Manquehue
Manquehue is a lay Benedictine community based in Chile whose life springs from Lectio Divina, the prayerful reading of Scriptures, and friendship. St Scholastica is a community of the Manquehue Apostolic Movement living and working at Downside School since 2015.
At Downside school we develop a programme of tutoría and Lectio Divina among the students. Tutoría is about helping older students to take pastoral responsibility for younger ones, making friends with them, breaking the barriers of hierarchy, and sharing their own search for God and their experience of prayer and service.
St John’s Community of student Lectio Leaders is at the core of this mission. It is comprised of fifth and sixth formers who meet every week to deepen their relationship with God, their discipleship of Christ, their belonging to a community of friends, and their awareness of having a mission in the school.
Nourished at St John’s Community, they are then able to share these gifts with younger students throughout their different Lectio Groups. Fourteen Lectio Groups of students meet on a weekly basis, half of them for boys and half for girls, one in each year group. St Scholastica also runs two weekly Open Lectio sessions for staff and enriches other school communities and initiatives with the powerful gift of Lectio Divina and friendship in Christ.
Beyond Downside, St Scholastica is at the heart of “The Weave of Manquehue Prayer”, a network of friends who want to help one another to pray and to share with many the Good News of the Gospel. The Weave was started among old students from Downside and other Benedictine schools and has now extended to many others.