Congratulations, Seton Graduates of 2025 – A Day of Celebration!

When Seton held its first graduation, 35 graduates and their families attended.

This year, at our 19th graduation ceremony, we have 212 graduates and their families representing 40 states, Canada, Honduras, Qatar, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and the Philippines. With family and friends, that amounts to over 1500 guests in this room, and we could not be happier about that.

This is Truly a Day of Celebration!

You graduates have worked to improve the world through political action, volunteering, and helping others. You have fed the hungry and given drink to the thirsty. You have counseled the doubtful and comforted the afflicted, been active in society through participation in sports, scouting, youth groups, and church ministries.

You have worked with the very young and the very old and truly lived the corporal works of mercy. St. John Paul II said, “For we are at our best, we are most fully alive and human, when we give away freely and sacrificially our very selves in love for another.”

Reading the bios of these young people, you can see that they are already living those words.

Many of you are continuing your education in college or university and have received numerous academic awards and scholarships to help you on your way. We are especially gratified by the young men discerning a call to the priesthood.

I was heartened by the variety of goals you have for yourselves—so many of you in this class plan to attend medical school or enter another medical field.

Technicians, nurses, psychologists, midwives, and doulas are all fields that need people who affirm the fundamental dignity of every human person and who know we were all created in the image of our Creator.

There are also many future engineers here in every discipline: mechanical, chemical, and electrical.

Many of you have a call to serve. One young man plans to enter the Marines, and another the Army. Others, law enforcement officers or firefighters. May God keep you safe always.

Service to Country

Some plan to serve their country by studying law and political science. I am delighted to look upon the next generation of lawmakers who know that life begins at conception and ends when God decides to call one home. You are a group who know that when Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for the least brothers of mine, you did for me,”

He knew that you would have opportunities to work for justice, to serve the poor and the needy, and the world would be better for your work.

Before me are musicians and artists, writers and athletes, an equestrian, martial arts experts, multi-linguists, sailors, and entrepreneurs.

This class has future teachers, dentists, a welder, mechanics, content creators, pastry chefs, cosmetologists, farmers, hair stylists, actors, and novelists. And most importantly, many of you will become mothers and fathers.

I have only touched the surface. If we knew your achievements as your friends and families know them, I know we would be even more.

Grace of God

Graduates, you have reached this day through hard work and commitment, but it was not just that alone that brought you to this place. The grace of God and your parents’ hard work and sacrifice allowed you to accomplish many impressive things.

Hold dear in your hearts that your parents decided to protect you from the damaging agendas of secular society. They intentionally preserved the innocence of your minds and bodies while feeding you a diet of beautiful music, art, and literature.

They exposed you to the glory of God’s creation through math and science and taught you to love your country and to know the rights and responsibilities of citizenship through the Christian values of our founding fathers. Most importantly, they taught you the faith, to know God, and how best to serve Him.

The one true holy and apostolic faith has been the foundation of everything you have achieved here, and I call upon you to leave this ceremony open to the Holy Spirit’s call to spread that faith through how you live your lives and raise your own families.

As our patroness, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, proclaimed, “The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.”

To follow that dictum would be how to honor God and your parents best.