Introduction: Love Thy Neighbour

Welcome to Teachers Talking for Term 2. Last term we explored the theme “Restored to Live” for it is only in Christ that our students can experience resurrection living; the restoration of what it means to be truly human.  For each student is created a unique image‑bearer of God and He desires to re‑create them into the image of His Son.

St. Irenaeus, a second‑century theologian said, “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.”  Jesus’ statement “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind …. and love your neighbour as yourself”[1] is a restatement of the image of God, for God is love.

The great thinker and educator, St Augustine, who viewed the faith of his mother as ‘unenlightened’, finally found his way to Jesus through his encounter with Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, who embodied a living faith in Christ and a fine intellect.  It was Ambrose’s love for him as a spiritual father, expressed in welcoming hospitality, that opened his heart and mind to reconsider the faith he had rejected.  Ambrose created a loving, learning space for him to grapple with truth, for he offered himself as a life worthy of imitation.  Augustine would later say this is precisely what teaching is.  In the words of one of Augustine’s sermons, the impulse to teach comes from the necessity of love.

As the heart is the core of our being, the place where our “understanding, commitments, beliefs and actions reside and from which they arise” [2] , love is to be the essence of our school community. To this end, during Term 2, the Teachers Talking offerings will focus on the theme, ‘Love Thy Neighbour’.  We will explore what this means for our students as they relate to their teachers and are part of a learning community where the culture and the way of teaching and learning is shaped by a true understanding and embrace of the love of Jesus.  As Augustine said, the ‘supreme good’ of life is to love God wholeheartedly and to love one’s neighbour as yourself.

Grace & Peace
The Excellence Team

 

 

 

 

[1] Matthew 22: 36 – 40

[2]  Donovan L Graham, Teaching Redemptively – 2nd Ed. – Bringing Grace & Truth into your Classroom; USA: Purposeful Design Publications, 2009), 137