Dear Saints,

Our high school seniors graduated this past Friday! As they turn this last page of childhood, I am reminded of Pope John Paul II’s exhortation at World Youth Day 2002: “You must be the builders! You are the men and women of tomorrow. The future is in your hearts and in your hands. God is entrusting to you the task, at once difficult and uplifting, of working with him in the building of the civilization of love.”

Right off the bat, our new graduates will be faced with a choice. It's so easy to tear things down in a world of constant keyboard wars and relative anonymity. They will have to swim against the current and be among those happy few who choose instead to build: families, neighborhoods, workplaces, and the church. We have prepared them to do just that.

They are the men and women of tomorrow. The day is coming when humanity will look to them for freedom and peace. They will be the parents, the captains of industry, the elected officials, the innovators, and the church leaders. We have readied them for the task.

Their end-game is nothing short of a renewed civilization. Step-by-step, relationship by relationship, it is now theirs to build a new world on fire with patience, kindness, generosity of spirit, slowness to discord, forgiveness, mercy, and unity. We have shown them the way.

The Pope offered something else to his young audience that day: “let the light of Christ shine in your lives! Do not wait until you are older in order to set out on the path of holiness! Holiness is always youthful, just as eternal is the youthfulness of God.” As we send our graduates forth on their chosen paths, we would do well to remember that we, too, are called to be forever young at heart: filled with zeal and energetic anticipation for the great and wild adventure God has planned for each and every tomorrow.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