Nannerl O. Keohane - Baccalaureate Service (May 12, 1995)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(tranquil organ music) | 0:00 | |
(congregation mumbling) | ||
(choir singing) | 9:12 | |
(lively organ music) | 9:56 | |
(congregation singing) | 10:43 | |
- | Be seated. | 14:03 |
Let us pray. | 14:10 | |
Gracious God, | 14:16 | |
source of all wisdom and truth, | 14:18 | |
light into our lives. | 14:21 | |
We pray your blessings upon the Class of 1995. | 14:24 | |
May this hour of worship | 14:30 | |
be for each graduate a time of reflection | 14:32 | |
upon the past | 14:35 | |
and preparation for the future. | 14:37 | |
May each of us be thereby reminded | 14:39 | |
that you journey forth with us, | 14:43 | |
that we can do no great thing without your aid | 14:47 | |
and that all our endings and all our beginnings | 14:51 | |
are upheld by your gracious hand. | 14:55 | |
Amen. | 14:59 | |
(dramatic organ music) | 15:18 | |
(choir singing) | 16:07 | |
- | Let us pray. | 21:25 |
Oh mighty God, | 21:29 | |
in you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. | 21:31 | |
Open our eyes | 21:38 | |
that we may see the wonders of your word | 21:39 | |
and give us grace | 21:43 | |
that we may clearly understand | 21:45 | |
and freely choose the way of your wisdom. | 21:48 | |
Amen. | 21:53 | |
Will the congregation please stand | 21:57 | |
as we read the Psalm responsively | 21:58 | |
and then sing the Gloria. | 22:00 | |
Oh sing to the Lord a new song. | 22:09 | |
Sing to the Lord all the Earth. | 22:12 | |
Congregation | Sing to the Lord, proclaim his name. | 22:16 |
Proclaim our salvation today. | 22:19 | |
- | Declare the Lord's glory among the nations. | 22:22 |
The Lord's marvelous works among all the peoples. | 22:26 | |
Congregation | For great is the Lord | 22:30 |
and most worthy of praise. | 22:31 | |
He is to be feared above all gods. | 22:34 | |
- | For all the gods of the peoples are idols | 22:36 |
but the Lord made the heavens. | 22:39 | |
Congregation | Splendor and majesty are before him, | 22:43 |
strength and glory are in his sanctuary. | 22:46 | |
(tranquil organ music) | 22:50 | |
(congregation singing) | 22:59 | |
- | Please be seated. | 23:51 |
The lesson appointed for this day | 24:01 | |
is found in the third chapter | 24:03 | |
of the book of Proverbs, | 24:05 | |
beginning at the 13th verse. | 24:06 | |
Happy are those who find wisdom | 24:11 | |
and those who get understanding | 24:14 | |
for her income is better than silver | 24:16 | |
and her revenue better than gold. | 24:19 | |
She is more precious than jewels | 24:21 | |
and nothing you desire can compare with her. | 24:24 | |
Long life is in her right hand, | 24:27 | |
in her left hand are riches and honor. | 24:30 | |
Her ways are the ways of pleasantness | 24:33 | |
and all her paths are peace. | 24:37 | |
She is a tree of life | 24:40 | |
to those who lay hold of her. | 24:41 | |
Those who hold her fast are called happy. | 24:44 | |
The Lord by wisdom founded the Earth. | 24:47 | |
By understanding he established the heavens, | 24:50 | |
by his knowledge, the deeps broke open | 24:54 | |
and the clouds dropped down the dew. | 24:57 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 25:00 | |
Al] | Thanks be to God. | 25:02 |
- | As you know from your programs, | 25:11 |
the Baccalaureate Service is one of Duke's oldest traditions | 25:13 | |
and for many years, | 25:17 | |
the sermon was delivered by the president. | 25:17 | |
In the 1960s, when the pace of change | 25:20 | |
on this and every other campus | 25:23 | |
was more rapid than ever before or since, | 25:25 | |
the presidential sermons were discontinued. | 25:28 | |
Now, some things that were dropped in the '60s, | 25:30 | |
like parietal hours which required you | 25:32 | |
to be in your rooms by 10 o'clock on week nights | 25:35 | |
or required attendance at all classes | 25:38 | |
or more seriously, obstacles | 25:41 | |
to the admission of black undergraduates, | 25:43 | |
such things are better left to the history books. | 25:45 | |
But as in all revolutions, | 25:48 | |
some things were swept away in the 1960s | 25:49 | |
that are worthy of another look | 25:52 | |
and we can decide together after this service | 25:53 | |
whether the Presidential Baccalaureate Address | 25:55 | |
is one of those that deserves to be resurrected | 25:58 | |
or whether it's better left quietly interred. | 26:00 | |
(congregation laughing) | 26:03 | |
I speak now for a few moments specifically | 26:05 | |
to the graduating seniors knowing | 26:07 | |
that we are pleased to have your families | 26:08 | |
and special guests and members | 26:10 | |
of some other graduate degree ceremonies as well. | 26:12 | |
We've been through a period of change this year | 26:16 | |
which while not quite as dramatic | 26:19 | |
as the 1960s, no doubt seemed fairly revolutionary | 26:20 | |
to many of you | 26:24 | |
and I know that the changes have not been easy | 26:25 | |
and some of you are concerned | 26:27 | |
about the fortunes of the university | 26:28 | |
that you love so much in the years ahead. | 26:30 | |
Now, my own hunch is that when you return to Duke | 26:33 | |
for your fifth reunion, | 26:35 | |
the campus is going to seem very much like you remember it | 26:36 | |
for your four years here | 26:39 | |
except that thanks in part to your class gift, | 26:40 | |
there will be better recreation facilities. | 26:44 | |
We hope that the football team and the basketball team | 26:46 | |
will both be headed | 26:48 | |
for post-season playoffs. | 26:49 | |
There will be more different kinds of parties, | 26:52 | |
maybe we will even manage to make the Bryan Center usable | 26:54 | |
for actual students | 26:58 | |
without hundreds or thousands of dollars | 26:59 | |
to spend on each event. | 27:01 | |
There will be more seminars and small classes | 27:03 | |
and everyone will be using computers very heavily. | 27:05 | |
But you may be skeptical about my hunches | 27:08 | |
and I promise not to say anything about proofs | 27:10 | |
and puddings from this pulpit. | 27:13 | |
I do want to let you know | 27:15 | |
that I have learned a lot from you this year. | 27:16 | |
Some of you have been gentle teachers, | 27:19 | |
some of you were a bit harsher in your methods | 27:20 | |
but I have heard what you have tried to tell me | 27:23 | |
about what matters to you at Duke | 27:25 | |
and we shall keep in mind in the years ahead. | 27:27 | |
I know that your feelings today are in general very mixed. | 27:29 | |
Life after graduation | 27:32 | |
is a prospect that promotes both excitement | 27:34 | |
and apprehension, confidence and uncertainty. | 27:37 | |
Some of you will immediately launch a career, | 27:41 | |
others will be continuing your training | 27:43 | |
in graduate or professional schools. | 27:45 | |
Some of you will travel. | 27:47 | |
Some will continue to look for just the job you really want. | 27:48 | |
Some will return to familiar places, | 27:51 | |
others to places you've never been. | 27:53 | |
But all of you sit here today united | 27:56 | |
by a common bond, the knowledge | 27:58 | |
that no one in the Allen Building | 28:01 | |
will have anything at all to say | 28:03 | |
about where you will live next year. | 28:04 | |
(laughing) | 28:06 | |
In any case, in this unique commencement moment, | 28:11 | |
I do not ask you to ask about your fifth reunion. | 28:13 | |
I want you to dwell with me | 28:16 | |
for a few minutes on a campus figure | 28:17 | |
who will be very familiar to some of you | 28:19 | |
