Good morning, and welcome to Divine Mercy University's Graduation Mass, offered in honor of the graduates and degree candidates of the twenty twenty four Commencement Exercises.
We are honored to hold this special event at Saint Teresa's and ask that an atmosphere fitting of this sacred space be maintained throughout the entire event.
Please take this moment to silence any cell phones or other electronic devices.
There will be a brief break between mass and the graduation ceremony.
Bathrooms are located in the narthex.
So that everyone is able to see their graduates entering, please remain seated during the academic procession.
Thank you.
Our opening hymn for mass is Let Us Go to the Altar of God, found in your program.
Please rise.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen.
Peace be with you.
My name is father Charles Sikorsky, and I'm the president of Divine Mercy University.
And I would like to welcome you all, both here present and on our livestream, to the twenty third commencement mass and exercises for Divine Mercy University.
And I'd like to thank our host, Father James Hudges, and his wonderful staff here at Saint Teresa's Parish in Aspen.
And you've got this beautiful setting here in this church dedicated to the little flower.
We have a lot to be grateful for today.
We will have our largest graduating class, who will be 183 graduates.
They come from 37 states in the District Of Columbia and eight different countries.
We're blessed to have with us today Bishop Gregory Gordon as our main celebrant from the arch from the diocese archdiocese of Las Vegas.
He's a Zoe Bishop there.
We also have welcome Monsignor James Shea, who will be our honorary doctorate recipient, who is president of University of Mary.
And we have father James Lauder, the national chaplain from folk John Lauder, from the national chaplain from FOCUS, who's with us today.
And also 18 concelebrants, several of whom will be graduating.
And then most of all, all those other graduates here, just a great day to celebrate each and every one of you.
And there's no better way to give thanks to God than to celebrate the mass, and and ask for the strength in a sense of commencement.
Right?
That that God's grace be with us, be with each and every one of our graduates graduates as they commence this new stage of their life in bringing hope and healing and the presence of god to so many lives in need of his presence.
To prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries, let us call to mind our sins.
Lord Jesus, you come to reconcile us to one another and to the father.
Kiriye lays on Christ Jesus, you heal the wounds of sin and evil.
Christ Jesus, you heal the wounds with your father?
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.
Let us pray.
O God, whose Son, at his ascension to the heavens, was pleased to promise the Holy Spirit to the apostles.
Grant, we pray, that just as they received manifold gifts of heavenly teaching, so on us too, you may bestow spiritual gifts through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.
Amen.
A reading from the acts of the apostles.
After staying in Antioch some time, Paul left and traveled in orderly sequence through the Galatian country and Phrygia, bringing strength to all the disciples.
A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, an eloquent speaker arrived in Ephesus.
He was an authority on the scriptures.
He had been instructed in the way of the Lord and with an ardent spirit spoke and taught accurately about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue.
But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
And when he wanted to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him.
After his arrival, he gave great assistance to those who had come to believe through grace.
He vigorously refuted the Jews in public, establishing from the scriptures that the Christ is Jesus.
The word of the lord.
Thanks be to god.
God is king of all the earth.
All you peoples, clap your hands Shout to God with cries of gladness For the Lord, the most tithing awesome, is the great king over all the earth.
God For King of all the earth is God.
Sing the hymns of praise.
God rings over the nations.
God Abraham.
Supreme.
God is king of all the earth.
God is king of all I came from the Father and have come into the world Now I am the world And going back to the The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
A reading from the holy gospel according to John.
Glory to you, oh Lord.
Jesus said to his disciples, amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the father in my name, he will give you.
Until now, you have not asked anything in my name.
Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be complete.
I have told you this in figures of speech.
The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but I will tell you clearly about the father.
On that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the father for you, for the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God.
I came from the father and have come into the world.
Now I am leaving the world and going back to the father.
The gospel of the lord.
Oh, praise to you lord Jesus Christ.
Dear father, president Sikorsky, Monsignor Shea, fathers, Divine Mercy University faculty and administration, and dear graduates together with your family and your friends.
It is a joy for me to be here with you today celebrating here at Saint Teresa Parish, the holy sacrifice of the mass, this baccalaureate mass with you and for you.
My niece, Monica Gordon, is a member of Divine Mercy University's graduating class, and with you, members of Christ's body, the church.
In these latter days of the Easter season, the church in a special way opens her heart as directed by the holy gospel and asks the Father in Christ's name for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us the Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with His grace in order to draw them to Christ.
The spirit manifests the risen Lord to them, recalls his words to them, and opens their minds to understanding his death and resurrection.
He makes present the mystery of Christ supremely in the Eucharist in order to reconcile them, to bring them into communion with God that they may bear much fruit.
The unique mission of Divine Mercy University grounded in an integrated Catholic view of the human person has helped prepare you graduates to go forth and bear much fruit, spiritual fruit, for your mission in the church and in the world.
You have been well formed to harmonize psychological sciences with the truth and the wisdom of the Catholic and Christian vision of the human person.
For that, we are most grateful.
For that, we offer prayers of thanksgiving for you this graduation day.
Such an integrated vision includes the gifts of God, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, except the form is Munare, enumerated by the prophet Isaiah.
One gift in particular recalls the divine assistance that we have received in preparation for our mission, the gift of counsel.
That blessed gift, counsel, renders us docile and receptive to the counsel of God regarding one's actions and in view of sanctification and in view of salvation.
The gift of counsel enables a person to judge individual acts as good to be done, evil to be avoided, enlightening us to know what must be done in a particular time and place and circumstance, and enlightening us to counsel others who ask for direction.
The gift of the Holy Spirit animates us to live the works of the Spirit, the spiritual works of mercy, including the spiritual work of counseling the doubtful.
This work of mercy is illustrated throughout the New Testament, particularly in the epistles of Saint Paul in which each letter is aimed at counseling the doubt, giving sound wisdom and advice to Christians on the road to salvation.
Is that not what we also hear, what we also heard today, this morning, in the Acts of the Apostles, the first reading of Holy Mass.
Saint Paul departs Antioch and travels through Galatia and Phrygia, bringing strength to all the disciples.
Strength.
Spiritual counsel.
Divine mercy.
Priscilla and Aquila to Apollos, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
Accurate explanation, spiritual counsel, divine mercy.
And Apollos, upon his arrival in Achaia, gave great assistance to those who had come to believe through grace.
Great assistance, spiritual counsel, all works of divine mercy.
From the apostle Paul to Priscilla and Aquila, to Apollos, to you.
Today, you go forth equipped to offer counsel, spiritual direction, and mental health care.
In your mission, you allow the church to show forth more clearly the merciful hand of God to all the souls she will serve.
May God bless you in this mission.
A mission not always appreciated in our culture.
A mission perhaps even opposed in some circles.
May he give each of you the spirit's gift of fortitude.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, upon whom the Holy Spirit came, intercede for each of you that the love of God be poured into your hearts, the Holy Spirit given to us.
Dear graduating class of Divine Mercy University, let us together confidently pray for divine mercy.
Holy God, holy mighty one, holy immortal one, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen.
Please rise for the prayer of the faithful.
Filled with the joy of this Easter season and the Lord's continued presence with us, we bring to our Heavenly Father our prayers for the church, the world, Divine Mercy University, and those graduating today.
For the universal church, may the power of Christ's resurrection convert us into convinced and joyful disciples of the risen Lord.
We pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
For the holy father, Michael Burbage, our Bishop, and all the clergy, may the Paschal mystery continue to transform them into an image of Christ, empowering them to form the lay faithful into Christ's ardent disciples, we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
For civil leaders and those who serve the needs of our countries and communities, may they follow just and merciful dictates of conscience, defending the lives of those entrusted to their care from the moment of conception until natural death.
We pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
For those who suffer mentally and spiritually, brought on by abuse, trauma, or mental illness, May they be supported by their family and friends and attain healing through compassionate professional care.
We pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
For the graduates of Divine Mercy University, may the Lord accompany each one as we serve those in need of healing and hope.
We pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
That all of us present here today and each graduate or family member not in attendance will ardently seek a personal relationship with Christ and his church.
We pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Let us pray for those loved ones who have died during the past year.
May the lord graciously accept the deceased into his kingdom and continue to comfort those still struggling with the loss of a family member or friend.
