California
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May 20, 2023
With great joy, members of the Class of 2023 received their diplomas this morning at the 49th annual Commencement of Thomas Aquinas College, California. Always bittersweet, this day of farewells was especially so for this year’s graduates, who missed the presence of their late classmate, Maggie Yanoschik (’23). But with true Christian hope, the seniors dedicated the day to her memory. “Although we wish she were still here with us, partaking in this celebration,” said Class Speaker MaryGrace Brittain (’23), “we pray that she is partaking in one far greater.”
The day began with the Baccalaureate Mass of the Holy Spirit in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, offered by the Most Rev. James D. Conley, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, who also served as the Commencement speaker. The Thomas Aquinas College Choir lifted the congregation’s hearts and minds to God with splendid hymns and chant, lending the Mass, and the events that followed, a tone of solemn joy.
In his homily, Bishop Conley reminded the seniors not to flee from, but to embrace, the sufferings that life will bring, just as Christ embraced the Cross. “Remember that Christ makes all things new, in and through the mystery of His cross,” His Excellency said. “When He is joined with His father after the Ascension and sends His holy spirit with all the gifts, with everything you need to bear your cross, the weight of glory, go forth with joy in your hearts.”
Photos: Baccalaureate Mass of the Holy Spirit
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Soon thereafter, the Commencement ceremony began. After a welcome from Dr. Paul O’Reilly, president of Thomas Aquinas College, Miss Brittain came to the stage to deliver the Senior Address. “Remember that the best part about you and the life that you lead is your ability to love that which you know,” she told her classmates. “Pursue wisdom, so that we may employ our hearts and not neglect them; so as to perfect our humanity, and not lose it. Do not live your life to think, but think so that you may live.”
Then Bishop Conley took the podium to deliver the Commencement address. As a longtime champion of Catholic liberal education — a reputation which, in part, prompted the College to award him its highest honor, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion — His Excellency was well suited to speak to the enduring value of the program that the seniors have just completed. “The liberal arts education you have received here at TAC will be the source of your joy and will make your heart sing for decades to come, no matter to what vocation you are called,” he said. “Keep reading and rereading the great and good books you have come to know and love here at TAC.”
Photos: Commencement Ceremony
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In addition, the College also recognized two of its most outstanding and generous friends, Maria Grant and her late husband, Richard, offering them membership in the Order of St. Albert — an honor, said Scott Turicchi, chairman of the Board of Governors, “reserved for those benefactors whose generosity to Thomas Aquinas College has been exceptional.”
As the ceremony continued, the seniors became graduates, receiving their academic hoods and diplomas. For their final joint act as a class, they sang the traditional Non nobis domine, giving the credit for their achievement to God and God alone. Then they recessed from the ceremony and into their separate futures, with Miss Brittain’s heartfelt words surely ringing in their hearts: “Goodbyes are never easy, and it is because sadness tends to sit right next to love. But better for love to have such a companion than to not be at all.”