but whom others may not have noticed. | 28:21 | |
There's several historic statues on this campus. | 28:23 | |
No one could fail to recognize our stalwart founder, | 28:27 | |
James Buchanan Duke standing | 28:30 | |
in the very front of this chapel, | 28:32 | |
cigar in hand gazing intently towards the west, | 28:33 | |
keeping a wary key on Carolina. | 28:37 | |
(laughing) | 28:40 | |
Most of you will also recognize his father, | 28:41 | |
Washington Duke, seated more comfortably | 28:44 | |
in his armchair at the entrance | 28:47 | |
to East Campus inviting the City of Durham | 28:48 | |
to make itself at home | 28:51 | |
in the college he loved. | 28:53 | |
But have you noticed Washington Duke's neighbor? | 28:55 | |
A more active figure. | 28:57 | |
The Sower. | 28:59 | |
In life-size bronze, going about his business | 29:00 | |
of scattering seed on the East Campus lawn | 29:02 | |
just beyond the gazebo | 29:05 | |
among those great trees. | 29:07 | |
If you've not yet made the acquaintance of the Sower, | 29:09 | |
please do so before you graduate. | 29:11 | |
Perhaps at the lawn party tomorrow afternoon. | 29:13 | |
The Sower is dressed in country farmer fashion, | 29:16 | |
recalling a Johnny Appleseed, | 29:19 | |
striding through the woods of the early frontiers | 29:21 | |
of our country, | 29:24 | |
planting apple trees | 29:25 | |
that he would never see in blossom | 29:27 | |
moving always onward toward new lands. | 29:28 | |
Now, those of you who are quick to literary allusion | 29:32 | |
or familiar with the Christian faith | 29:34 | |
will recognize the Sower | 29:35 | |
as a more symbolic figure | 29:37 | |
with biblical undertones. | 29:38 | |
In this service, we celebrate your accession | 29:41 | |
to your baccalaureate degree | 29:43 | |
with the glorious poetry | 29:44 | |
of the Judeo-Christian tradition. | 29:46 | |
Proverbs for the scripture lesson, | 29:48 | |
Psalms sung by the choir | 29:50 | |
and in that tradition of poetic license, | 29:53 | |
Jesus found parables the best way to teach. | 29:55 | |
And the Sower comes from one of those parables told | 29:58 | |
by Matthew in his record of Jesus's life. | 30:00 | |
And here's how he tells it in chapter 13. | 30:04 | |
That same day, | 30:07 | |
Jesus went out of the house | 30:09 | |
and sat beside the sea. | 30:10 | |
Such great crowds gathered around him | 30:12 | |
that he got into a boat | 30:14 | |
and sat there while the whole crowd stood on the beach. | 30:16 | |
And he told them many things in parables saying, | 30:19 | |
listen, a sower went out to sow. | 30:21 | |
As he sowed, some seeds fell on the path | 30:25 | |
and the birds came and ate them up, | 30:28 | |
other seeds feel on rocky ground | 30:31 | |
where they did not have much soil | 30:32 | |
and they sprang up quickly. | 30:34 | |
But when the sun rose, | 30:36 | |
they were scorched | 30:37 | |
and since they had no root, | 30:38 | |
they withered away. | 30:40 | |
Other seeds fell among thorns | 30:41 | |
and the thorns grew up and choked them | 30:43 | |
but other seeds fell on good soil | 30:45 | |
and brought forth grain, | 30:48 | |
some 100-fold, some 60, some 30. | 30:49 | |
Let anyone with ears, listen. | 30:53 | |
Now, for those who left us mentally at the very beginning | 30:56 | |
of the story as soon as I mentioned a crowded beach, | 30:58 | |
I would now like to recall you | 31:00 | |
from Myrtle to Galilee | 31:02 | |
and draw some lessons from the parable. | 31:03 | |
It is clear that the founders | 31:06 | |
of this university with their deeply religious commitments | 31:08 | |
thought of themselves as sowers of seed | 31:12 | |
with faith and deep conviction. | 31:14 | |
Sowing is a profligate and risky business | 31:17 | |
