Mission Vision Values - Good Counsel High School

Our Mission: At Our Lady of Good Counsel, a Catholic high school sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers, we inspire our students to excel, serve, and love.

A Good Counsel education provides young men and women the opportunity to reach beyond the merely "good" and to succeed beyond their perceived limits. Through our mission, vision, and Xaverian educational philosophy, students will learn to flourish and become the best version of themselves.

Delivering on our mission means we will have cultivated a disposition among our students that has them engaged in seeking to excel, serve, and love, both now and well beyond their days at Good Counsel.

EXCEL. Learning to excel looks different for each student. Our young men and women are encouraged to achieve their best in various contexts, including academic preparation, arts, athletics, extracurricular activities and more.

SERVE. Developing a commitment to service is central to the Good Counsel experience. Engagement in service connects powerfully to our identity as a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School and our core values of simplicity, humility, compassion, zeal, and trust.

LOVE. Our Catholic school mission is tied to the words of John's Gospel: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." In our Christian community, we welcome and affirm the giftedness and dignity of each person, respect diversity, and create a caring atmosphere in which enduring personal relationships can grow and thrive.

The Vision of A Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School

The vision of our school is based on the charism of the Brothers of Saint Francis Xavier. The charism, the founding impulse of the Congregation, is a gift received by the Founder, handed on and developed throughout the history and lived experience of the Brothers, and further enriched and enlivened by the giftedness of those who collaborate in Xaverian Sponsored education. Faithful to the tradition of Xaverian education, our school is a center of growth and learning marked by:

Enduring Personal Relationships

The Xaverian charism is, at its core, relational. Therefore, a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School strives to create an atmosphere in which relationships can grow and thrive. In such an atmosphere, all can experience respect and care for their dignity as children of God. Those who work in a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School are called to understand and live their role as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which they proclaim by their attitudes, actions and manner of relating to others, especially their students.

Stewardship for God's Creation

A Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School community is called to recognize that all it has comes from God. It is challenged to grow in the conviction of its moral responsibility to care for all of God’s gifts, whether it be the care of the human person and human relationships, the earth’s environment and its natural resources, or the material resources entrusted to their use.

A Xaverian school community is called to put on the mind of Christ in order to bring about the New Creation. Therefore, all members of the Sponsored School community, governing directors, administrators, support staff, teachers, students and parents should feel that their giftedness and contributions are welcome and valued as important to the mission and work of the school.

In this way, those involved in Xaverian Sponsorship will understand the role they play as stewards responsible for the life and mission of the school.

The Centrality of Religious Instruction, Spiritual Formation, Worship and Prayer

The teachings the Catholic faith permeate the entire educational program of a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School. Religious instruction and spiritual formation enable students to integrate their personal faith with the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in Scripture and the authentic tradition of the Church. The Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School gives priority to providing the time and space necessary for reflection, prayer, sharing of faith and sacramental celebrations as integral dimensions of the educational program. It is necessary, as well, for the Xaverian Sponsored School community to reflect on how it manifests the Gospel values which characterize the Christian’s love of God and neighbor.

Faculty and staff are also supported in their growth as people of faith. In this way they model to their students and each other the ongoing ways in which God intervenes in life.

A Challenging Educational Program

An academically demanding educational program is another hallmark of the Xaverian charism. As a center of growth and learning, a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School creates an atmosphere in which all are committed to academic integrity and excellence. Such an atmosphere instills in students the desire to learn for the sake of learning and increases their personal confidence as they experience success. The Xaverian charism recognizes the dignity and giftedness of each student as well as the differences that exist among students. In order to provide all students the opportunity to grow in their differing talents, a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School provides a variety of programs geared to the development of the whole person. A Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School attempts to create programs that encourage active lifelong learning. Such programs allow for student and teacher interactions, which develop skills necessary to retrieve, evaluate, synthesize and critique information.

A Spirit of Harmony

Harmony, rooted in Jesus Christ’s example of humility, has nurtured the growth of the Xaverian charism throughout its history.

Christian humility creates harmony by affirming both the giftedness and limitations of all members of a Xaverian school community thus freeing them to learn from each other and to seek the truth together. Christian humility offsets the effects of unhealthy attitudes that can impede human relationships and paralyze the functioning of the school community. Moreover, Christian humility can create the harmony needed to allow members of the school community to agree to ideas and programs which best serve their students. Harmony, being of one heart and one mind, promotes the growth of the community.