We pray to the lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
For the faculty, staff, students, and supporters of Divine Mercy University, may they be blessed in their mission to serve the dignity of each human person created in god's image through the science of psychology, the wisdom of theology, and the profession of counseling.
We pray to the lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Almighty father, your beloved son has risen from the dead as he promised us.
With confidence and joy, we present our prayers to you through the same risen Lord who lives and reigns forever and ever.
Amen.
I'm sorry, in our hearts, Lord, at the break of the day.
Lord of all Graciously sanctify these gifts, oh Lord, we pray, and accepting the oblation of this spiritual sacrifice, us an eternal offering to you through Christ our Lord.
The Lord be with you.
Lift up your all hearts.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is truly right and just our duty and our salvation at all times to acclaim you, oh lord, but in this time above all to laud you yet more gloriously when Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.
For he is the true lamb who has taken away the sins of the world.
By dying, he has destroyed our death and by rising, restored our life.
Therefore, overcome with Paschal joy, Every land, every people exalts in your praise.
And even the heavenly powers with the angelic hosts Sing together the unending hymn of your glory as they acclaim.
Long to To you therefore, most merciful father, we make humble prayer and petition through Jesus Christ, your son, our lord, that you accept and bless these gifts, these offerings, these holy and unblemished sacrifices, which we offer you firstly, for your holy Catholic church, be pleased to grant her peace to guard, unite, and govern her throughout the whole world, together with your servant, Francis, our pope, and Michael, our bishop, me, your unworthy servant, and all those who holding to the truth hand on the Catholic and apostolic faith.
Remember, Lord, your servants and all gathered here, whose faith and devotion are known to you.
For them, we offer you the sacrifice of praise, while they offer it for themselves and all who are dear to them.
For the redemption of their souls and hope of health and well-being, and paying their homage to you, the eternal God, living and true.
In communion with those whose memory and memory, essentially the glorious ever Virgin Mary, mother of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter and Paul, Andrew, James and John, Thomas, James, Phillips, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude, Linus, Cletus, Clement Sextus, Cornelius Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Davian, and all your saints.
We ask through their merits and prayers in all things, we may be defended by your protecting health.
Therefore, Lord, we pray, graciously accept this oblation of our service, that of your whole family.
Order our days in your peace and command that we be delivered from eternal damnation and counted among the flock of those you have chosen.
Be pleased, oh god, we pray, to bless, acknowledge, and approve this offering in every respect.
Make it spiritual and acceptable so that it may become for us the body and blood of your most beloved son, our lord Jesus Christ.
On the day before he was to suffer, he took bread in his holy and venerable hands.
And with eyes raised to heaven to you, oh God, his almighty father, giving you thanks, he said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples saying, take this all of you and eat of it for this is my body which will be given up for you.
In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took this precious chalice in his holy and venerable hands, and once more giving you thanks, he said the blessing and gave the chalice to his disciples saying, take this all of you and drink from it.
For this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this in memory of me.
The mystery of faith.
We proclaim your death, O Lord, Therefore, oh lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed passion, the resurrection from the dead, and the glorious ascension into heaven of Christ, your son, our lord, we your servants and your holy people offer to your glorious majesty from the gifts that you have given us, this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy bread of eternal life, and the chalice of everlasting salvation.
Be pleased to look upon these offerings with a serene and kindly countenance and to accept them as once you are pleased to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the Just, the sacrifice of Abraham our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.
In humble prayer, we ask you almighty god, command that these gifts be born by the hands of your holy angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty so that all of us who through this participation at the altar receive the most holy body and blood of your son may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing.
Remember also, lord, your servants who have fallen before us with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep peace.
Grant them all over.
We craft an awesome sleep in Christ, a place of refreshment, light, and peace.
To us also your servants who know sin, hope in your abundant mercies, gracious and grant some share and fellowship with your only apostles and martyrs, with John the Baptist, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, Ignatius, Alexander, Through whom you continue to make all these good things, oh lord, you sanctify them, fill them with life, bless them, and bestow them upon us.
Through Him and with Him and in Him, O God, Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours forever and ever.
At the savior's command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Deliver us Lord, we pray from every evil.
Graciously grant peace in our days that by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our savior, Jesus Christ.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever.
Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your apostles, peace I leave you, my peace I give you.
Look not on our sins but on the faith of your church and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will, who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
The peace of the Lord be with you always.
And with your spirit.
Let us offer to one another a sign of Christ peace.
Lamb of God, you take Behold the lamb of God.
Behold who takes away the sins of the world.
Blessed are those called to the supper of the lamb.
The body of grace.
Let us pray.
We have partaken of the gifts of this sacred mystery, son commanded us to do in memory of him.
They bring us growth in charity through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Before the final blessing of this mass, I just wish to convey blessings that were asked, to be shared.
Bishop Michael Burbage, your ordinary is celebrating the sacrament of confirmation, this morning.
But he asked to extend to all of you his prayers and his blessings.
Also, one of your alumni, Bishop Keith Chielinski, asked me to share his prayers and blessings with all of you as well.
And now I can part, the blessing after which we will return to the church for the commencement exercises.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, now and forever.
Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
And may almighty God bless you, the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Go forth, the mass is ended.
Thanks be to God.
The twenty twenty four commencement exercises of Divine Mercy University are now in order.
Please be seated.
Good afternoon.
My name is doctor Steven Grondman, professor in the Institute for the Psychological Sciences at Divine Mercy University.
I have the great honor to serve today as marshal of Divine Mercy University's twenty third commencement exercises.
To begin this momentous event, I have the great pleasure of introducing the third president of Divine Mercy University, father Charles Sikorsky.
Elected in 2007, father Charles has led the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, now Divine Mercy University, through significant growth and important milestones of our institutional history.
We are grateful to you, father Charles, for your faithful service and dedication to this important and necessary mission these past eighteen years.
Father Charles, I invite you to come forward for opening remarks.
Bishop Gordon, Monsignor Shea, our dear graduates, members of their families, their friends, and all present here, and all those who are present on the livestream, welcome to the twenty third commencement exercises for Divine Mercy University.
On behalf of our board of directors, the faculty, the staff, benefactors, and many friends of Divine Mercy University, I welcome you once again to this joyous event, and I congratulate our graduates for a job well done.
Today, you, our graduates, joining the celebration that honors your hard work, your gifts, your sacrifices, as well as a providential providential mission that you've chosen to be a part of.
Above all, it's a pivot point in God's loving plan and call to mission to each of your lives.
As we celebrate today, 182 graduates who hail from various countries in many different states.
And actually, yesterday, we actually had a an engagement, two students who are graduating today from counseling, met at one of the residencies.
And, the proposal was made in our small chapel.
It's a shame the new one wasn't ready yet.
But anyway, congratulations to them, and we show them of our prayers.
So there can be no doubt that your the individual collective and impact each of you will have on your communities in the nation, the world you're entering.
Saint John Paul the second once said in an address to the members of the American Psychiatric Association the following quote, by its very nature, your work often brings you to the threshold of human mystery.
It involves sensitivity to the tangled workings of the human mind and heart and openness to the ultimate concerns that give meaning to people's lives.
These are areas of utmost utmost importance to the church.
You're an answer to many prayers.
In a world in such need of hope, in a world in need of healthy relationships, in a world in need of healing and unity, in a world in need of a truly human, of truly human and godly values, each one of you is an answer to a prayer.
An answer to the prayers of many people in search of hope, who you will serve.
An answer to the prayers of their families and loved ones.
An answer to the prayers of the church and people of faith, an answer to the prayers of so many people of goodwill in our communities and civic institutions.
The hard work, sacrifice, and generosity that brought you to this point is worthy of great praise and celebration.
It is indeed edifying to see how you've responded to God's invitation to be servants in what Pope Francis has called the field hospital that the church is called to serve.
And you've given yourselves to this mission during your years of education for the good of others, both now and in the future.
May our loving father, who has begun this good work in you, bring it to fulfillment.
May his kingdom come through you on earth as it is in heaven.
May God bless you all.
So as we gather today to celebrate the academic achievements of our graduating students, it's also a momentous occasion to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of our esteemed faculty members.
Throughout the academic year, our faculty members have tirelessly dedicated themselves to the pursuit of knowledge, teaching excellence, and scholarly endeavors.
It's with great pride today that we announce the promotion of doctor Matthew McVorter, who has attained the rank of associate professor in the masters of science in counseling program.
