Ateneo de Manila University

To understand the soul of the Ateneo de Manila University -- what shaped it and where it came from, where it is going and where it can take you -- it is essential to understand its motto, Lux in Domino, or "Light in the Lord."From the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians (5:8), these words capture the spirit of a way of life which the Ateneo holds up to her sons and daughters as their best contribution to the work by which God transforms the world. To be "light in the Lord" in all fullness demands moving insistently and deliberately towards God as the center of a person's life, identifying the issues that such a centering poses, and then moving out to the world to find ever new ways of constructing the edifice, cultivating the garden, painting the masterpiece, that God is unfolding in one's life.It is a call to BE that light of the Lord in the world.The Ateneo de Manila University celebrates its 145th anniversary and 145 years of the return of Jesuit Education to the Philippines on December 10, 2004. December also begins the 5-year countdown to the Ateneo’s 150th anniversary, its sesquicentennial, in 2009.The university begins preparations for its sesquicentennial by returning to its roots: by remembering the Ateneo’s history and celebrating the things that make the school distinctly Atenean: what we cherish, what we fight for, what we believe.