COMMUNITY
Community is a central aspect of the Mount Michael experience. This communal focus is founded in the presence of the monastic community which lives, works, and prays at Mount Michael every day of the year. This community extends to our students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, board members, and greater Omaha community.
Community
“COMMUNITY: Respect the elders and love the young. (Rule of St. Benedict 4:70-71); Proper honor must be shown to all (Rule of St. Benedict 53:2)” “They should each try to be the first to show respect to the other… earnestly competing in obedience to one another. (Rule of St. Benedict 72:4,6)”
Saint Benedict defined his monks as those who live in community vowing to stay in that same community until death. For St. Benedict, community is the place where the practice of charity is lived out on a daily basis, where God is encountered in the other, and where we find the way to salvation and eternal life. This is the foundation on which our school is based.
As a Benedictine school, Mount Michael is characterized by community. In the school and residential setting, community is lived out in such a way that it is palpable. Community is the basis of human relationships. We strive to help our students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and the greater Omaha community enter into relationship with one another. Our students cultivate a sense of belonging, which leads to each individual being a vital member of our vibrant community.
The experience of community is expressed most powerfully in worship—especially in the Eucharist. The sense of community also permeates the whole culture of our school and lends a particular sense to all elements of school and residential life. In Benedictine schools, community is characterized by that sense of each individual “having one’s place”—of being accepted and valued for who one is in the community, and of being an indispensable part of it.