As we applaud his accomplishments, let us all express our deepest gratitude for his continued commitment to excellence and his invaluable contributions to the mission of the university.
Please join me in congratulating doctor McVorder on his well deserved advancements in rank.
Secondly, after twenty years of dedicated service to our university, doctor Philip Scrofani has reached the well deserved occasion of retirement from teaching.
Throughout his tenure, he's embodied a spirit of academic excellence, exceptional wisdom, and heroic fidelity to God's plan.
Inspiring countless students and colleagues alike with his passion for learning and unwavering commitment to scholarship and truth.
Doctor Scrofani has left an indelible legacy on our campus, not only through his outstanding contributions to teaching and research, but also through his mentorship, leadership, and profound impact on the lives of those he has touched.
On behalf of the entire university community, I extend our heartfelt gratitude to doctor Scafani for his years of dedicated service, prudent leadership, and fidelity to God's plan and the mission of DMU.
We're immensely grateful for the countless ways in which he has enriched our community and shaped the minds and futures of our students.
As doctor Scrofoni embarks on this new chapter in his life, we wish him and his wife Susan health, happiness, and fulfillment in all their future endeavors.
Please join me in extending our warmest congratulations and best wishes along with prayers of thanksgiving to doctor Scrofani on his well deserved retirement and a mission graciously and fruitfully accomplished.
Doctor Scranton would like to share some words of his great wisdom, to us.
Thank you very much, father Charles.
Monsignor Shea, father Charles, our president, families of the graduates of 2024, my own family who's here today, and most of all, the graduates of 2024.
Today, I have the distinct honor of saying a few words at the wonderful occasion of your commencement and also the occasion of my retirement after fifty two years as a clinical psychologist.
The best of the years were the last twenty here at DMU.
Commencements are about the beginning of something, The beginning of your careers.
Retirements are about the ending of a career.
Something begins, something ends.
But if you look at it, they're actually two sides of the same coin.
Every beginning implies that something else is ending, and every ending means that there's something new yet to come.
As Christians, we see the world as a series of commencements.
And even at the end of life, there's still a gray and grand commencement yet to come to spend eternity with the Lord.
What a beautiful way to see the world.
I, today, would like a few minutes, maybe a few more than just a few minutes, to say some things, that I hope would be memorable to you.
I would like to reverse the formula and talk about some of my own beginnings and how I got to where I am as I stand here today.
And, hopefully plant some seeds for your commencement.
So if you'll please bear with me.
I was born in nineteen forties at the beginning of the World War two.
It was a dark time in history.
The world was at war.
People wouldn't be sure how that would come out.
My parents had been immigrants from Southern Italy, a very poor part of Italy.
They came with, just a few years of education.
They only had about three years of elementary school education.
And in those days, it was the custom to pull young people out of school and start them in the trades.
So even as a child, my mother was began as a seamstress.
My dad is a cobbler.
And then they came through Ellis Island.
Everyone knows stories like that.
And they worked in the heavy industries in America.
And they settled in the middle of a large city, which in those days was referred to as a little Italy.
We lived in a basement apartment next to these huge furnaces that heated the whole apartment.
And they have very give very little to give us as you might imagine.
But the one thing that they could give us of great value was our faith.
They had a fervent belief that if we carried our faith with us, then anything in our lives, the good times but also the hard times, would somehow make sense.
And they were right.
That was a great way to get launched.
Somehow, they they found the means to send us to this little Catholic school at the edge of the inner city in those days.
The whole city was divided up into fiefdoms.
There's Italians and Irish people and African American people and Jewish people and Portuguese people, everything you can think of.
And they all went to work at the end of the day together, even though they lived in separate sectors, doing what we would call today the menial jobs.
And at this Catholic school, these these offsprings of these very poor people got the very, very best education that money could buy.
We had this order of young nuns that were, of Irish descent, actually, teaching these young Italian kids and Irish kids and African American kids really the best of elementary school education you could imagine in that place in that time.
And we also had young priests coming back from World War two who had been chaplains and seen a great deal.
And so it was a phenomena.
It was something I'm not sure exists anywhere in the world today.
But to us, it was a godsend.
And the proof of that was that through the kindness and the encouragement of these young nuns, many of us wound up in universities.
Now if you were an inner city kid, the best you could do was go to a university that was local and you could day hop to.
It would take us, oh, about an hour and a half on city buses to go way out into the suburbs.
I went to a place called Seton Hall University.
And in those days, the universities, the Catholic universities were top universities.
They were hard to get into and difficult to get through.
And you had to minor in philosophy and theology besides your major.
So that the end of my fourth year, I was a Thomist.
I saw the world with the end lenses of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas.
And that was important then because we had seen the darkness of the world and their way of seeing the world brought light and it brought hope.
And the way they saw the human person brought the greatest amount of hope that every person, no matter their circumstances, was made in the image and likeness of God.
And so that's who we were and that's what our lens was.
My big problem in those days was finding the tuition to get through school.
It may not seem much to anyone today, but it was about $1,000 a year to get through university.
And my parents combined, earnings was about 3,000 a year.
So there was no way they could help us very much.
So at the end of my first year, I had saved enough money to finish call, my first year of college, but I was completely out of money.
And the best you could do in those days was get kind of a heavy labor job, manual labor.
And my other five friends who were at university with me all got hired, but they wouldn't hire me for obvious reasons why in manual labor would you hire a person without two fully developed hands when they you could hire someone with two hands.
So there I was and I was stuck.
How would I go on?
How could I possibly go on?
And I remember sitting in front of my house, kind of puzzling this out.
I wasn't bitter because that's just the way life was.
There was no such thing as entitlement in those days.
Rather, there was gratitude.
You were glad if you got anything.
And I was puzzling and kind of discouraged, and along came a man that I had barely known.
He lived at the end of our block, and his name was Saladin Porti.
And he stopped in front of me and he said, hey Phil, I hear you finished your first year at university.
And I said, yeah, I did very well.
He said, well, are you going on?
I said, I think not.
I just can't seem to find a job.
And he said, really?
And he mentioned all the establishments that had turned me down and I just kind of blew it off and said they were all filled.
He walked him out 15 more steps and then he turned around.
And people were very frank in those days.
There there was no such thing as, microaggressions.
You said what was on your mind.
And he said, let me ask you something.
Do you think you can unload steel off the back of trucks with that hand of yours?
I always said I could.
Excuse me.
And, he took me out.
I'm sorry.
Didn't expect this.
He took me out to, a place called Otis Elevator Factory, and he said, we're allowed to bring each bring a son or a daughter to do the heavy lifting because the old timers don't like to unload the trucks.
And he put me to work, and for the first time in my life, I was working harder than I could ever work unloading steel off the back of trucks.
I couldn't have been happier because, he did that every summer until I finally graduated.
So think about that.
Parents, they give you far more than they ever dreamed of for themselves.
Nuns who gave you the highest education you could imagine, asking very little in return, and a random guy who passes by one day and gives you what you need for a college education.
And suddenly, it came alive to me what Saint Thomas was talking about.
That was that goodness that was buried inside of people that wasn't some abstract philosophical idea.
It was something that was manifested in the action of people.
A goodness that came out randomly that was often overlooked.
We all see so many bad things that are publicized about people, and sometimes we just pass by these simple good things that we do for one another.
That's that philosophy.
Well, at the end of my college career, I thought it was going to law school, but Sal Gampordi had moved on, and there was no way I could afford law school.
So I saw a bulletin, and it was an advertisement for young college students to work in an inpatient unit for adolescent psychiatric patients.
And I didn't know much about psychology, but I knew I could do that standing on my head.
So I went out there and in three years I mean, three weeks, I should say, I had found my calling.
This is something I could do.
And fortunately, in those days, they needed graduate students in psychology, so you could get assistantships and traineeships and so forth.
And I managed now to get into the science of psychology.
So let me go on.
In psychology, I suddenly was taught by these more secularized professors that philosophy and theology was a thing of the past.
That was medieval thinking.
Now you are going to introduced into the world of science.
Well, psychology is a wonderful science.
It opens up a whole new epistemology for you and many, many ways to help people as you well know.
And so I kind of lost for a while my vision of a Thomistic view of the world.
And I now looked at an empirical view of the world.
That all held up until my last year, and then something happened.
