a melting pot of love and potential)

UNO-R VISION:

We are a Catholic university committed to the integral formation of the human person with a
passion for excellence and service to the Church and society.

UNO-R MISSION:

We are an Augustinian Recollect University that educates the mind and heart by providing the
climate, the structure, and the means to develop the vocation, knowledge, skills, talents, and

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attitude of the community as permeated by the Gospel values for the service of humanity, love,
and praise to the One God.

GOALS: The University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos translates its mission statement into the
following four domains of schooling:

UNO-R OBJECTIVES

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Elements of OAR
Charismatic (In the hands of the laity)
Identity
Faced with the challenge of dispersion and superficiality, interiority is
understood as a fundamental attitude by virtue of which the capacities and
values that tend to the inner world of the person are chosen. It is expressed
1. Contemplative through silence, reflection, recollection and realism.
character
Do not want to scatter outside, enter within yourself, because the truth
dwells in the inner man; and if you find that your nature is mutable,
transcend yourself (SAINT AUGUSTINE, rel. 39, 72).
Faced with the challenge of narcissistic and competitive individualism,
community is the experience of an attitude opposed to selfishness, self-
indulgence and the understanding of leadership as power. It is expressed
2. Communitarian through communication, the communion of goods, the acceptance of what
character is different and the elaboration of common projects for the future.

Charity [...] is understood in this way: that it puts common things before its
own and not its own before the common (SAINT AUGUSTINE, reg. 5, 30).
Faced with the challenge of social exclusion, injustice and the proliferation
of a culture of death, justice in solidarity tends to forge people who gain
awareness of the interdependence between men and nations. It is
expressed in mercy, the public defense of denied values, the option for the
3. Apostolic
excluded and the esteem of interculturality.
character
You give bread to the hungry, but it would be better if no one were hungry,
and thus you would not give anyone to eat. You dress naked, I wish they all
had clothes and there was no such need! (SAINT AUGUSTINE, ep. Io. 8, 5)
Like a mother, Augustinian pedagogy finds in love the main engine for its
development. love drags and empowers the activity of knowing and at the
same time gives meaning and energizes the search that man undertakes:
to approach the love of God.
4. Marian
This pedagogy is not a disinterested process with an end in itself. It is a
process that entails a responsibility with life. Hence the breadth of its scope
and its objectives. It is based on a comprehensive process (spiritual,
intellectual, moral and of the will) aimed at making emerge and energize,
through the cognitive force of love, all the latent potentialities in the student.

COURSE LEARNING PLAN:

Subject contents or topics – with a minimum description -- shall be presented in the form of
Exercises that have been designed to “challenge” professional students to re-think their ideas of
life, work, and study and “fuel” their desire to become lawyers with UNO-R’s graduate attributes
(cf. Objectives).

The treatment of these topics as accompaniment for the students may be modified and adjusted
to their real needs and situations.

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 1. Augustine and the Purpose of Learning
2. Reading and Writing in Augustine and the Early Pagan Thinkers
3. Dialogue as the best tool for formation and education
4. Interior life: a way to integral formation and a source of strength for perseverance
5. A contemplative attitude for LAW students
6. Communitarian attitude of an Augustinian Recollect graduate
7. Knowledge as charity and service to family and society
8. Parent-like (maternal and paternal) attitude in leadership

PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES:

“Augustinian Values” for law students at UNO-R is a “companion subject”. It is concerned with the
person of each student above all, and then his or her being a member of the human family. It is
designed to lighten their load and help them find rest and time for themselves -- time to reflect on
their final goal in life, for the practice of their faith, and for bonding with family members and other
relationships. As a “companion,” the subject avails of the following Augustinian pedagogical
principles:

1. Starting with the real needs of the students, connect with their deepest aspirations and
concerns, and develop reflective learning and active listening.
2. Make the students the protagonists of the teaching and learning process, respecting and
stimulating their singularities and adapting to their evolutionary rhythm.
3. Establish interiority as a fundamental axis to develop the capacity for reflection,
emphasizing the positive and seeking to overcome the negative.
4. Promote a model, based on learning how to listen and question, of connecting the interior
with the exterior reality, and help the students to imitate, interact with, and transform it.

DYNAMICS AND METHODOLOGY

The “companion-subject”, guided by the pedagogical principles mentioned above and aware of
the load professional students carry in their study (like a journey) towards the Doctor Iuris degree,
employs what I call “dialogue by correspondence”. This is a process of studying and learning that
I culled from the teachings and experiences of Augustine. He is our model student -- a seeker and
lover of truth and happiness – whose knowledge urges him to love and serve, especially the poor
and those who are most in need.

1. Letters will be regularly sent to students via email. Students are to open their mailbox
during the class period.
2. Students may use the hour allocated for classroom activity to do the following:

a. Have some rest from study and work concerns... and spend time instead for
themselves, for worship, and to think of their family and relationships.

b. In a climate of rest, quiet, and reflection... Students may read and study the letters sent
to their email boxes.

3. They may then apply to their person the Exercises included in the Letters that I will send
to them. Here is a study technique that might help. Let us call these the 3 R’s.

➢Read and reflect. Find out how the teachings of Augustine can lead you to discover
your true self as the “beloved”.

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 ➢Record your discoveries. To “record” (Latin = re [again] + cor, cordis [heart]) is to
bring close to the heart, to return to your experiences lodged in your memory... to find out
how the things you read are already “in your heart and mind... You just have to work on
them”. ***

➢Recall and relate what you have recorded to those who need your help. Find out
how your knowledge can be used to help others. “Let science be used as scaffolding to
build the edifice of love that serves those most in need”!

For this reason, a journal is required. If approved by the Dean and if so desired by the
students, we may not a hold weekly virtual meeting, so you may have the hour dedicated
to rest and the exercise of the 3 R’s. For questions and clarifications, you may call or write.
Here are my contact numbers: CP#: 0917 844 9581

E-mail – laurolarlar2013@gmail.com or butchoar@yahoo.com

4. An evaluation of the students’ performance shall be based on the following:

a. Proof that they have applied the Exercises to their person

b. A written evaluation of the Exercises that had the most impact on their way of
thinking and how the same Exercises challenged them to change their way of life
and studying

c. A summary (most concise description) of the Augustinian Values that they

Grading System (UNO-R College of Law)

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An alternative system to be used when only the final grade is given