Graduating from high school marks a significant turning point in our lives. On the one hand, we chomp at the bit to get on with our lives. We crave to be out on our own. We look forward to find our rightful place in this world as adults.
While most of us are eager to graduate, there is that about this experience which is painful. Graduating from high school marks a time of parting. As we go through school, we make a number of acquaintances and friends. When we graduate, we go our own separate ways. Some of us join the work force right away. Others go off to college. Some enlist in one of the branches of the armed services for our country. It can be haunting to realize that after we graduate, we may never again see some of the persons with whom we’ve spent a significant segment of our lives.
Graduating from high school brings us closer to two very important decisions that we each need to make. The first of these is in regard to the vocation or life style which we sense that the Lord wants us to embrace. We all start our journey through life in the single state. Depending upon how we are equipped, some of us can most effectively live and do the Lord’s work by proactively embracing this life style.
Many are equipped with the intrapersonal and interpersonal resources that are needed for marriage. The decision to marry is one of the most crucial choices that anyone can make. Each given marriage will either lead the persons in that marriage closer to the Lord or farther apart from Him. This is why the Church has the extensive marriage preparation program which is required for couples who want their marriage to be recognized by the Catholic Church.
Hopefully, graduating from high school will motivate men to consider whether they have a call from the Lord to serve in the Priesthood. Graduating women and men are also invited to reflect upon the possibility of being called to the religious or consecrated life style. Both in the manner in which they live and in the works to which given religious communities are dedicated, men and women who are called to this life style witness to the transforming power of the Gospel in a unique way.
Besides inviting one to pray and to work to discern the life style to which she/he is called, graduating from high school also challenges each graduate to seriously consider in what profession(s), occupation(s) or career(s) one can most effectively use the talents and skills with which she/he has been blessed. Many of us will be in the work force for a long time.
For those who are graduating, I hope and pray that you will want to regard the Lord’s Family, the Church, as your spiritual home. We have access to this home to wherever we may move. We can never outgrow the need for the encouragement, support and strength that the Lord offers us in and through the faith community of the Church. To support those who are graduating along this line, both St. Mary and Resurrection Parishes kindly request each graduating high school senior to register in their respective parishes separately from their parents even though they may and in many cases will continue to live with their parents.
I pray that during the time of transition which we all experience when we graduate from high school, each of our graduating seniors will continue to experience either St. Mary or Resurrection Parish as your spiritual home, a setting in which you will sense that you are both accepted and needed.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor