Allison Beyer ‘07, Reflection for Post-Graduate Service Blessing and Sending Ceremony
We are gathered here today to recognize and bless women of mission, all of the same spirit. Like you graduates, at this time four years ago I was preparing for graduation and to begin a year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, teaching in Omak, Washington, on the Colville Indian Reservation.
As Saint Mary’s women, we are forever united to the mission of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Saint Mary’s was founded on a spirit of mission and service, the Holy Spirit at work in the world, responding to the current needs of the time — specifically providing opportunities for empowerment and self-discovery for young women through higher education and spiritual formation.
Mission Statement of the Sisters of the Holy Cross
We, Sisters of the Holy Cross throughout the world, are called to participate in the prophetic mission of Jesus to witness God’s love for all creation.
Compassion moves us to reflect on the signs of the times, discern needs, and respond. We stand in solidarity with the poor and the powerless.
Our life together enriches and strengthens us to foster community wherever we are.
We are the fruits, the recipients, the embodiment of this mission. Our education and our lives have been formed by women living in mission in response to the world around them, women who actively participate in their communities and create new realities. This is our history, this is our future. This is the legacy to which we are forever connected.
The world, as we well know, has many needs. Our brothers and sisters are in need of good education and good educators; in need of healing, well-being, care; in need of clothing, food shelter, clean water; in need of friendship, jobs, safety, advocacy, empowerment. The needs go on and on. Each of you is responding to this aching of our world by answering the call to give of yourself in service.
You have discovered somewhere along your journey that the need is great and that you can respond with your life. You have discovered and will continue discovering how you are unique, who you are, what is essential to your own personhood. What are the gifts that you are able to give back to the world, to your communities, families, relationships by simply being true to yourself, to your natural and developed gifts through ministry to others, through your work and how you live.
It is a vast world, and the needs are diverse and great. But you have only one life to live, you can only live your life, you can only be yourself. As each of you leaves Saint Mary’s to work in various ministries and service programs, you will go as yourself. You will bring to your work your essential self — which is deeply good — and the knowledge, skills, experience, wisdom, and curiosity that you have acquired thus far along your journey.
We are not all nurses or doctors, though many are suffering and long to be healed. We are not all teachers, though many thirst for knowledge and ways out of poverty and oppression. We are not all artists, though the world is starving for beauty and truth. We are not all lawyers, though the need for justice is paramount. We are not all environmental scientists, though our earth is threatened and trembling. We are not all social workers or counselors, though thousands upon thousands look for support, hope and guidance to new life.
No. We can only be who we are, and entrust and sustain others to be themselves. We are each of us responsible for answering with our lives the question posed to us by the poet Mary Oliver, and I would argue, the incessant proddings of the Spirit: “Tell, me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” This means that we must all be constantly exploring, constantly redefining the boundaries of self and community, of recognizing our shortcomings and our need for others, as well as recognizing and celebrating what we have to offer and bringing it to the table to be shared. It is in recognizing our own power and limitations that we come to know how we are all both leader and servant, as Christ was. When we are able to embrace the responsibility of our individual calling with our interdependent connection to our human family, we are trusting the work of the Spirit, we are honoring the vibrancy of the living Spirit at work in the world through us.
Thank you for giving of yourselves in service for this next phase of your journey. May you always continue to respond to the movements and call of the Spirit working in and through your life, always leading us into a deeper understanding of who we are, into fuller, more authentic relationships with one another, urging us towards greater compassion, generosity, and justice.