Baccalaureate

Tags

faith-based education, fall in love with God, falling in love, finding God, graduation, gratitude, hymns, love, Pedro Arrupe, spirituality, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Last evening I went to the Baccalaureate worship service for graduating seniors of the high school where I spent my first thirteen years as a teacher. It took place in the largest church in our area. (We used to call it “The Stardust Ballroom” because seating is in the round and there is recessed lighting throughout – a very “modern” venue in the 1970s.) Although the population of the school has diminished greatly over the years, the church was quite crowded with families that probably included some of my students who are now celebrating their grandchildren’s commencement. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the service which ran like clockwork and included excellent (and brief) speakers for welcoming and thanking those in attendance, great lectors and beautiful music suitable to the youth but also very reverent. Two of the musical selections, solos by members of the class, were actually jaw-dropping. The first was a lovely young lady with a voice bigger than she was and then a young man, accompanied by a great cellist from his class, who sang the traditional and well-loved Latin hymn, Panis angelicus, which reached the entire church simply by the power of his voice. I was told that he has received a full scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music.

For a person like me whose life revolves around spirituality, the maturity, enthusiasm and apparent gratitude for the faith-based schooling of these young people was a real treat. The bishop’s words to the young people – and to all of us – were framed around the theme of falling in love. He urged them to fall in love with life, to look for what would be real and lasting on their journey. In conclusion, he offered a reflection by Jesuit Pedro Arrupe, a great lover of life and of God. It is my fervent hope for these young people.

Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of Mothers and their Sons (and Daughters)

Tags

graduation, Jesus in the temple, Joseph, Luke, Mary, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It is perhaps significant that today’s gospel (LK 2:41-51) tells the story of the only event we have of the life of Jesus between the infancy narratives and his public life. I say that as high school graduation ceremonies and parties abound in our town. Today our Church celebrates Mary, the mother of Jesus. By extension, I think we might remember all mothers (and/or fathers) who are busy preparing food and cleaning house and otherwise readying the family to receive the crowd who will come to help them breathe a sigh of relief at the achievement of their “child” at the end of one and the beginning of another chapter in life.

The gospel story was about the trip Mary and Joseph made to Jerusalem for Passover when Jesus was 12 years old that turned into high anxiety when they found him missing on their way home. Returning to Jerusalem, they found him in the temple sitting with the elders, listening to them and asking them questions. He thought it was a fine thing to be doing, being “about my Father’s business,” while his mother remonstrated with him, trying to get him to understand her great anxiety.

Those years of parenthood are often not easy – nor are the teenage ones always a picnic for the teens – so today I pray for all parents and graduates who have survived until this day, that joy may be the hallmark of this moment. For all high school graduates as well, I pray for feelings of accomplishment, safety and a bright future. For all, a day of forgetting the difficult and celebrating the beautiful.