Common GoodPrepared by:

Jonah Lea AñesJan Pauline Rosal

Ylyssa Marie TolentinoMa. Ynah Rose Soriano

Augustinian Rule 7,2

“The degree of which you are concerned for the common good (rem communem) rather than for your own, is the criterion by which you can judge how much progress you made.”

Common Good

• The sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily.

3 essential elements

• The respect for the person as such;

• The social well-being and development of the group to which the person belongs;

• Peace which is the stability and security of the just order.

Lucan description of the Jerusalem community:The community of believerswas of one heart and one mindand no one claimed that any of his own,but they had everything in common. . .

There was no needy person among them,for those who owned property or houseswould sell the,bring the proceeds of the saleand put them at the feet of the apostlesand they were distributed to each according to need.

• Augustinian community consciousness urges us to do what ever we can make the ideal of the primitive community of Jerusalem an inspirational force both in the ecclesial and the human communities, so that sharing of goods may be the sign and sacrament of unity of hearts and everyone may have what he requires, thus leaving no one in need.

• Augustinian spirituality requires us to promote a fraternal distribution of goods which will show that we all believe ourselves to be friends and brothers in Jesus Christ under the fatherland of God.

Those who desire to have an Augustinian mode presence in the world takes as their specific apostolate making unity and peace a reality in the Church and in human society:

• This requires us to rid ourselves to others of narrowness and selfishness, and become attuned to a broader social love, joining ourselves to others in such wise that we may have only “one mind, the mind of Christ.”

• Christian formation in Augustinian values, therefore, cannot prescind from an attitude that takes the common good seriously. Love, when it is true, is always directed away from oneself; it is trancendent.

The two-fold commandment of love translate into working for the common good; working for the common good is service.

THE END . . .