Our Theological Foundations

Our mission finds its foundation in the teachings of both Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Benedict of Nursia.

Aquinas writes that there is no work more noble in its purpose than that of the farmer, as the farmer’s work produces the necessities of life that nourish the soul and that leads one closer to God.

Saint Benedict founded his monastic tradition on the concept of Ora et Labora - entering into the prayer of conversing with God within simple manual labor.

The economist E. F. Schumacher wrote "As our modern society is unquestionably in crisis, there must be something that does not fit ... I never cease to be astonished at the docility with which people ... accept technology, uncritically, as if technology were a part of Natural Law." ("Technology and Political Change" in This I Believe and Other Essays, (Devon, UK: Resurgence Books, 1998), 98-99).

It is amazing that these comments by Schumacher were written in 1976 - before smart phones and the creation of the addictive algorithms of social media and video gaming.

Not everyone can settle on rural land and farm for a living. But the spiritual foundations of Aquinas, Benedict, and other thinkers and theologians, indicate that the rural, agrarian life provide a transferable mindset to the life of a Christian family, no matter the setting.

We teach a stepping away from the trappings of the culture, and a return to the life of the family centered on God.