Edmund Rice was a victualler. You don’t hear the word much these days. It means that he sold supplies to ships getting ready to leave the port of Waterford on long voyages to heaven knows where. Victuals are things you eat: Edmund’s specialty was supplying food to ships, a career which brought to the waterside lessons he’d learnt in his rural upbringing.
The image of supplying ships is a good one to describe a lot of what we try to do at St Kevin’s and especially for understanding the work of the ministry team. We’d like our boys to take on board the right kind of supplies to feed them on the long and unpredictable voyage of life. This makes for an inventory of things you can’t buy in shops: compassion, humility, honesty, prayerfulness, hope and a deep commitment to the liberation of the whole human family. These qualities are victuals: they nourish and sustain us at the deepest level. They are all signs of God’s presence.
One way of looking at Edmund Rice Education is to think of it as something which grows in many directions but which has four touchstones. They are:
