Amelia Caravan 25’, Senior Address
Thank you Father Michael for that beautiful prayer.
I’d like to welcome you all to the Class of 2025’s commencement ceremony.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Amelia or if you knew me way back in the day, it was Elsa from frozen.
I know people say college is where you meet your lifelong friends but I’ve already met them, all because of Mount Royal. I know I’ll make more friends but none of those relationships will have a bond as strong as the one we have created over the years. We’ve experienced the highs and lows together. You all made such a huge impact on my life and I can’t imagine how my life would’ve been if I hadn’t gone to this school.
We’ve made mistakes we’ll never forget, and we have laughed in ways that will never be forgotten.
We’re not just students or a group of friends, we are a family who lifts each other up and has seen us through our best and worst days and even our awkward phases.
I realized later on that it wasn’t about being the best, it was about being someone we can be proud of, the person that God calls us to be.
And since this chapter is ending, let it end with gratitude. To our teachers, who put up with all of our outbursts and distracting conversations. To our parents, for driving us to school when we couldn’t, for letting us leave early if we wanted to, and for not beating us up when we skipped classes. Everyone who stuck by us through it all, and every moment that broke us and built us better. Thank you for all the great memories including that one time Marianne got lost in the woods. I can’t wait to see what we all do next!
Marianne Dowsett 25’, Senior Address
Good morning. This next step in our lives is an exciting one. It feels like the beginning of a new adventure filled with potential. Everyone is so proud of us, and they're all looking forward to the great things we will accomplish. Thank you for believing in us, for supporting us, and for getting us this far. At first I thought I was going to spend this time talking about all the wonderful things I’ve learned. I was going to tell you, don't worry, we're prepared. Instead, I found myself wanting to talk about gratitude and hope.
I am grateful for many things, and it's hard to list them all. I’m thankful for my friends, my teachers, my priest, my family, and most importantly, classic rock. I am also grateful for my friend's families, for my teacher's families. I’m grateful they raised such amazing people. I’m grateful for all our generous benefactors, without whom I wouldn’t be standing here now. And I’m grateful for all the warm faces I’m looking at right now. Through all of you, I have experienced God's love for me. You have been Christ to me in big and small ways. Most of you know that when I was in seventh grade, my family experienced a house fire in which the loss was total. The fire happened on a Friday after school, and by Monday morning, we (my 5 siblings and I) were back at school with a roof over our heads, a GoFundMe account set up, new uniforms, lunch boxes, backpacks, shoes, and much more. We were back at school and looking a lot better than we did the Friday before. Thank you. Most of you may not know that our dear Mr. Tremblay would pick my siblings and I up before school and drive us to school every day for like three years. Thank you.
Another thing Mr. Tremblay does is he concludes all his emails with a very special quote from John Bosco. “Young people should not only be loved but should also know they are loved”. I know it. So it begs the question…now what? Am I afraid to walk away from the love I have known here at Mount Royal Academy? Am I worried I will never be loved and supported like him again? No. Not for one second. Because I have hope. I know the love I have been given here is not because I am an extraordinary, hyper-intelligent human specimen (although that's maybe why we love Luke). I’ve been given this love because you loved Christ first and in doing so, couldn't help but love, couldn't help but love all of us. So, in conclusion, because of Mount Royal Academy, I know I am created for a purpose, a job that only I can accomplish. Thank you for being such wonderful examples of our faith and for supporting me.
Luke Moorehouse 25’, Senior Address
Good morning everyone, and thank you for taking the time to celebrate the graduation of myself and my classmates. This is not just a time to celebrate the end of high school, however; it is a time to reflect back on it. It is a time to look forward to our bright futures while remembering our roots. The root is the deepest part of the tree, and you all have formed us at the deepest levels. So thank you for nurturing us, for truly caring, and for sticking with us even on our worst days.
Firstly, I would like to thank God. Thank God we made it. He is the reason for everything we do at this school, and He is the reason that we are here in the first place. He is the uncaused cause, the unmoved mover, and too often the unthanked and unloved Lover.
Secondly, thank you to our parents, and our entire families. Saint Teresa of Avila, quoted on the walls of the High School, said “Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours.” You were the hands of Christ to us when you held us for the first time, the feet of Christ when you walked with us in our darkest times, the body of Christ when you woke up on Monday morning to provide for us. You have revealed the love of the Father to us.
Thank you also to our siblings, the most annoying category of those that deserve thanks. There are times for all of us where we just wished you would clean up after yourself and maybe stop fighting us for a bit, but realistically, we probably deserve it. At least, that’s what my brother tells me. Really, though, you are often the most formative friends we have. Thank you Aidan, who is probably eating bugs in the wilderness as we speak for Air Force Survival school. Thank you Brendan for staying home the year after Papa died and being the man of the house for us. Thank you Anya and Angela for all the wonderful food you made and all the adventures we’ve gone on. I know I don’t say thank you enough, but I hope you know that I think it.
Lastly, thank you to all our teachers, all the faculty and the staff, and in a special way to Father Michael who has transformed this school and Parish into a thoroughly joyful and life-filled place where we truly worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth. Our teachers have not only taught us about their respective subjects, they have taught us how to be human. If there is anything we have learned at Mount Royal, it is how to love, and more importantly, Who to love. You have taught us Whom we are made for, and shown us how to follow Him.
So where exactly are we following him? The answer, as I hope we all know by now, is heaven. Two days ago, we celebrated the Ascension of the Lord into Heaven, and I could not help but notice the parallels between then and now. The Ascension was a kind of graduation for the apostles. They had spent years with Christ physically, they had seen His hands work miracles, they had seen His feet walk the earth, and they saw His body die and rise for them. But the time for being physically near to Him had come to an end. They had been formed into the people God meant them to be, and it was time for them to make disciples of all nations.
I used to often wonder why the Ascension even happened. Why would God leave us on earth? Wouldn’t everything be better if Jesus still walked the earth with us? Then, I read what Pope Leo the Great had to say about it. He said, “The truth is that the Son of Man was revealed as Son of God in a more perfect and transcendent way once he had entered into his Father’s glory; he now began to be indescribably more present in his divinity to those from whom he was further removed in his humanity. A more mature faith enabled their minds to stretch upward to the Son in his equality with the Father; it no longer needed contact with Christ’s tangible body.” The apostles' relationship with Christ did not vanish when he ascended, it was strengthened by His seeming absence.
This is what I would like to leave with you today. This graduation does not mean that our love for each other has run its course, or that our relationship is ending. It is being transformed. We have been formed by all of you for these last several years, but the time has come for our “productive toil on earth.” The time has come for us to go out, and spread the Gospel to all nations. The time has come for us to grow into men and women firmly rooted in what you have taught us. Thank you.
Mr. Derek Tremblay, Called to Duty
At Mount Royal Academy we have a tradition of honoring graduating seniors entering the armed forces in defense of life and country. In the Class of 2025, two graduates are being called to duty in this sense, and we should all show our appreciation and admiration for such a sacrificial decision at the onset of adulthood.
I will call them on stage to receive this award but first a few comments about each of them.
Harrison will be enlisting in the Air Force and Kaitlyn has been keeping me apprised of all things having to do with her enlistment in the Marines since her junior year. In quite an unexpected providential and perhaps needless circumstantial fact, they are neighbors in the great city of Goshen! Both of them were convicted in this decision and did so fairly early in their high school career. Both of them nevertheless continued their duties as a student until the very end! Kaitlyn even had to undergo surgery to ensure she was physically qualified to enter the Marines. It is such an honor to our entire community to have young men and women expressing their devotion to the ideals of this republic in this manner. Freedom sadly comes with a cost, but it can never be taken away because it is a natural right. May we all look to the example of Kaitlyn and Harrison and pray for their well being as they serve the highest of causes and defend our dignity in the armed forces.
Mr. Derek Tremblay, Semper Altius Award
The recipient of our highest institutional award to a graduating senior received enough attention at our Senior Dinner. Due to the inability of Mr. Bean to be here with us today, we opted to perform a nine minute roast of Luke to get him back for all the witty comments he threw our way over the years. That may have been our comedic debut, but I think Mr. Bean and I did pretty good for going impromptu. I do want to give this entire community an opportunity to honor you Luke, because you are one of the greatest young men this community has ever known. Outwardly you may not show it because you are generally making fun of it all the time, but inwardly I suspect you know what this is all about. I want to thank you for the leadership you provide to my own sons, and for saying yes to being Timmy’s sponsor. Your Senior Thesis invited us all to shun mediocrity and strive for authentic greatness. If you don’t mind, can you please stand and awkwardly wave like a politician while we all give you a round of applause!
