Commencement 2004

Trinity College Commencement Speech
May 23, 2004
Sr. Ann Kendrick, SND '66, Co-Founder of The Farmworker Ministry

When first asked by President Pat McGuire to give the address at this graduation I was both delighted and daunted. I am delighted because I love this college which helped me become the woman I am today, which gave me friends who have lasted a life time, which gave me a sense of myself as a women of intellect, heart and soul, a citizen of the world community. And daunted because I felt an awesome responsibility to say something meaningful, something important both encouraging and challenging to you graduates as you go forth from this place.

Then, I thought realistically, trying to right size my grandiose expectations, I don't remember who even spoke at my graduation much less what they said. I understand that the current Mrs. Bush had a similar experience which she confessed publicly only to find out that her graduation speaker was her future father-in-law. OOPS!!! Well at least that won't happen to you.

In my Chapter of Trinity life during the sixties, things were very different from today. Life was slower, more stable. We thought we knew who we were and what we were supposed to do. As white women of privilege, we were pretty enclosed in our own world. There were few students of color at Trinity and most of us came from upper middle class, Catholic backgrounds ...and then while we were singing around the well...the world exploded and the neat arrangements which benefited the few at the expense of the many began to break apart.

The threat of the Bay of Pigs with missiles trained on Washington DC caused the withdrawal of students, JFK was assassinated, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were murdered, the war in Vietnam expanded, Cambodia was bombed, students rebelled, the National Guard took over college campuses, communities of color took to the streets in anger and frustration and the cities burned. Life as we had known it was over.

Now, as I look out at your faces and imagine the life stories that have brought each of you to this moment, to this graduating class, I am touched and delighted. For you do reflect the diversity of our world and I am proud that Trinity has adapted to serve both the local and global community as an institution which values diversity, inclusivity and collaboration.

In these troubled times, I wonder if you believe, as I do, in the possibility of human goodness? Do you believe, as I do, that this world needs changing, radical changing? I wonder if you also believe, as I do, that simple, honest, heart to heart conversation among people of good will generates the vision, the energy for such change? Do you believe, as I do, that we can make a difference and that it is worth the effort to simply try? In all of us, even when it is least apparent, there is a longing for the human connection born of an honest speaking and listening of the heart? Margaret Wheatley in her book "Turning to One Another", reminds us that simple conversation makes us more human. World revolutions have begun around the kitchen table. So begin one!!! Or two, or three!!! And make sure that around your kitchen table there is diversity. Include people in your conversation whose life story and whose opinion is very different from your own. Live your life in ever widening circles of inclusivity.

Have a conversation with LIFE as well. Slow down and listen to your LIFE, to your heart, Stop speaking for a moment and listen.....

"God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear. You, sent out beyond your recall. Go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like flame. Make big shadows I can move in. "

This is a poem of Rilke from 1899.

God speaks to each of us....Do you hear? Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Supreme Being, A Power Greater than Ourselves, Madre, Padre, however you name who can never be contained in a name, is speaking. Tune in. Adjust your cell phone. Get more bars. Pay attention so you can get the signal.

God is not silent. God is desperately trying to reach each one of us, .through the grandeur of this created world in all its varied beauty, through our senses and sensitivities, through our frailties and failings, through our connections of deep human intimacy, through the cries of our bruised and battered world, a people and a planet suffering due to our greed, and indifference...

All of this calls us to work for the personal and social transformation this world so desperately needs. For we are not yet fully human, but we are on the path... on the path to honoring our humanity by becoming the images of our God, as we are created to be.....and as Rilke says God continues to walk with us out of the night.

"Go to the limits of your longing", says the poem....What do you long for? Do you even long any more?.. Or is it simply business as usual? Have you learned to conform, to limit your heart's desire, to find short term satisfaction in things which do not last, nor truly fill your soul? Do you know how good it feels to be connected to another, to have a useful, good purpose to your day, to your life, which makes a difference, which increases the love in this world, which builds the human community.

Lets do a bit of that right now.... I want to try something different this morning. I know you might feel awkward but try it anyway. The most important words here today are not mine, but your own!

So, believing in the impulse of your heart, believing in the goodness of human beings, and the power of simple honest conversation, I invite you to consider for a moment what gives you hope and energy?, What do you feel passionate about in your life and on this day? Relect for a moment. And then when I sound the Tibetan Bells turn to a person near you and share briefly what was in your heart. I will sound the bells again.

How did that feel? Focus on what is possible, what gives life in these death dealing times.

Julie Billiart, the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame, understood this heart place in the midst of troubling times. Her vision and grit created the Sisters of Notre Dame yet by many standards she was the least likely candidate to found a religious order. She was relatively poor in chaotic, post revolutionary France, forced into exile, and paralyzed for most of her life. She founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame in her fifties and only lived for twelve more years. From that seed, however, there grew a 200 year history with Sisters and their co workers serving on five continents and in 14 countries. So never think....I am not the one! I don't have the skills! I could never respond in that way. You are the one! You have something unique to contribute to this world. Parker Palmer says in his book, "Let Your Life Speak", that true vocation is the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need. The journey to your authentic self, which is the only journey worth taking, joins self and service and makes you happy.

I have been blessed with living and working for most of my life in low-income communities of farmworkers, immigrants and other marginalized people of color. I love them, I love how I am when I am with them. I love what we have been able to create together to make life more abundant. I love working with the Notre Dame Mission Volunteer Americorps members who serve in our community. I am one of the blessed ones, a person who found the place where my deep gladness meets the world's deep need. I hope you find that place in your life as well.

Always stay curious about one another. Seek out the ones who experience life differently, listen without judgment, longing to understand and connect, because life is all about relationship, our relationship with all of creation, with our Mother Earth, our relationship with the other human creatures on our planet and our relationship with our deepest self, the God within us. Be the ones in your community who engage in life. Don't be the "whatever" folks who go their merry way, or the ones who are so overwhelmed by it all that they say, "Don't even tell me!! I don't want to know!! Be the ones who say BASTA!! ENOUGH!! We can do better as humans and I want to help.

The prophet Micah tells us that God only asks three things of us,
To act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with God.

As Antonio Machado says, "Se hace el camino al andar", " You make the road by walking."

So keep on walking and take good care of each other on the way!!

Congratulations and May God continue to bless you!

Ann Kendrick