Bishop sends congratulations to graduates

May 4, 2006

Dear Graduates,

Across the nation young people and their families and communities are celebrating a great rite of passage, graduation from high school. These days are a time of great excitement and fulfillment. Please allow me to congratulate each of you on your fine success. I hope and pray that all of you will feel the grace of a great accomplishment that has been carefully achieved. For the Church, for your parents and grand parents this is a special time of pride and joy. Before our very eyes you, like Jesus in Nazareth, have grown in wisdom, age and grace.

This time of celebration and accomplishment is also a time for reflection and vision. Each of you has been the recipient of countless benefits and graces. You have been blessed with a fine education, you have enjoyed the liberties and comforts of our great nation, you have been raised in good homes and you have received the nourishment and strength of your Catholic Faith that has come to us from the apostles.

The Scriptures remind us that to those to whom much has been given, much will be expected. I encourage you to use the gifts and talents that you have received from the Lord to strengthen and enrich both our world and our Church. Rejoice in your Catholic faith and generously share with the others the gifts that God has so bountifully poured upon you.

God has created each of you for a unique and precious vocation. He is, even now, calling you to step forward and take your place in the divine plan of salvation that God has established for us from the foundation of the world. With all my heart I beg you to seek your place in God's divine plan. Listen to your own heart and listen to the voice of the Lord. This is how you will find your place in God's creation: attend to the Lord who has created you and sanctified you in Jesus Christ and attend to your own desires and longings. If we struggle to balance these two parts of life, our deepest selves with the beauty of God's love us, and then we can begin to give back to the Lord a portion of all that we have received. May you never be afraid to proclaim Christ Jesus in word and action and may you always be eager to do God's will in your life.

I rejoice in your many achievements and I lift you in prayer before the throne of God. Together let us count on the prayers and companionship of Mary, the Mother of God.

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City