Head of School’s Letter

Aiden Titcomb ’26 sorted supplies with fellow advisees during a service trip to Cradles for Crayons with Mr. Jack Brady’s Advisory

Putting Love into Action

This academic year, Austin Prep selected its annual theme from the Gospel of John, 13:34, the Lord’s command:

“Love one another as I have loved you.”

The instruction has come to life in a meaningful way in the Austin Prep community through simple interactions and exchanges between faculty and students and through acts of charity for those in need from the wider community. Courtesy, generosity, and kindness have been evident as the spirit of Caritas fills each day.

In the fifth century St. Augustine of Hippo, the patron saint of Austin Prep and the father of the Augustinian tradition, had an additional thought about how one should live in God’s love.

He asked the question, “Do you want to speak praise of God? Be yourself what you speak. If you live good lives, you are His praise.”

What did Augustine mean by that, ‘be yourself what you speak’?

Austin Prep prepares students to go out into the world with the skills, talents, and knowledge that are needed to problem solve, think creatively and critically, and to ‘live good lives.’ Through their Austin Prep education, they form an Augustinian heart and Augustinian hearts – restless hearts – are oriented towards God. Restlessness is that yearning to be filled and fulfilled, which comes about from living a good life. Maximizing our God-given potential. Serving others. Confronting injustice. Sacrificing for the common good. Living our vocations well as parents, as students, as husbands and wives, as professionals. As artists. As community volunteers. As friends. As people who journey together.

When Augustine urged us to ‘be yourself what you speak,’ he was suggesting that we intentionally, thoughtfully, tenaciously make our every action a prayer – living our Faith and an opportunity to encounter grace.

Serving those in need, changing curriculum, promoting social justice, improving facilities and technology, or simply working to strengthen community is very Augustinian.

It’s the restless heart at work pushing us to ‘live good lives’ and ‘be His praise.’

Head of School James Hickey, Ph.D. P’22, ’23, ’24, ’27