A Passion for Justice and Peace

A Xaverian Sponsored School is called to become a center of Christian concern for Gospel justice and peace. Those responsible for the governance and growth of a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School are to assure that the policies and procedures dealing with the treatment of administrators, support staff, teachers, students and their parents reflect Gospel care and justice. Likewise, they should assure that financial provisions are made to enroll the poor and the marginalized, thus enabling real cultural, social and economic diversity to exist.

The Xaverian Sponsored School will continue to educate students in Gospel values and the social teaching of the Church so that they are capable of making informed judgments about social issues, most especially the need for peace and nonviolence. A Xaverian Sponsored School forms students in the attitudes, values and competencies that promote a life of Christian service and social consciousness. It develops programs that allow students to give concrete service to the poor and marginalized. All members of the Xaverian Sponsored School community are called to put on the mind of Christ and to be active in their pursuit of Gospel justice.

Xaverian Values

As a Xaverian Brothers sponsored school, we embrace the spiritual values of our founders: simplicity, humility, compassion, zeal, and trust. These values define our community and call us to lives of faith and service.

Compassion

About Compassion

About Compassion

Compassion, as exemplified in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, calls for the openness necessary to let oneself be touched by another’s life and the courage to reach out in loving service to others. Compassion is the eyes, the ears and hands of Christian charity. It is the heart seeking action. Compassion impels those at Good Counsel to look at life with the eyes of Christ, to suffer with those who suffer, to accompany them and to seek appropriate action to eliminate the sources of suffering. Compassion leads one to a lifestyle rooted in mercy and forgiveness.

Simplicity

About Simplicity

About Simplicity

Simplicity is another aspect of the Xaverian charism and is rooted in humility, trust of God, zeal for the Church’s ministry of education and compassion. Simplicity frees the heart, the mind and the soul for the work of evangelization and education.

Good Counsel makes simplicity a way of thinking, feeling and acting in order to offset the modern tendencies of materialism and consumerism, which can minimize the spiritual values of God’s kingdom. Good Counsel applies the value of simplicity in all decisions related to the life and mission of the school so that inclusivity of all persons and outreach to the poor and marginalized is upheld.

Programs and activities of the Xaverian Sponsored School educate and form students in Gospel simplicity and responsibility for their neighbor.

Zeal

About Zeal

About Zeal

The word zeal is traditionally used among the Xaverian Brothers to mean the single-minded devotion to, the ardent enthusiasm for and the intense drive to fulfill the Church’s ministry of education. The Founder’s zeal for the Church’s work of evangelization formed the spirit and charism that the Xaverian Brothers have transmitted to their Sponsored Schools. Furthermore, the renowned zeal for evangelization of St. Francis Xavier led Theodore James Ryken to the select this saint as the patron of the Congregation.

Single-minded devotion to the mission of the Xaverian Sponsorship unifies and strengthens the Xaverian educational ministry. Ardent enthusiasm for the Christian formation of young people increases a person’s desire for personal growth and learning. Intense passion for the more abundant life proclaimed by Jesus Christ inspires and forms the Christian community.

Humility

About Humility

About Humility

Theodore James Ryken encouraged his Brothers to have the humble attitude of Christ. The Xaverian Brothers are formed in the belief that each person is unique, gifted and loved by God; yet, sinful, incomplete and ordinary, sharing all things that are important with the rest of humanity.

Humility allows all members of the Xaverian Sponsored School community to accept and affirm their giftedness as well as to acknowledge the giftedness of others. Likewise, humility enables one to accept personal limitations in oneself and others. Humility inspires a sense of connectedness, not only within the community, but beyond. Humility is not a passive attitude, but an attitude leading to action-and that action is service.

Humility promotes harmonious relationships allowing members of the school community to affirm each other, to learn from each other and to work together. Humility is a powerful source of unity and is needed if the Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School is to promote truly inclusive and collaborative relationships.

Trust

About Trust

About Trust

Trust is the meeting place of mind and heart, faith and courage. Trust in God forged the Xaverian charism as the Brothers learned to respond in faith and courage to the enormous difficulties encountered in establishing their first schools. This trust is characteristic of the Xaverian charism: Omnia cum Deo, nihil sine Deo. (All with God, nothing without God.)

It is the Spirit of the Lord who encourages, enlightens and inspires all believers especially those engaged in the demanding mission of evangelization and the ministry of educating and forming young people. Good Counsel provides the contemplative time and space needed for members of the school community to fix their gaze on the transcendent in order to grow in faith in spite of life’s difficulties.