as the parable reminds us. | 31:20 | |
Before these days of highly structured agribusiness, | 31:21 | |
sowers would have to throw out many seeds | 31:25 | |
and only a few would flourish | 31:27 | |
but some seeds almost always did | 31:29 | |
which made the risk worth taking. | 31:32 | |
Past sowers could never know exactly | 31:34 | |
how the plants would develop | 31:36 | |
so that for example, in the early decades | 31:38 | |
of this century, Washington Duke | 31:39 | |
and James Buchanan Duke | 31:41 | |
could never have foreseen most things | 31:43 | |
about Duke today. | 31:45 | |
Some would please them, | 31:47 | |
some things would shock them | 31:48 | |
and some would simply bewilder them | 31:50 | |
and I leave it up to the imagination | 31:51 | |
of each one of you | 31:53 | |
to decide which things about Duke today | 31:54 | |
would fall into which category. | 31:56 | |
But James B. Duke was fairly clear | 31:58 | |
about his mission for this university | 32:00 | |
in his founding indenture | 32:02 | |
and he was also willing to take chances | 32:04 | |
about how it would actually develop | 32:06 | |
knowing that the seeds he planted | 32:09 | |
would grow to maturity long after his death. | 32:11 | |
So I choose the Sower today | 32:14 | |
as an image to signify faith in the future. | 32:16 | |
Planting apple seeds you will never see in blossom | 32:20 | |
or wheat that will grow up to feed many people | 32:22 | |
you will never know. | 32:25 | |
Each December, when Duke University | 32:27 | |
in this great chapel celebrates Founders Day, | 32:29 | |
small, exact replicas of the Sower statue | 32:33 | |
after that ceremony are given to those | 32:36 | |
who have established new endowments | 32:38 | |
to support the university. | 32:39 | |
These donors, like the original founding family, | 32:41 | |
give of their wealth to plants seeds | 32:44 | |
they will never see to maturity | 32:46 | |
in the faith that Duke is worth the investment. | 32:47 | |
I mention this not to make you feel | 32:50 | |
that we are already pitching to you for money | 32:52 | |
before you've even graduated | 32:54 | |
but to remind you that your Duke education | 32:56 | |
was brought to you by many sowers | 32:58 | |
you will never know | 33:01 | |
who had faith in you | 33:03 | |
and thus made your future possible. | 33:05 | |
The text today from the book of Proverbs | 33:08 | |
about wisdom tells us that the original Sower | 33:10 | |
in the Judeo-Christian tradition | 33:14 | |
was a creator God | 33:16 | |
and that his creative strategy, | 33:17 | |
the basis and fulfillment of his power was wisdom. | 33:19 | |
The Lord, by wisdom, founded the Earth, | 33:24 | |
by understanding he established the heavens. | 33:27 | |
By his knowledge, the deeps broke open | 33:31 | |
and the clouds dropped down dew. | 33:34 | |
In this passage from the Proverbs, | 33:37 | |
wisdom is open handed, generous, powerful, beneficent, | 33:38 | |
full of pleasantness, long life and peace. | 33:42 | |
This is the power that founds the Earth, | 33:46 | |
establishes the heavens | 33:49 | |
and it is the same power behind your Duke experience. | 33:51 | |
The wisdom imparted by education. | 33:55 | |
For a university community, | 33:59 | |
especially at the culmination of your formal education here, | 34:00 | |
the creative power of wisdom | 34:03 | |
is an especially appropriate variation | 34:05 | |
on the sower theme. | 34:07 | |
Your professors but also your friends | 34:09 | |
and your classmates, indeed your entire Duke experience | 34:11 | |
have sown seeds in your mind | 34:15 | |
over the last few years | 34:17 | |
that will bear fruit throughout your lives. | 34:19 | |
By definition, they will not all grow and flourish. | 34:22 | |
