Bishop extends best wishes to graduates

Posted May 1, 2003

Dear Graduates,

I want to extend to all the Catholic graduates of our schools, universities and centers of learning in Northwest Iowa my sincerest congratulations for your achievements and my prayers for your success in any future career, endeavor or education. May I also take this occasion to thank your parents, teachers and mentors, your school administrators and any other benefactors whose help, support and guidance have led you to this moment of commencement.

Human beings are the only living creatures that demand education.Though we have an "animal" dimension and certain instincts in ourselves, we also have a further dimension to our lives that requires teaching and learning. In other words, there is a "spiritual" dimension in us too. Each one of us is not just a "something" but a "someone."

Each human being is a person, someone radically new and capable of showing himself or herself as unique, unrepeatable and able to share with others aspects of our common world, of creation. In doing that each someone also shows himself or herself. Each of us can think and reason, act and judge in a distinctively human way. It is a special gift that has been showered on us by God. Graduations celebrate the fact that these special human dimensions of each of us can blossom, can grow and increase. We rejoice in this achievement and honor those who have reached graduation even as they commence or begin still another important phase of their lives.

As Catholic Christians, the spiritual dimension of our lives is even further enriched and transformed by the gift of faith, a gift that places all our talents and desires in a new world and context. The gift of faith allows us to see ourselves created and redeemed, loved by God who is deeper even than our own interior self.

We are loved in a way that is greater than any human love and cherished beyond any sense of our own human reputation. This gift of faith needs a response, an answer to God in word and deed. This gift of faith needs to be educated throughout our lives.

Only in that way do we bear witness to the truth we have received, to the hope that calls us to be of service to others, and to the love that allows us to bear fruit bringing others to that same love. At the center of our lives is that love of God in Person, Jesus Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, he makes God the Father known and loved by us. How blessed we are to know and love him.

It is my hope and prayer that as graduates you will remember your accomplishments and those who helped you reach them. It is my further hope that you will grow in the gift of faith planted in you at baptism and enriched by your education in faith, your intimacy with the Lord Jesus in the sacraments and prayer, and made solid by good moral decisions in your life. Please enter this new phase in your life with joy and enthusiasm.

May the Lord Jesus stay at your side each day and hour. We are all counting on you to make a difference in our world, in our Church and in our families. God Bless You All!

Counting upon the prayers of the Mother of God, I remain

Sincerely yours in Christ,

†Most Rev. Daniel N. DiNardo
Bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City