Regina Luminis Academy is a fully accredited Catholic Classical academy located in Berwyn, PA, at the Church of St. Monica. RLA was founded to assist parents in the education and formation of their children, by providing a classical liberal arts education in the Western tradition that is faithful to the authentic Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Declaration on Christian Education (Gravissimum Educationis) of the Second Vatican Council teaches that parents are the primary educators of their children, and that "their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it." Furthermore, we find this same thinking expressed in Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation on the family, Familiaris Consortio, in which he states that "the right and duty of parents to give education is essential...it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others...it is irreplaceable and inalienable and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others." Thus acknowledging these truths, Regina Luminis Academy aids parents in the formation and education of their children by providing an atmosphere that maintains and fosters the Christian spiritual, intellectual, moral and physical formation that the students receive at home. The school exists primarily to form the intellect of the student, and, in so doing, aids parents in those tasks of education that they are not able to completely fulfill on their own.
In order to live a life “for the greater glory of God,” human persons are called by Christ to go forth into the world and to become "as it were the saving leaven of the human family" (Declaration on Christian Education). Called by God to bring peace, justice and truth into the society in which he lives, thus fashioning a world more in tune with the dignity of the human person, the Christian graduate must be educated in excellence. The study of that which is excellent in human attainments will bear witness to truth, and thus to God. Authentic classical education, or liberal education, informs students with the most excellent intellectual accomplishments in the order of nature - the liberal arts, sciences, and fine arts - and thus disposes them to the crowning intellectual accomplishments of those steeped in grace, namely sacred doctrine.
In keeping with the philosophy and theology that is the intellectual heritage of every Christian, Regina Luminis Academy seeks to carry on the living tradition of authentic Catholic classical education. Grounded in the seven liberal arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium, the Academy teaches its students how to think like the great thinkers that produced our civilization. Education must not simply seek to impart knowledge of the various disciplines, but more importantly, it should give students the tools whereby they can live a full life, gaining knowledge on their own. These tools will include the ability to reason from premise to conclusion, to distinguish, to articulate well, and to persuade. These educational methods, which have produced the outstanding men and women who have fashioned our world in the first and second Christian millennia, surely will continue to produce students who are capable of excellence in all arenas of life, fully armed to meet the challenges of the third millennium.