My last year, I was looking for my final intern externship.
Sound familiar to most of you?
In those days, it was a buyer's market, so the externship you got became the the internship you eventually get.
And I had looked down there on this long list and I had a lot of attractive offers, but the last and considered the least attractive offer was a place right here in Washington called Saint Elizabeth's Hospital.
Some of you may have heard of it.
And it was once the most famous hospital in the country.
It was started in the eighteen fifties.
It had a year a hundred years of success and innovation and discovery.
But in the nineteen fifties, it became neglected and fell in disrepair.
But then there was the war on poverty and they poured all of this money into these underserved areas.
And they kind of resurrected this enormous campus.
It was larger than most universities that you could find.
And suddenly, once again, it had these beautiful lawns and flower beds and fruit trees and berry bushes, everything you could imagine.
But when I stepped on the campus to take the interview, I kind of had the shock of my life.
I looked around and I saw some of the most psychotic, most confused, most forlorn, and seemingly unwanted people on the face of the earth.
They were wandering around on these grounds.
And I remember being shocked at first, but I also kind of felt touched.
I had been thinking of going into the Peace Corps to give all of the good fortune that I had had in my life to give it back in some way.
But when I saw these people, something told me maybe the Peace Corps is right here.
Maybe something is needed right here.
So I stayed.
It was a blessing.
And my internship, I, like most interns, it was one of the largest internships in the country at the time.
Most interns would pursue the high functioning patients, The ones that were poor were easy to treat, and so you could apply your method, apply your craft, and see results.
And I did that.
But then what about these other people that were wandering around that didn't seem to get much care at all?
And I remember talking to some of the seasoned psychiatrists and they said, well, they're untreatable.
They have no insight.
You can't do psychotherapy with them.
And that's when I realized for the first time that this wonderful discipline of clinical psychology was also quite incomplete.
There was something missing.
And the thing that was missing was what Saint Thomas was talking about, that in every one of these human beings, there was a core of goodness and dignity that could not be eradicated.
And I felt all you had to do is find it.
Well, I'll tell you one quick illustration, and then I won't throw on to throw on for too much longer.
I would see during the day the high functioning patients so I could learn.
And then in the evening, I got permission to sit with some of these so called chronic people.
And sometimes something would happen, but sometimes you'd see something that kind of surprised you.
It was one person, let's just call him Nick.
It was a floridly psychotic young man, excuse me, who could barely make a coherent sentence.
He's very anxious.
He squirmed in his chair.
He was hallucinating.
And but I sat with him patiently.
And one day, I was walking through cross this beautiful campus and he did something to quote my eye.
He had a container and he was going around to the fruit trees and the berry bushes and picking the berries and fruits and putting it in this container.
And then he got a hose and he washed them all off.
And then he picked some flowers out of the flower bed, which you weren't supposed to do, but he did anyway.
And he put them in his container.
And of all the 27 buildings that he could have chose, he goes to the most forgotten building on the campus.
And it was a little cottage for elderly women, very poor and quite demented, that were warehoused in this cottage.
And on a nice day, they would sit them out in the front to get some air and just leave them there vegetating, not doing very much.
And he took his container with the flowers and the fruit, and he gave it to these women, and they would light up.
And then he walked away.
And I remember seeing that and saying, fancy that.
Never imagined that he would ever do that.
Several times later, I was passing by and a woman had fallen from that cottage again.
And I started started over there, of course, people didn't notice that she had fallen.
And he sort of beat me to the punch and he picks this woman up as gently as you would pick up your own grandmother, and he escorts her into this cottage.
And then he talks to the nurse, tells her what happens, and he leaves.
And I went, wow.
So that night when I saw him after seeing all of my other patients, I pushed all of my incomplete psychology, so to speak aside, and said, let me just meet him where he's at.
And I just looked at him and I said one thing, today I saw you pick up that woman and very kindly bring her into the cottage and I stopped.
And for the first time, he completely composed himself.
He looked as sane as anyone in this room.
He looked at me with a serious face and as lucid as the day is long, as clear and as rational as anyone in this room, he said, do you realize that they desperately need a great deal of help?
And it just knocked my socks off.
And in that moment, I saw a glimpse behind this blizzard of psychopathology.
I saw a glimpse glimpse of that newness, that goodness, that dignity come through.
Well, when you notice something good about someone, somehow they kind of pick up without a word being said that you saw something in them and they kind of see it themselves.
And I think in that moment, Nick saw it in himself and he smiled at me.
And all of a sudden it was like a spark, a relationship was formed.
We had made contact and now I could bring in all of my psychology, and I was ready to treat.
Well, I'm not gonna tell you that I cured schizophrenia.
That's impossible.
But what I can tell you is I helped this man have a better life.
Thirty two years later, after a full career on that campus, my good friend, William Nordling, called me.
And I knew he what he was up to.
He and a handful of psychologists had started the Institute for Psychological Sciences.
There's about a handful, it's doctor Nordling, doctor Sweeney, doctor Klowicki was there, doctor Palmer, and doctor Muncher.
And they were doing the best they can to hold this place together with rubber bands, you see.
They had no funds.
And he said, well, come on out.
It would be low pressure and you could just teach, some students and you could supervise and I thought that was a good idea.
Well, doctor Nordling is he's just about my best friend and he's a wonderful, generous person.
But he has one quality, he can sell snowballs to people in Alaska during the winter.
And so I get to this place, and suddenly I'm steeped with twice the work that I have to pay.
But you really couldn't complain because everybody was doing the same thing.
We're trying to really realize the dictum of John Paul the second, that a good psychology is a psychology that's built on the Catholic conception of the person.
And so we were trying to paste that together with people like doctor Vitz and some some, theologians like doctor Titus and doing it very imperfectly.
Thank heavens for the legionaries of Christ, Because if we didn't have the legionaries of Christ, we never would have survived these fine priests that would sponsor us and somehow get the funds to keep us going.
It was father Gil at first and then father John Hopkins, if you've ever met him.
And then finally, father Charles, who I can honestly say, and I've said this many times, he is a rock upon which this university has been built.
It wouldn't have existed if he didn't stay with us in all these years.
But anyway, to cut to the chase after fifteen years and getting a great deal from the students themselves, I don't think the so called Catholic Christian meta model of the person would have ever developed if we didn't get feedback from each cohort of students to make us better and better and better.
And even our students today have given us many contributions with dissertations.
And now we have the meta model.
It's the volume one of the Catholic Christian model of the person, edited by doctor Vitz, doctor Nordling, and doctor Titus.
That we bequeath to you.
We give that to you with strings attached, at least from my point of view.
I think it has to go further.
I think it's still developing.
I think the next phase is to begin to write about the true application of this wonderful thinking and the practice of psycho, psycho psycho psychology, counseling, even spiritual direction.
And so, I commission you to go forward and do that.
Invest of your ability each in your own way.
Let me finish with this.
In in time, as you go through your careers, most of us will have been forgotten.
I dare say, by the end of our your career, we will no longer resist in the mind of any living person.
And I believe, because I think you will be greater than us, I believe you will be greater than us.
I think you'll pass it on to more generations.
But at the end of your career, you will have disappeared from the consciousness of any living person.
They say that no person is remembered beyond two generations after their existence.
Most of us remember our grandparents.
Very few people can say very much about their great grandparents.
That's not what's important.
What's important is that the mission goes on, because we live in a culture that desperately needs this mission.
One final word.
As you go on in your profession, in a few weeks, probably less, you'll see a person who approaches you, and they'll be asking for help.
Try something kind of like I did with Nick.
Put, just for a moment, put your psychology aside, and just meet them where they're at.
And with a little bit of luck, you may just see their goodness shine through in spite of all their worry.
And when you do realize that you've just received grace, and when you contemplate it, you will see Christ.
You will see Christ.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are the best graduates in the entire country.
They are just as confident as any other mental health graduates in our country.
But they're great because they put Christ at the center of their work.
God bless 2023.
My name is Tom Cunningham, chairman of the board of directors.
Here today to introduce monsignor James Shea.
Monsignor James Shea received his bachelor's degree in licensure in philosophy from the Catholic University of America and a bachelor's degree in sacred theology from Gregorian University in Rome.
After returning to North Dakota in 2002, he served as a teacher, a chaplain, and a pastor before being named the sixth president of the University of Mary in 2009 at just 34 years of age.
Between 2020 and 2023, my senior Shay published three books.
And these three books have had a great impact in the church, the new evangelization, and our very school of Divine Mercy University.
The three books are from Christendom to Apostolic Mission, the vocation of the Catholic University professor, and The Religion of the Day.
In each of these books, Monsignor Shea takes a fresh look at how our post Christian society has radically changed the cultural context for the church, the university, as well as everyday Christians, and how we can best respond to that change.
We have made great use of Monsignor Shea's wisdom at Divine Mercy University.
We encourage their use, buy copies for faculty, for staff, and friends of DMU alike.
As a trailblazer in the renewal of the Catholic Academy and the new evangelization, we are honored to award Monsignor James Shea this doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa.
I'm, I'm terrified to give this speech.
Two days ago, just as the University of Mary's board of trustees was convening for the annual reappointment of the president of the university, I lost my voice completely.
I wasn't worried about losing my job, although maybe I should have been.
But I was worried about losing my voice because I thought, what will I do if I come here and I'm not able to speak?
What good is a commencement speaker who can't speak?
He's useless.
And then I thought about it a little bit and I realized that the graduates today have consecrated their lives to the care of those whose minds are in distress.
And so I thought if I lose my voice, I'll just stand here useless and pathetic, and it will stimulate in each of the graduates the anterior cingulate cortex and waves of empathy will flow toward me and it will actually be okay.
But then I thought some more, and I remembered that the families would also be here, and I have no idea what family of origin issues drove you into the behavioral sciences.
And so then I was terrified again.
I'm a wreck.
Do you remember Monty Python had a song, I'm worried.
In it, he sings about all the things that he's worried about, the Middle East fashions today, which he says are bad for our feet, his hair falling out, the baggage retrieval system they have at Heathrow Airport in London.
And then about three quarters of the way through, he has this verse.
He says, I'm worried about the very next verse.
It isn't the best that I've got.
I'm worried about whether I should go on or whether I shouldn't just stop.
I'm worried about whether I ought to have stopped.
I'm worried because it's the kind of thing I ought to know, and I'm worried about the baggage retrieval system they have at Heathrow.
Well, I'll tell you what I'm really worried about.
I'm worried that there's no adequate way for me fully to express my appreciation and my admiration for Divine Mercy University.
I think that the work that's happening here and the contribution that Divine Mercy is making to the church and to our nation are irreplaceable.
Father Charles, the work that you and your excellent and esteemed faculty are doing is wonderful, and it gives great joy, I'm sure, to God and to all the angels.
At the University of Mary, we shamelessly and energetically use the Christian Catholic meta model of the person to infuse solid Christian anthropology into all of our programs in psychology and social work and criminal justice and counseling.
I'm just so very grateful for that.
And so the holy spirit is at work here, and I just am worried that there's no real way that I could fully express how much admiration and appreciation I have for what all of you are doing here.
And then to receive this honorary doctorate, when I heard about it, I said, I don't deserve it.
I don't deserve it.
Then I thought a little bit more, and I thought, no, I think I do deserve it.
In fact, I deserve more than an honorary doctorate.
I think I deserve an earned doctorate in the behavioral sciences and abnormal psychology because I've spent fifteen years in higher education.
If it sounds like I have a little bit of self pity about all of my exertions in higher education, it's because I have a lot of self pity.
Two weeks ago, the Bishop of Helena, Montana delivered the commencement address at the University of Mary.
We had 1,100 graduates.
His name is Bishop Austin Vedder.
He and I grew up on farms about 15 miles away from each other in the same county, although he's much older than I am.
I've known him since I was a young boy.
He told a story in the midst of his commencement address, which touches upon what I want to speak with you about today, and so I'm going to steal it.
My patron saint today is not Saint Dymphna.
It's Saint Dismas, the good thief.
He told about when he was seven years old, his father on the farm gave him a pale calf.
A pale calf is when a calf is born, it's allowed to nurse from its mother for a while, and then it's taken away.
And the family drinks the milk, and the calf is fed formula out of a pail.
That's a pale calf.
So if you're seven years old and your father gives you a pale calf, you get to raise it until it's an 800 pound steer, and then you sell it and you get to keep the money, which is a pretty good deal for a first grader.
So bishop Vetter's father gave him a pale calf, and he fed it and cared for it and it got sick.
And so he gave it more formula, which was a mistake.
And then he didn't let it outside of the barn, which also was a mistake, and the calf died.
So the little boy sat down in the straw and started to cry.
And his dad came out into the barn.
He said, why are you crying?
He said, dad, I tried so hard.
I did everything I could, and the calf died.
Dad, I did my best.
And his dad said, no, you didn't.
Doing your best would have been to tell me.
Doing your best would have been to ask me for help.
And so his dad gave him another pale calf, and the second calf got sick too.
But then he told his dad, and his dad came out and they got this little calf medicine, and they let it out of the barn into the fresh air and the sunshine, and it still died.
And even though he was sad, it wasn't devastating this time because he had told his dad and he wasn't all alone.
This is a powerful lesson about God, but it's also an important lesson about the work the apostolate in the ministry that the graduates of Divine Mercy University are embarking upon.
The world is brimming with people out there who are trying so hard, and they don't feel like they're getting anywhere.
And bad things happen to them, and they're all alone.
And in the midst of a world like that, God has put his hand on your shoulder, and he's touched your mind with wisdom and with training so that you can go out and shatter that loneliness.
And the past is the age of regret.
There's also a sense in which we can't do anything about it, but the present is here now, which also, by the way, is where God is so that we don't have to be alone in the midst of our lives.
Mother Teresa said, yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come.
Let us live in the presence.
It's all we've got.
When we look at the life of Jesus, what is revealed to us is quite astonishing.
Notice how the Lord, though he is constantly in movement, though his energies and exertions do not flag, he's not setting out to achieve anything.
He puts the full force, all of the power of his soul into anything or anyone that he is present to at any given time as if he has nothing else to do and no one else to see or to meet.
He doesn't focus upon the achievement of any great goal.
Instead, his preoccupation is to do the will of the father.
And so he makes himself present to the circumstances no matter what they are and in doing so, he revolutionizes the circumstances.
It's quite extraordinary and this then is the criterion by which his life is judged because by any other measure, if we're honest, the life of Jesus is an epic failure.
The majority of people who heard him left him.
His closest friends abandoned him in his hour of greatest need.
When he instructed his disciples to go out to preach, he said if there's a town that doesn't receive you, move on.
How can we explain or begin to understand this evident indifference about how the gospel would be received when he had come into the world to save the world.
It's because he had come to do the will of the father and be in communion with his father at all moments was what he had come to do and what he did at all times to include when he was hanging on the cross because the cross is then the image of all our hope.
What would it mean then for us to to seek perfection not by our own efforts, but by gazing at the life of Christ and truly imitating Jesus in that regard.
What would it mean to live like that?
What it would what it what what would it mean to be like that when living in a family, at work, in a friendship, at prayer?
It changes everything.
It makes our whole life into a kind of presence, And this is the perfection which God offers to us, and it's the kind of presence which is especially necessary for those who are accompanying others in the midst of the turpitude and turbulence, the chaos and vicissitudes of human life in a fallen world.
Saint John Henry Newman says that we have as our vocation to be used by God for his purposes, not to accomplish or to shape or to form.
This, my friends, is a great relief for us.
I remember early on fourteen years ago, fifteen years ago, when I was first the president of the University of Mary.
I was 34.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I was more incompetent then than I am now.
More.
And I felt like I would never be able to achieve what I had been given to do, that the weight placed on my shoulders was too great, and that even if I worked all day and all night and never rested, even if I allowed myself to be grounded to dust, nothing would come of it.
And then the Lord in his mercy, in his divine mercy spoke to me in prayer, just a simple word.
He said, you don't have a lot of things to do.
You have one thing to do.
Stay in communion with me today.
You have one thing to do.
Just stay in communion and tell me what you need.
Tell me about it.
Calves die.
The first calf died and the result was devastation and tears upon the straw.
The second calf died and the result was communion with the father.
It looked like the same thing had happened and yet they were completely different.
That transformation is the mission of every graduate of Divine Mercy University.
Congratulations.
Good afternoon.
We will begin with the presentation of certificates to the graduates of the spiritual direction certificate program.
Will the following please come forward and take your place?
Maria Brackett, program director, and father Charles Sikorsky, university president.
Will the graduates please come forward?
The students, over a period of two years, gained theological knowledge of the Catholic spiritual tradition, learning from the integrative understanding of the human person, and training in interpersonal skills needed to minister with professionalism as a spiritual director.
Each student also completes sixty hours of practicum accompanied by supervision.
The faculty certifies that each candidate has completed all requirements necessary.
The university is pleased to award certificates to our graduates of the spiritual direction certificate program.
As I call your name, please come forward.
Mary Susan Burnett, Harrison, Virginia.
Monica Galindo Rivera, Novi, Michigan.
Delsey Munoz Percy, Doral, Florida.
Gina Pavela, Bronx, New York.
Conrad Sigona.
Newport, New York.
We also include those in abstention.
Donna Anderson, Bridget Barker, Gretchen Bell, Craig Biscoff, Father Jason Brooks, Therese Birch, Caitlin Byrne, John Paul Gilbert Concepcion, Claire Coridoni, Henry Kumari, Kimberly Currington, Valerie Duran, Father Javier Flores, Alain Gagne, Sarah Gagne, Luz Gutierrez Olvera, Matthew Ingold, deacon George Keenan, deacon Peter Kennedy, Catherine Lambert, Catherine Landa, Jennifer Linder, Karen Maricle, Kathy Mattingly, father Andrew Mckinkar Burenu, Jeanette Montano, Marie Jose Pago, Mary Noland, Maria Fernanda Penafiel Ochoa, Iris Pollock, Gabriela Roloba Portilla, Jean Schmitz, Judy Shallcross, Ignacio Taboada, Margaret Tress, Elizabeth Vandevoord, Craig Wiesmeyer, Govinda Willard, Perley Wilson Natal, Marilis Yokeel, Deacon Michael Zaccariello.
Congratulations to our spiritual direction certificate.
We have reached the point in the ceremony at which degrees are to be conferred.
The university's degree granting authority is contained in the charter granted to Divine Mercy University by the Commonwealth of Virginia.
And I quote, as of January 18 in the year 2000, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia grants approval to Divine Mercy University to confer academic and professional degrees.
We will now recognize the degree candidates for the Master of Science in Counseling program.
Will the following please come forward and take your place for the conferral of degrees?
Doctor.
Harvey Payne, vice president of academic affairs, and Father Charles Sikorsky, university president.
Will the graduates please stand and come forward?
The students gain professional competency while developing an integrative understanding of the human person and application to the counseling profession.
Students acquire the necessary counseling knowledge, skills, and dispositions to engage in communities as effective community leaders informed by Catholic Christian social teaching.
The faculty certify that each candidate has completed all requirements.
The university is pleased to confer degrees to our graduates of the Master of Science in Counseling program.
As I call your name, please come forward.
Michelle Abi Rasheed, Los Angeles, California.
Emily Braun, Fort Worth, Texas.
Benjamin Burwell.
Melbourne, Florida.
Mariah Bazar.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Karina Kelvey, Cumming, Georgia.
Patricia Caprara.
Dahlonga, Georgia.
Michelle Cochran, Phoenix, Arizona.
Ricardo Coronado Hernandez, Seattle, Washington.
Lauren Dorsett, Keller, Texas.
Michael Drehos.
Westward, Massachusetts.
Brother Pius Gagne, Ashbury, New Jersey.
Dion Galliano, Galliano, Louisiana, Laura Garcia, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Jose Baba, Front Royal, Virginia.
Santa Giuliano.
Scottsdale, Arizona.
Monica Gordon, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Marie Heidemann, Fort Worth, Texas.
Krista Henley.
Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Lindsey Hilton, Flower Mound, Texas.
Ricky Jacob, Chicago, Illinois.
Diana Jourda, Tacoma, Washington.
Daniel Kitzhaber, Marshfield, Wisconsin.
Andrea Lemcanco Clark, Calgary, Canada.
Peter Longoria, Memphis, Tennessee.
Courtney McHale, Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
Elizabeth Miller, Atlanta, Georgia.
Sarah Montrose, El Paso, Texas.
Adrian Nile, Clinton, Massachusetts.
Jacqueline Nicks.
Thomasville, Georgia.
Alpha Maria Novak, Boca Raton, Florida.
Mikaela Ott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Regina Pasalacqua, Edgewater, Maryland.
Kaitlyn Pham, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Father Mauricio Pineda, Falls Church, Virginia.
Jennifer Quiros, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Elizabeth Rocca.
Denver Denver, Colorado.
Alexandra Reiki.
Lincoln, Nebraska.
Amy Saunders, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Claire Schumacher.
Coahuascom, Wisconsin.
Samuel Smartnick, Barberton, Ohio.
Peter Steele, Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
Etheldrada Sashua, Centerville, Virginia.
James Van Maeder.
Friendswood, Texas.
Miryanka Zabiga, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
We also include those in abstention.
Michael Barras, Carly Bostick, Nicholas Chavando, Pilar Chavando, Jason Dausas, Brian Francisco, Dominic Gentile, Louisa Hall, Rachel Cram, Alexandra Lippus, Timothy Lynch, Maximilian Marco, Pablo Antonio Melendez, Erica Marante, Clarissa Nardini, father Nicholas Pierce, Julia Pudisch, Carly Keyross, Ryan Rasmussen, Jerome Resurrecion, Andrea Ryan, Elizabeth Schweighofer, Natalie Weiss, Kelli Wilbur.
Will the graduates please stand?
Graduates, you may now move your tassel from the right to the left.
Let's congratulate our Master of Science in Counseling.
We will now recognize the degree candidates for the Master of Psychology program.
Will the following please come forward and take your place for the conferral of degrees?
Doctor.
Julia Clousely, program director of the Master of Science in Psychology program, and Father Charles Sikorsky, University president.
Will the graduates please come forward?
The students enrolled in the Master of Science in Psychology degree gained psychological knowledge and practical skills to promote flourishing in a vast variety of settings from business and leadership to human services and ministry.
This online master's program seeks to integrate a Catholic Christian vision of the person with best practices in psychological theory, research and intervention and training students for broader interventions in the development of work and ministry cultures that foster well-being.
The university is pleased to confer degrees to our graduates of the Master of Science in Psychology program.
As I call your name, please come forward.
Alexandra Ambroschak, Maspeth, New York.
Christine Bailey, Lantham, Maryland.
Hakeem Banks, Long Island, New York.
Ximena DeBrock, Biglerville, Pennsylvania.
Suzanne Ellington, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Father Henaro Garza the third, San Juan, Texas.
Anna Gowasak, Marietta, Georgia.
Dustin Greenwald, Ottawa, Canada.
Sarah Hebel.
Kansas City, Missouri.
Father Etienne Heward, Conception, Missouri.
Kelly Illichman.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Nisha Johnston.
Saskatoon, Canada.
Mary Keller, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Laura Matthews, Carmel, Indiana.
Myra Morales, Houston, Texas.
Christian Moran.
Arlington, Virginia.
Father Thomas O'Donnell.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Mary Peach.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Maria de Jesus Salinas, Laredo, Texas.
Daniella Talamante, Alexandria, Virginia.
Alessandra Taliente, Dallas, Texas.
Father Sijo Van Diako, Irinakula, India, Christian Zacharias, Calgary, Canada.
We also include those in absentia.
Tammy Alonzo, Eneta Barbosa, Benjamin Bogner, Eric Boileau, Galilee Berger, Philip Couture, Scott Entrekin, Jorge Gomez, Father Cesarius Dostrepski, Mikaela James, Carafion Johnston, Ezra Niencio, George Maris, Michael Nemeschak, Odelia O, Anna Stodola, Catherine Watts, Mary Westmark, Ossie White, Father Michael Zimmer.
Will the graduates please stand?
Graduates, you may now move your tassel from the right to the left.
Let's congratulate our graduates.
We will now recognize the degree candidate for the doctor of philosophy in psychological sciences.
Will the following please come forward and take your place?
Doctor.
Julia Clousely, program director of the Master of Science in Psychology program, and Father Charles Sikorsky, University president.
Students enrolled in the PhD in psychological science program attain rigorous training in the psychological sciences and social science research to prepare for academic research consulting and leadership careers.
