Benedictine Living & Learning Community

learning • prayer • work • recreation • community

Purpose: To promote an awareness of Benedictine practices and how to demonstrate those practices through everyday life with an intentional living community and joint academic course.

Commitment: All participants make a formal commitment to each other and their living community for a full academic year.

Who is invited to apply: CSB & SJU students who will be sophomores in 2024-25. Rising juniors are also welcome.

Benefits

Residents live together as a living & learning community on their respective campus.
Participation in Benedictine studies coursework for 1 credit each term – this course will fulfill the Benedictine Raven designation in the Integrations Curriculum.
As a community, the residents take some responsibility to educate the greater CSB/SJU community about how students can live Benedictine values in their everyday lives.

Housing locations

SJU: Virgil Michel, third floor - suites with double rooms, a common living space, & kitchen
CSB: Lottie Hall, first floor - suites with single rooms, a common living space, & kitchen

Application timeline

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 – Applications go live: https://www.csbsju.edu/forms/6I8JTDNHUR
Wednesday, February 7, 2024 – Information session at 7:30 p.m. in CSB Mary Commons.
Monday, February 12, 2024 – Information session at 7:30 p.m. in SJA Slaggie Room.
Sunday, February 18, 2024 – Applications due by 11:59 p.m.

Students will sign up for a short in-person interview upon completion of their application.

Thursday, February 29, 2024 – Offers sent out.
Monday, March 11, 2024 – Accepted student meet & greet at 7:30 p.m. in SJA Slaggie Room.
Tuesday, March 12, 2024 – Accepted student meet & greet at 7:30 p.m. in CSB Main Building.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 – Decision forms due at 11:59 p.m.
Thursday, March 14, 2024 – Alternate spots offered as needed.

Course Information

INTG 103B: Topics: Benedictine Living & Learning Community
Must enroll in 1-credit course listed above each semester; a 0-credit option may be arranged if you are above a credit cap, but attendance at each week's scheduled class is mandatory.
Fulfills Benedictine Raven requirement for the Integrations Curriculum.
Class will meet for 55 minutes per week. There will be two sections - one that meets Wednesdays from 6:00-6:55 p.m. and another that meets Thursdays from 8:20-9:15 a.m. Both will meet at CSB for the first semester and at SJU for the second semester.
Instructor: Jessie Bazan with assistance from Sister Christian Morris, OSB, and Brother Aelred Senna, OSB

Course Description

The Benedictine Living & Learning Community (BLLC) course will provide spiritual, intellectual, and communal support for the Benedictine Living Communities at CSB and SJU. Students will read and discuss The Rule of Benedictas well as other texts and videos that expound on how the Rule applies to day-to-day life in a community. Students will also engage in Benedictine practices such as lectio divina and monastic prayers of the hours. The emphasis of this course is on developing habits of a Benedictine way of seeing the world and applying that perspective to the community in which they live. To enroll in this course, students must apply for and be accepted into the intentional Benedictine Living Community on their respective campus.

How will students reflect on the connection between their living experience and their learning?

Learning will be facilitated through regular prayer, classroom discussions, written reflections, campus visits, conversations with monastics, and community-building activities. To support their learning, students will read and discuss The Rule of Benedictas well as other texts and videos that expound on how the Rule applies to day-to-day life in a community.

Monastic Presence

In addition to interacting with monastics in the classroom, students will have the unique opportunity to develop a relationship with a monk or a sister who will spend regular time in the Benedictine Living & Learning Community residential suites. The monastic members will help students cook and share a meal together on special occasions as well as engage in other social events and/or volunteer experiences with the BLLC residents.

Questions?

Contact Jessie Bazan, Associate Director of the Benedictine Institute, at [email protected] or by stopping by her office in SJU Quad 241.