Yes, I just got back from the Holy Land. No, this post has nothing to do with that. My life has been a whirlwind over the past few weeks, and I intend to blog about those events in the order in which they occurred. The Holy Land posts will come in due time. P.S. Yes, it's 4 AM, and no, I'm not at all tired.
Faculty, Staff, and Administration of Benedictine College and fellow members of the Class of 2010,
Thank you. Those two small words are said frequently, especially in times like this. However, in this particular case, they are the mere understatement of the deep gratitude felt. My time at Benedictine College has changed me. The values I have learned here, the knowledge I have gained, and the faith in which I have grown will shape the decisions to come and the future person I will be. Benedictine is the only institution I would trust with such a role in my life.
To the staff members who allowed me to be part of their lives and their families, thank you. The welcoming nature with which you conduct your lives has been an inspiration to me. The holiness exemplified through that welcoming and the way that I have witnessed life itself embraced by you will have a lasting impact.
To the professors who gave me so much more than class notes and grades, thank you. It is true that I have been loved by you. Whether that love came most from the honesty in your lectures, the extra time given to me in your office, the wise responses to my emails, or the general strength and goodness which I know to be characteristic of the way you live, it would be impossible for me to escape unchanged. True wisdom has been imparted.
To my classmates, my dear friends, my closest companions, thank you. The joy of friendship I have experienced living and learning alongside you has made these past four years indescribably wonderful. I am a better person because of the way your academic success, spiritual growth, and ability to live life with passion and joy have challenged and perfected me. We have been a true community.
Now the Class of 2010 is moving on. We are entering into the next chapter of God's call to us. As we enter the real world in a new way, we are entering a world in which the God we love and serve is shunned. It is a world were tolerance and relativism reign. It is a world that is starving for a Truth it fears and a Love it rejects. That Truth and that Love have been made visible and more real to many of us in our time here at Benedictine. They are deeply ingrained in the mission and reality of Benedictine College. The time has come for us to leave this haven of Truth and Love and to carry them into the rest of the world.
No matter what we are doing right now and in the near and distant future, we can be certain of one thing. God has big plans for each of us. And the degree to which we surrender to Him is the degree to which we will find happiness, know joy and peace, and bring others to those same gifts.
Class of 2010, graduation does not mark the end of hard work. Rather, it is the beginning of even greater work.
The time has come for us to get busy.
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