The program is uniquely designed to facilitate a deeper and holistic understanding of the flourishing person by integrating the wisdom of philosophy and theology with cutting edge research in psychology, enabling students to make a difference in a variety of settings.
Students acquire the necessary skills to engage in original research in their areas of interest, interact with students and researchers from diverse areas of expertise, and present their research in a variety of settings to advance the field of psychology.
Through a combination of on campus and online courses, our first student will be conferred a degree of doctor of philosophy in psychological sciences.
We plan to have a fully online doctorate in psychological sciences in the near future.
The university is pleased to confer to a degree to our graduate a doctor of philosophy in psychological sciences program.
As I call your name, please come forward.
Dion Galliano.
Dionne's dissertation is titled Put Me in Coach, Exploring Associations Between Attachment to Coach and Athletic Coping for High School Athletes, chaired by Doctor.
Julia Clousely.
Let's congratulate our graduate.
We will now recognize the degree candidates for the master of psychology program.
Will the following please come forward and take your place for the conferral of degrees.
Doctor.
Lisa Klowicki, Dean for the Institute for the Psychological Sciences and Director of the Doctor of Psychology and Clinical Psychology program, Doctor.
Diane Graves, Assistant Director of the PsyD program, and Father Charles Sikorsky.
Will the graduates please come forward?
Through its master of psychology degree, the institute provides its students with education in the theoretical empirical basis of psychology, as well as training in clinical skills and their application in a manner consistent with a Catholic understanding of the person.
Such education and training prepares students for further graduate training in psychology and allied fields or for a career choice appropriate for master's level graduates.
The students graduating today will continue on in the doctor of psychology in clinical psychology program.
The university is pleased to confer degrees to our graduates with a master of psychology degree.
As I call your name, please come forward.
Emma Armstrong, Alexandria, Louisiana.
Father Thomas Ellie Ozzie, Sydney, Australia.
Mackenzie Keffler, Concord, North Carolina.
Christopher Craft, Bismarck, North Dakota.
Ana Lucia Malo Osorio, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
Joseph Nelson.
New Iberia, Louisiana.
Fiona Pesino.
Fairfax, Virginia.
Megan Perales, Houston, Texas.
Liliana Ramirez, Norfolk, Virginia.
We also include those in absentia.
Hernan Alvarez Cordano, Rita Barakat, Nathan Martin.
Will the master of psychology graduates please stand?
Graduates, you may now move your tassel from the right to the left.
Let's congratulate our graduates.
We will now recognize the degree candidates for the Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology.
Will the following please come forward and take your place for the conferral of degrees?
Doctor.
Lisa Klowicki, Dean for the Institute for the Psychological Sciences and Director of the Doctor of Psychology and Clinical Psychology degree program.
Doctor.
Diane Graves, Assistant Director of the PsyD program.
Dissertation chairs, and Father Charles Sikorsky University president.
Will the graduates please come forward?
Through the doctor of psychology in clinical psychology program, students gain advanced education in the theoretical and empirical basis of psychology as well as advanced level clinical training and experiences.
Such a comprehensive formative experience is aimed at producing practitioner scholars, psychologists who can provide effective services in an ethical manner that is sensitive to human diversity and consistent with a Catholic understanding of the person.
The program also seeks to provide its students with knowledge and skill sets which allow for future development and participation in a wide variety of professional roles, leadership opportunities, and career choices available to psychologists trained at the doctoral level.
The faculty have certified that each candidate has achieved excellence appropriate to the highest degree the university bestows, and they've completed all degree requirements culminating in a one year pre doctoral internship and defending a doctoral dissertation.
The university is pleased to confer degrees to our graduates of the Doctor of Psychology and Clinical Psychology degree program.
Each candidate's dissertation chair will preside at the conferral of their degree and the title of their dissertation will be read.
As I call your name, please come forward.
Mary Anjali Abraham.
Toward understanding and measuring effective maturity in Catholic seminarians, chaired by doctor Lisa Kwowicki.
Gabrielle Ademaitis, a Catholic Christian understanding of autism spectrum disorder and grief within the funeral setting.
Chaired by Doctor.
Rebecca Morse.
Christian Amalu.
An analysis of internal family systems, therapeutic factors from the Perspective of the Catholic Christian Meta Model of the Person.
Chaired by Doctor.
William Nordling.
Matthew Flanagan.
Exploring the impact of parental bonding on a father's mentalization with his children through the moderating effects of attachment to God.
Chaired by doctor Jeanne Piat.
Joseph Larunas, Forgiveness Therapy for Veterans with PTSD, chaired by doctor Jeanne Piat.
Maria j Madden.
Mourning context, grieving primary and secondary loss in forcibly displaced populations.
Chaired by doctor Rebecca Morse.
Britney Munoz.
Just an Object?
Exploring the Impact of God View on Body Self Objectification in Women, chaired by doctor Anna Pecoraro.
Andrew j Churl Park, the flourishing of second generation Korean American Catholics through the integration of their triple minority identities, chaired by doctor Phillips Grafani.
Randall Vetti.
The Integration of Wisdom, The Mutual Benefit Between Philosophical and Psychological Approaches to Wisdom and Clinical Application, chaired by doctor Philip Scrofani.
Timothy White.
Communication and Conflict Management and Relationship Enhancement Therapy, a Critique Using Contemporary Psychological Science and the Catholic Christian Meta Model of the Person, chaired by doctor William Nordling.
Melanie Williams.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
Christian music as an effective coping mechanism for Catholic undergraduate students.
Chaired by Doctor.
Lisa Kwowicki.
We also include an absentia, Victor Lohman.
Dissertation title, The Impact of Pornography Use on Generalized Habit Formation, chaired by Doctor.
Paul Vitz.
Maura Miglin, dissertation title, Oz impact on attitudes of connectedness and respect, chaired by Doctor.
Rebecca Morse.
Will the graduates please stand?
Graduates, you may now move your tassel from the right to the left.
Let's congratulate our graduates.
Father president, DMU faculty, family, friends, and honored guests, it is my great joy and honor to present the class of 2024.
Since our foundation in 1999, Divine Mercy University has converged 664 master's graduates and 102 doctoral graduates.
In the pursuit of their vocation to heal, our growing number of alumni are making an impact in the field of psychology, in the culture, in the church, and in the world.
This ever expanding reach of the mission is truly inspiring.
To mark and recognize this history, the university presents the Distinguished Alumni Award to a graduate who has made significant contributions to society and whose accomplishments, affiliations, and careers have honored the legacy of excellence of their alma mater.
Recipients of this award are accomplished in the following areas: professional achievement, leadership, service to the community, and faithful advancement of the mission and vision of the university.
It is with great pride and joy that we present the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award to doctor James Hernandez, class of 2016.
Doctor Hernandez, while he and his wife raised their growing family, studied and graduated from the Institute for Psychological Sciences with a doctorate in clinical psychology, Psy d, in 2016.
He completed his postdoc at Catholic Social Services in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Subsequently, he moved to Covington, Louisiana and started a private practice.
The community needs and the needs of new therapists seeking an integrated approach to therapy led him to open a group practice, Sacred Space Psychotherapy.
He currently has three other therapists working with him and plans on taking a new intern in May.
Doctor Hernandez is married with five children and another one on the way.
When he is not at work, he enjoys being with his family and coaching his children's sports teams.
He may also be seen on a pickleball court or soccer field from time to time.
Doctor Hernandez is a true representative of distinguished alumni with significant contributions to the field of psychology and constant dedication to the mission and vision of the university.
We are honored to present doctor James Hernandez with this award.
Father Charles, please come forward with the award.
Doctor Hernandez, please come forward.
Monsignor Shea, I I share your terror, but it's it's not because I lost my voice.
It's because I have to follow doctor Scruffani and you, and I'm at the end of this ceremony.
And I know that everybody's ready to go, so I'll try to be brief.
My main talk is or my main points are about following the lord's will and trusting him and my experiences of that.
When I was in high school and going through my conversion, I really liked this girl.
And during that time in my life, I was on a really bad track.
It's amazing how many times or how many mistakes you can make before you're 18.
But I remember praying to the lord.
Lord, please make this work out.
This woman could really help me, but I remember something inside of me coming up.
And it and it was praying, but your will be done.
And that came from somewhere, and I don't know if it was from catechism or just hearing it in school, but it came from deep inside of me.
