Senior Dominican Preachers Share Parting Advice

On April 27, the Marian Catholic student body, staff and community the last all-school Mass of the 2021-22 academic year was celebrated.

During the Mass, the outgoing Dominican Preachers shared their thoughts with those assembled.

By definition, the role of Dominican Preachers in campus ministry at high schools like Marian Catholic is to, as stated on the school’s official Website, “help to plan prayer services, design and lead workshops at class retreats, and promote various service projects. The Preachers also open and close every school day with prayer. ”

Here are their parting messages at Marian’s last school Mass.

The more I wrote and thought about this homily, the feeling of me actually graduating has become more and more real. And, the more I think about graduation the more I think about how relevant High School Musical 3 is to my life. I relate with Troy, as I am an athlete who also loves performing music who is trying to figure out life past high school. Now, I’m speaking in front of the students and faculty at the end of the year just like Troy did at the end of the movie. One of the ideas Troy expresses to the students is, “we’re all in this together”. I believe the same idea applies to us at Marian. The theme of this reading revolves around the idea of a community of believers with one heart and mind. The context is the Apostles were trying to live in Jesus’ image following his death on the cross. While at first they were scared and apprehensive, there was a point where they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This is when they went out and became that community of believers. This is fitting for us because in a few short weeks for some of us, we will no longer be students at Marian. Even those at Marian who aren’t graduating will be out for summer in less than a month. When they no longer had Jesus, the community of believers moved on and grew into what we know now as the church. Even though we will be splitting up soon, our school community will stay strong. And when we are apart, we will still be “all in this together“.   – Joshua Bell

Sometimes the Bible can be intimidating, especially if we take it for face value. For example today’s first reading states, “There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or house would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the Apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.”  After reading these Bible stories of people who gave up their home or stories of Prophets who practically only owned a pair of sandals, our sacrifices, or lack thereof, pale in comparison. We kind of realize how materialistic and selfish we are compared to the expectations of the Bible. However, big sacrifices are hard to make even for people in Jesus’s time. And aren’t always realistic for us in modern days. The reading does get its point across though. When we sacrifice and give to others, we are giving to the whole community. And I think the most realistic example of this sacrifice is today’s gospel story. The multiplication of the loaves and fish. The boy who only contributed as little as a few loaves of bread and fish still helped feed all of Jesus’s followers. So even if we give up a little, we still help our community. One time me and my buddy, Alex, I don’t know why he keeps showing up in these, ate a meal that ended up being $20. Even though the customer service wasn’t exceptional, I decided to leave a 100% tip. There’s no way for me to know what the waitress did with the money, but even if she spent it on herself, I still helped the community. Even a small amount can potentially help someone. Ill leave you guys with a challenge. I dare y’all to try to sacrifice something. It doesn’t have to be something big, but something that could mean something to someone. The value of a sacrifice, no matter how small, is multiplied in the eyes of God.

  – Miguel Maninang 

This year my friend Tatyana and I would always laugh at how my phone is never charged. I often find myself in the middle of sending a text or scrolling through instagram, and the screen just freezes and goes dark. I use the whole 100% of my battery and waste no part of it. The reading today is a story that many of us have probably heard our whole lives. The story about Jesus feeding the five thousand. Most times when looking at stories of the bible, like this one, we focus on the power and miracle that has happened. In this one the people are hungry, the disciples are empty handed but Jesus supplied their needs. But, today I want to focus on the specific phrase that Jesus said, “Nothing will be wasted”. When I first read this, I automatically thought about Mrs. Russell and how she keeps telling my pre-calc class how the lessons we learn build up to the next one each day. Then, I started to think about the ways that this message applied to my life and the lives of all of us today.

As we are coming to the end of this year I want you to think about this story about the boy and the fish and connect it to our theme of the school year “Be Transformed”. If that’s too much thinking for you this late in the day, I’ll do it for you. When I think about how in the four years that I have been at Marian Catholic, the atmosphere has definitely changed. We have been through a pandemic, experienced loss, and have had opportunities to bring change around campus. When the other preachers and I chose “Be Transformed” as the theme, we weren’t thinking that transformation was going to happen in the course of this one year because transformation is always an ongoing process. So, Seniors, as we head off to college, or other paths in the world, I challenge you to not waste the wisdom that you have gained through your many experiences at Marian. To the Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, teachers and staff, I challenge each of you to not waste what you have learned this year when you build the community next year. We are all still in the midst of transforming, let’s not waste time…  

 – Jayson Evans

As we are coming close to ending the school year, it can be crazy to think that we are all moving forward with our lives in the next couple of weeks. Whether it be going to college and leaving our friends and family, struggling with what we want to do in the future, or even starting a new grade in highschool. Many of us, including me, can be questioning what we are even supposed to do in the future. Life is filled with change. In order to navigate the changes successfully, we must leave our grip of the past behind us, and focus on what the future may hold ,especially a future that God has for us. In the gospel Jesus was performing miracles for his people each day in their lives even when they did not recognize it. The people in the reading had doubts that God could do such amazing things for them. But just like the gospel, God is creating miracles in our life. Moving forward with life, we are all called to share what we have learned here at Marian and share it with everyone. This year has definitely been a challenging one but what I have learned the most out of it is being kind can help someone out a lot. Even when I have gotten simple hellos or smiles in the hallways, it was the little things that made an impact. Wherever God has called us to be in life, we must be the light that we have all grown to be. God has granted us all with a special gift that we are to share with the people around us. May we go forward and transform the world. – Anna Grill

The last time I spoke to you all, I talked about how to prepare for the promises of God. And before that I talked about what it means to have true happiness. So just to refresh some of our memories, God’s promises are everything that each of us desire and can be found within each and every one of us. And in fulfilling these promises, we can find true happiness. During quarantine, I can personally say that I struggled to be happy, and I am sure that some of you can relate to this too. Not being able to go out to do basic activities was a big adjustment that we all had to make at that time, and all those changes were overwhelming, but those changes helped some of us improve ourselves as individuals, and allowed us to develop healthier habits.

And as this school year is slowly coming to an end, we all have new things to adjust to or things to remember as we take the next set of steps in our lives. So to our soon to be sophomores and juniors, your high school experience has just begun, so please enjoy every moment because it does go by quickly. To our soon to be seniors, next year is going to be your last. Last first day of high school, last high school football games, last school dance, and many more, so enjoy that time that you spend in these halls as it will soon come to an end. To our seniors, and soon to be high school graduates, as we end this chapter of our lives and begin a new chapter, we have new and exciting things to look forward to, for some of us it is college, and some of us have decided to take a different path, and that’s fine. There is no right or wrong path. We can only truly fail if we don’t try. And for each of us sitting here today, I want us to remember that it doesn’t matter where we are right now, but where we are going. It is so easy for us to forget who we are and what we stand for as we travel along the stages of life, but I want all of you to know that you are more than capable of doing anything you put your mind to. God is always with us, even when it seems like he doesn’t hear us. Sometimes we fail to realize that God doesn’t always give us what we want, but what we need, but just know that he does love you and he will not give you anything that he knows you cannot handle. He believes in you, so believe in yourself. Believe in your worth, and never forget that in the eyes of God you are forever enough, always enough, and more enough. – Oyinlola Nelson