Vision and Mission Statement
Vision and Mission Statement
Charism : Quaerere Deum: We seek God through Solitude, Community, and Ministry
Motto : Ora et Labora
Vision Statement : Seeking God, Serving the Church
This means
We are monks whose calling is to seek God alone, with the most absolute and uncompromising singleness of heart. As the word implies (monachus) we have one and a singular purpose: God, and to live for Him alone. Therefore we desire only one thing: to give God glory in all things (Ut in Omnibus Glorificetur Deus
We are united by our monastic profession of stability, conversion of manners and obedience (stabilitate sua et conversatione morum suorum et obedientia) according to the Rule of Saint Benedict as lived by St. Sylvester and found in the tradition of the Sylvestrine Congregation
We create space for God to act in our lives through Solitude, Community and Ministry while endeavoring at all times to ‘start afresh from Christ’.
We wish to ‘wake up the world’ by sharing with others the joyful experience of meeting the Lord and by striving to respond to the needs of the Church and challenges of our times while being rooted in the living tradition of St. Sylvester’s Priory of Sri Lanka.
We stand in awe as we recount the magnificent work God has wrought through the achievements of our pioneering monks now written in the glorious pages of the history of the Church in Sri Lanka. We look at the future with hope and faith in the Lord who invites us to “put into the deep” (Duc in altum). Our hearts burn with zeal to go forth and evangelize as we look forward to doing even greater things with an unwavering eagerness towards a history still to be accomplished.
We are committed to the quest for peace, often achieved at great cost: ‘through a crown of thorns’ (pax inter spinas)
We are happy to remind ourselves that as monks “we are lovers of God, brethren and place” (amatores Dei, fratrum et loci)
Mission Statement : To spread the joy of the Gospel through Prayer, Work and Common Life
This means
We are faithful to the Benedictine Triplet of meditation of the Word (Lectio Divina), praying the Divine Office (Opus Dei: celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours), and daily work (Opus Manuum) while centering our lives on the Eucharistic Mystery
We aspire to be a caring, a welcoming, a hospitable and a witnessing monastic community by creating stronger bonds of fraternity, by encouraging mutual respect and forgiving behaviours.
We want to be committed educators, inspired by the Benedictine culture of education, empowering the young to appreciate the value of learning and the pursuit of truth while striving for excellence in all endeavours: academic, sporting and cultural.
We wish to be zealous pastors through the ministry of worship (dignified and solemn celebration of the Sacred Liturgy), the ministry of the Word (communication of God’s Word) and the ministry of shepherding (service and evangelization) by refashioning the Christian community to form a participatory Church, which is a new way of being Church, that reaches out in love to the fringes (periphery and frontiers) of the human society in search of the lost, the down-trodden and the marginalized