And I knew that that was the best prayer, And I am so glad that I did not marry that woman.
And that is not because she is a bad woman.
She's actually a great woman, and I know her.
But it's because I'm married to her, Emily Hernandez, and she is the best woman for me.
She is the one that will help me to get to heaven.
And let me tell you a little bit about that.
Whenever I first met her and the excitement that I experienced, I really wanted it to work out way more than before.
I really liked her, and she was everything that I was thinking that I needed.
And I remember praying, Lord, please make this work out, but your will be done.
And that was my prayer along the relationship as we went along.
And the Lord was guiding me that whole time, and he was the one that was praying that prayer because I did not want to pray that prayer.
I wanted to pray.
Just make it work out.
But as it went along, I became more and more sure that she was the one.
I did not have a 100% certainty.
It was more like 70%, maybe 65.
But that felt like a good bet, so I took it.
And that was the best bet that I have made in my entire life.
And the reason I made that bet was because I knew that she loved the lord, and that was the most important thing.
And I knew that then, but I know that in a different way now.
I know that in a much deeper way now because we have been through a lot of fights, and we have been through a lot of arguments and not seeing eye to eye.
And she has to deal with my imperfections, which are many.
And I have to deal with her imperfections, which are very few, which is not fair, but that's the way it goes.
But I know it in a deeper way because I've seen her striving for the Lord.
And each time that we fight, we go to him and come back, and it deepens our love.
And because of all of those difficulties, our love has deepened.
And this is the way that love goes.
This is the way that the lord's gifts are, is that they're always deeper.
There there's always more.
It's not like a Christmas gift when you pray, and it's like, lord or you you ask your parents, you know, like, come on.
I really I really want this.
I'm just realizing that, but I'm gonna let you it's not like a Christmas gift where you where you want something and then you you get it, and then two weeks later, it's gone.
The lord's gifts are always more than that.
They're always deepening because that's the way he is.
He's full of surprises.
This this whole process also played out with whenever I was seeking to figure out what did I what did I want to do with my life.
I was in college.
I changed my major five times.
By the end of it, I knew that I wanted to help people, and I knew that I wanted to integrate it with my faith.
And I found out about IPS, and I was excited.
I was like, this is the way.
This is what the lord wants of me.
And so I prayed, lord, please let this work out.
And I also prayed that your will be done, and I applied.
And I didn't get in.
And so I just wanna give you a tip.
Whenever you go to an interview and they ask you your strengths and weaknesses, it is not time to confess your sins.
Nevertheless, that was the best thing for me.
It taught me how to face failure.
It taught me how to face embarrassment.
It taught me perseverance.
I had to go back and take more psychology classes because that was not my major.
I learned a lot from online classes.
Back then, they had stuff online as well.
But it was the best thing for me.
And, also, what it did was it allowed me to marry my my wife.
We got we got married during that year, so I didn't have to be away for that whole first year of graduate school.
The Lord knows what he's doing.
His timing is always right.
This whole pattern has played out over and over in my life.
Like they said, I have five kids and a six on the way.
Five of those six kids were surprises.
And most of the time, I was excited about the surprises.
Sometimes it's like when somebody surprises you and you're like, oh, thank you.
But, again, the Lord's gifts are always deeper.
They're always more long lasting because he can see more than we can see.
We cannot see past our nose, or at least I can't.
And that is why it's always better to lean on him.
And that is what I have learned throughout this time.
They also asked me to talk about what I'm doing.
They already said what I'm doing, but I'll I'll I'll say it again.
Starting my private practice, whenever I jumped and and and went in, it was after my postdoc.
I jumped, went back to Louisiana.
I knew someone over there.
She helped me to to get started, and that was a great gift.
But the first two months of my my practice, I didn't it took me a month and a half to get my license just because of the board stuff, which that's something that y'all should all think about is that that sometimes takes time.
So I didn't have my license.
I found out that we were having our fourth kid, and I didn't have clients.
For for the first two months, I had two clients.
And so I was scared out of my mind.
But the lord provided the entire time because that's what he always does.
So with that said, I I'd always wanted a a group practice.
But the first five years of my practice, I was so focused on just trying to start up the practice, trying to be a father, coaching, and just engage with the work that it just didn't it it didn't come to my mind.
But this time, the lord did it a little different because he does things different.
And and he sent someone my way.
It was a call from Steubenville, and they asked to come on, and I said, sure.
Well, that must be god's will.
And then a week later, I got someone from LSU, and I said, well, it definitely must be God's will.
And then as we went along, it was a great year.
I learned a lot through all of that.
And then last summer, I got two more people from over here from DMU, and I was like, okay.
Well, this definitely is the Lord's will.
And so we started a group.
It was called Sacred Space Psychotherapy, which I feel is very fitting for our work because of the space that we provide people to come in and to look at their lives and to help them to find meaning in their life.
And it has been a major blessing in my life.
Okay.
So I'm almost at the end here.
Two two points.
One, life is an adventure.
I know that it seems that in my story that it was just you you could be thinking in your mind, well, that was just the way that it was supposed to work out.
And in some ways, you're right.
It was the way that it was supposed to work out, but it did not feel like that.
At every fork in the road, I did not know what the right answer was.
I did not know how it would work out.
I did not know if I would make it.
Oftentimes, it felt like I'm I'm not going to make it, and I'm sure that many of you graduates can relate with that.
Many times of going through dissertation or going through finals, it feels like the end is near, and you don't know.
Is it going to work out?
But yet it did.
And, also, I do wanna give a message of hope that there is a life after finals.
There is a life after dissertation, and it is great.
My last point.
Be careful where you aim.
Whenever you're striving for something, you're going to move in that direction.
And if you're successful at it, you will get what you want.
But you may not always want what you get.
One of my favorite quotes is by Thomas Merton.
Most men climb the ladder of success only to realize at the end of their life that their ladder is on the wrong wall.
Do not put your ladder on the wrong wall.
Put your hope in Christ.
Trust in his will, and he will give you a life that is full of abundance and gifts, and that is the pearl of great price.
Thank you.
So we're almost finished.
We have one more one more award, but there's no talk after it.
And then Bishop Gordon has graciously agreed to give us his final blessing.
So, right now, we will have the president's service award.
We have so many dedicated family faculty and staff members that work, above and beyond the call of duty to carry out our mission, And it's wonderful to be able to recognize this during graduation.
So the president's service award, recipient is is selected annually by the president to recognize a member of our community who he believes consistently works to further the mission through selfless service to the institution.
This year's present excuse me.
This year's president's service award is awarded to Matthew Johansson, who is the director of our digital learning and innovation.
He's worked for DMU for the past six years managing the Canvas learning environment for our online students and and even the on-site students use that as well.
Matt is very intentional with his coworkers and students.
He consistently puts people before the work.
He understands that his job is not just to get work done or accomplish the next task, but to do whatever it takes to provide the best experience possible for our faculty, staff, and students.
Matt is always looking at the bigger picture while never failing to be a servant to those around him.
His ability to manage the many projects on his plate while also investing in the members of his team inspires us all to reach that same level of excellence and virtue.
So, Matt, please come forward.
So, as our commencement exercises come to a close, I would welcome Bishop Gordon to give the final blessing.
I'm happy to give this final blessing right as we approach the hour of divine mercy.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, father of all mercies, you are present in our midst today with your love and your power.
You look with joy on each person created out of love and called to love.
So we thank you for the gift of each one of our graduating students on this memorable day As they step forward to continue following the pathway of life wherever it may lead, we ask you to pour out your blessing upon them.
May they undertake the mission of healing with their gaze ever fixed on the merciful face of your wounded and risen son.
May they in turn glimpse the face of Jesus in the countenance of each person you bring them to encounter.
Draw all of our graduates to seek you, recognize you, and radiate your love to each of their brothers and sisters as they lead them to a place of healing and wholeness.
May they be instruments of your divine mercy, binding the wounds of a frail and fallen humanity.
We ask all of these blessings through the intercession of the blessed virgin Mary and the merits of your son, Jesus Christ, who is lord forever and ever.
Amen.
The lord be with you.
May almighty god bless you, the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Amen.
I will ask the faculty and graduates to please remain standing and ask everyone else to please be seated.
This now concludes the 2024 commencement exercises.
Please remain in your seats until graduates have exited the church.
Thank you, and congratulations to the class of 2024.