Mr. Derek Tremblay, Closing Remarks
This moment always frightens me. How could anyone conceivably summarize what this experience has been for all of us? I am just going to playback the key highlights before sending you beautiful people forward into this world that as Mr. Bean said, was declared good by the divine creator. And you, you are all very good.
How fitting it was that Amelia, Marianne, and Luke represented the Class of 2025 today. The three of you have been here the longest. And somehow you attracted this motley crew of people from different places, near and far.
Don’t forget the facts. Don’t forget the wisdom. Don’t forget the people. This is what Mr. Bean said on Wednesday.
Last night, Fr. Michael encouraged you to live your lives as missionary people. Each of your missions are uniquely yours. Echoing the words of Saint John Henry Newman, you have a definitive role in God’s plan, and you are a link in the cosmos chain that cannot be replaced by anyone else.
“He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.”
Your class embodies the notion that even though we may all be unorthodox in our individuality, we are united by the orthodoxy of reality. That infamous question from the Passion narrative, “What is truth?”, is a question that we ask ourselves every day of our existence.
Truth is right reason in accordance with reality. It is when the intellect sees reality for what it is.
You are about to embark into a world that doubts the existence of reality; a world that sees opposites, and opposites only; a world that struggles to even seek unity, preferring individuality and the right to self-determination over shared and common good.
This is a lie. We are not made to be autonomous individuals. We are made to be persons in communion.
Your class teaches us what we are made for. Yes, we have different stories and different personalities but we live together. Peace is possible. Do not accept the lie that it is not.
Inner peace is the precondition for peace among ourselves. You see, we all struggle. These existential questions you feel right now, I feel myself. Our interior lives cannot be hidden. When I was in college I became captivated by the claim that Jesus was a pacifist. What else would turning the other cheek mean? I love the idea of peace between people. My own story shaped that because it was not a daily experience for me at times, peace in myself and peace in my home.
How does one cultivate interior peace and peace with others?
I have one simple maxim I want to leave with you all in this final lesson: disarm violent rhetoric with nonviolent truth in love.
What do I mean by this? I mean in the area where it matters the most with the people God ordains closest to you, do not accept hostility. Hostility is not the natural state of man.
Kaitlyn and Harrison may encounter physical violence while most of us will face nonphysical violence.
How do we respond without losing our God-given dignity?
Bishop Robert Baron articulates the meaning of biblical nonviolence very nicely for us:
'Consider the Lord’s injunction, “When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” I realize that this sounds like mere passivity, fleeing before evil, but the truth is anything but. In Jesus’ time, you would not have used your left hand for any type of social interaction, since it was considered unclean. Therefore, to strike someone on the right cheek is to strike him with the back of your hand, the way a master might treat a slave.
By turning the other cheek, one neither fights back directly nor flees, but rather stands his ground and declares, “You will not treat me that way again.” It thereby effectively mirrors back to the aggressor his aggression. It is the declaration that the aggressed person refuses to cooperate with the world of the aggressor.'
This is my final plea to the Class of 2025. Do not accept a world of aggression. Be that light of love.
Martin Luther King famously said: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Honestly, just smile when you are dealing with relational aggression. Just smile when you see an angry or sad soul. It doesn’t take more than that to be the light of Christ to others sometimes. And don’t let your inner world be disturbed by events outside of your control. Just love everyday with maximum effort, everyone who God puts in front of you, and love those who are hardest to love the most!
The lectionary never fails to fit with our lived experience. Today happens to be the anniversary of my own personal consecration to the Blessed Mother, fifteen years ago. Wednesday was also our fifteenth wedding anniversary. I have been here for fifteen years now! On this Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Church gives us the wisdom of St. Paul, and these will be the last words you hear:
“Brothers and sisters: Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation.” (Rom 12:9-16)