The Saint Augustine Circles of Study are designed for the purpose of increasing the knowledge of the Faith and things pertaining to it in Catholic men and women.

For those who would like to participate, here are some essential guidelines for the formation of a Circle of Studies:

1. The number of participants in each circle should range from two to twelve. Such a group can meet conveniently in a home. This will keep the class in the nature of a seminar, rather than a lecture. When the Circle grows to a larger number, we advise that it be divided into two Circles.

2. A patronal name should be chosen for each Circle, such as "The Holy Family Circle" or "The Saint Thomas Aquinas Circle."

3. A Moderator should be selected for each Circle. His or her duties will be detailed below.

4. The members of each Circle should agree on an appropriate time and place for the meetings. Each meeting should last about 100 minutes so that attendance at it will count for two Academic Hours.

DUTIES OF THE MODERATOR

1. Make arrangements for the time and place of the weekly meetings.

2. Plan the program for each meeting. Some suggestions about the program will be given in a special section of this booklet.

3. Keep an attendance list for the meetings.

4. Receive Book Reports from the students and mail them to the Center with the Semi-Annual Reports.

5. Keep in stock a sufficient supply of Form B (to be given to the students on request), and of Form C, the Semi-Annual Report. Forms A, B, and C are shown in Appendix I.

6. Send to the Center, on Form C, the Semi-Annual Reports (one in January and one in July), containing:

(a) Names of the members on the date of the Report. (b) Addresses of new members and changes of address, if any, for old members. (c) Number of Academic Hours for every student during the period since the previous report. This last item is to be based on the attendance list.

7. To take care of secretarial and mailing expenses, the Moderator should send, with every Semi-Annual Report, a sum equal to two dollars for every member of the Circle. The cassettes will have to be paid for separately.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE WEEKLY PROGRAM

In order to maintain the interest of the participants, the program for the weekly meetings should have a variety of different types of activity --- reading, memory drills, discussions, auditing cassettes, etc. No one of these activities, however, should exceed ten to twenty minutes in duration. Here are some suggestions for a typical meeting:

1. Read one chapter, or a part of a chapter, from one of the books of Holy Scripture (twenty minutes; discussion should take up perhaps another ten minutes). An old Catholic Bible with footnotes, or a good Catholic commentary, would be of great help.

2. Spend five to ten minutes drilling on some memory item, like learning to name the Twelve Apostles in the same assigned order, or to recite the Ave Maria in Latin.

3. Read together a good history of the Church, like a volume of Mourett-Thompson (twenty to thirty minutes).

4. Listen to a cassette from the Saint Augustine Institute for about one half hour. You will receive our SAI Sales Notices regularly every quarter, and they will include listings of all tapes available.

5. Members should be encouraged to read quotations from books they are studying by themselves. Throughout the session, members should be free to ask questions or make suggestions, but discussion should never be allowed to become a complete take-over.

6. Short prayers should begin and end each session. Eventually it would be good to say these prayers in Latin.