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Mission and Values

You've landed on the most important page on our website. Our mission and values influence everything we do—everything we are—here at St. John's Prep.

Our True North

St. John's mission and values have guided our community since the School was founded by Brother Benjamin, C.F.X. in 1907. Ever since those first students stepped foot on campus, our mission and values have been the starting point of everything we do at the Prep: it's our true North. With every decision, every new class offered, every program created, we ask ourselves: is this aligned with our mission and values?

Generations of students have discovered the most important lessons learned in our hallways don't have to do with grades or tests, but rather, how you decide to move through this world? Are you a servant leader; someone who influences every situation for the benefit of others? Do you think and act with compassion, simplicity, humility, trust, and zeal? Our mission and values provide a strong foundation from which our students go on to be forces of good in the world.

Our Mission

St. John's Prep, an inclusive, Catholic, Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School for young men in grades 6 through 12, is committed to educating the whole person.

Our rigorous academic and extensive co-curricular program encourages students to develop their spiritual, intellectual, moral, physical, and creative potential, and inspires them to honor the diversity that enriches both our school community and the world beyond St. John's. We challenge our young men to grow in faith and wisdom, to promote human dignity, to act with compassion and integrity, to pursue justice and peace, and to live lives of service to society.

Our Xaverian Values

As a Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School, we are called to live out the five spiritual values that animated Theodore James Ryken—founder of the Xaverian Brothers—and his followers. Each of the values mean something distinctive and special in the context of a Xaverian Brothers education.

Simplicity

Simplicity is a way of thinking, feeling, and acting that favor the common good of humanity and our common home. Simplicity calls us to work for justice for all people and nations.

Through simplicity, and in imitation of Theodore James Ryken, we adopt a way of living with less rather than more, in a spirit of appreciation and gratitude, acknowledging that “through the common, ordinary, unspectacular flow of everyday life, [we] will experience a liberation and a freedom never before imagined.” (From the Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers)

Humility

Humility compels all members of the Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School community to accept and affirm their giftedness and limitations as well as to acknowledge these realities in others. Humility is an attitude that demands action in loving service to all. Humility inspires a sense of connectedness, allowing members of the school community to affirm each other, to learn from each other, and to work with each other. 

Through humility, and in imitation of Theodore James Ryken, we surrender ourselves to God in faith saying “The gift you have received, give as a gift.”

(From the Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers) 

Compassion

Compassion is the tenderness of heart which is capable of seeing and hearing the needs of all, near and far. We are called to stand with one another in difficulties, supporting and encouraging all of our brothers and sisters, especially the poor, weak, and oppressed, for they too are called to experience and share the love of God with and through us. 

Through compassion, and in imitation of Theodore James Ryken, we serve others to manifest God’s “care and compassionate love to those who are separated and estranged, not only from their neighbors, but also from their own uniqueness; to those who suffer from want, neglect, and injustice.”

(From the Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers) 

Trust

Trust is total confidence in our God and our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the meeting place of mind, heart, faith, and courage. This trust allows people to look toward the transcendent to grow in faith in spite of life's difficulties. It flourishes in contemplation and encourages, enlightens, and inspires all believers.

Trusting in God, and our brothers and sisters, we can live out God's plan for us. Trust requires that we provide time and space for contemplation of God's will for us.

Through trust we are joined together in our faith and efforts to build our community, comforted and inspired by the understanding that "in harmony, small things grow."

(From the Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers) 

Zeal

Zeal enables us to share God's love as nourishment for others, as bread that is broken through a life of gospel service. Zeal unifies the Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School community in single-minded devotion and intense passion for the formation of the whole person, and the joyful and enthusiastic commitment to the mission of the Catholic Church which God has entrusted to us.

Through zeal we are emboldened and empowered to face trials and obstacles in our path, knowing “that nothing special is achieved without much labor, effort, and zeal.”

(From the Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers) 

Compassion

Each year, the St. John's community focuses its attention and intentions on one (or two) values. For the 2024-2025 academic year, we focus on compassion.

"You are called to be of one heart and one mind with them so that you can participate in the building up of the reign of God. This was the vision Theodore James Ryken had in view when he founded the congregation: A band of Brothers who mutually help, encourage, and edify one another, and who work together.”
—Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers

Our Cultural Priorities

St. John's Prep has developed three cultural priorities that stem from our mission and from the Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers. We use this series of cultural priorities to guide the way we do our work and operate as an institution. Our goal is to make these priorities a lived reality in the lives of our students, parents, faculty, staff, coaches, and the greater St. John's Prep community.

1. We see all people as created in the image and likeness of God.
2. We seek to embrace a habit of excellence in all endeavors.
3. We seek to empower all whom we encounter to be unique expressions of God's love in our world.

Learn more about how we live the mission