Some of the seeds were sown while you were too preoccupied | 34:25 | |
to pay attention. | 34:27 | |
They were cast on the busy path | 34:29 | |
and immediately devoured by other issues and concerns. | 34:30 | |
Some of them fell on rocky ground | 34:33 | |
on parts of your mind or personality | 34:35 | |
that were not well-prepared to understand them. | 34:37 | |
They made a brief impression, | 34:40 | |
they didn't take deep root. | 34:42 | |
They were soon eclipsed or burnt away. | 34:43 | |
Some fell among thorns, | 34:46 | |
meeting stubborn resistance to new ideas | 34:48 | |
of this particular variety | 34:51 | |
and they were stunted and died | 34:52 | |
but some, we hope many, | 34:54 | |
of these seeds of wisdom fell on fertile ground | 34:56 | |
and lie deeply nourished in your mind, | 35:00 | |
ready to enrich your life | 35:02 | |
and extend your reach | 35:04 | |
into the world that lies ahead. | 35:06 | |
I stress that the seeds lie buried | 35:09 | |
to remind all of us | 35:11 | |
that a commencement is, as the term implies, | 35:12 | |
more a beginning than an ending. | 35:15 | |
You feel today a sense of closing, | 35:17 | |
an end to your living | 35:19 | |
in this lovely place, | 35:21 | |
daily contact with friends, routines | 35:22 | |
and habits that have become achingly familiar | 35:24 | |
which you never though much about before | 35:28 | |
but are now loathe to leave. | 35:29 | |
But the ending part of a commencement is less significant | 35:32 | |
than the new beginning that it marks | 35:35 | |
for everyone of you. | 35:36 | |
It would be wrong for either you as graduates | 35:38 | |
or the families who've paid such a handsome price | 35:41 | |
for your Duke education | 35:43 | |
to think that it is now finished, concluded | 35:45 | |
and what you have is what you get. | 35:47 | |
Much of what you've learned at Duke | 35:50 | |
is not yet evident to you or to anyone else | 35:51 | |
but it will continue to shape your experience | 35:54 | |
for decades to come. | 35:57 | |
You have achieved stronger, more supple habits | 35:59 | |
of mind and more powerful and rigorous routines | 36:01 | |
of thought, just as surely as you have amassed friends | 36:05 | |
and memories and souvenirs. | 36:08 | |
A university education is not tied up | 36:10 | |
with a bow around your diploma, | 36:13 | |
over and gone as you leave | 36:14 | |
at the end of this weekend | 36:16 | |
with all your paraphernalia in tow. | 36:17 | |
A university education sows the seeds of a lifetime, | 36:20 | |
safely rooted in fertile soil, | 36:23 | |
ready to blossom and flourish as needed | 36:26 | |
and as the seasons of your life | 36:28 | |
will call them forth. | 36:31 | |
I have in this sermon played a number of variations | 36:33 | |
on the Sower theme. | 36:36 | |
Founding, generosity, creative wisdom. | 36:37 | |
I want to introduce one further variation of the image | 36:40 | |
before I close. | 36:43 | |
This is the version | 36:44 | |
in which you no longer become just the fertile ground, | 36:46 | |
the beneficiary of the seeds sown by others. | 36:49 | |
You become yourself, the sower of the seed. | 36:51 | |
The student as sower is the true | 36:55 | |
and powerful image just as surely as the others. | 36:58 | |
In your years at Duke, | 37:01 | |
you have helped shape the fortunes | 37:03 | |
and the character of this university, | 37:04 | |
individually and collectively. | 37:06 | |
For universities are not just buildings | 37:08 | |
and ground, stadiums and libraries, | 37:10 | |
above all, universities are people. | 37:13 | |
Students as surely as faculty, | 37:16 | |
administrators, staff, trustees, parents, alumni. | 37:18 | |
You have become part of Duke University | 37:22 | |
just as surely you have made it part of yourself. | 37:24 | |
In your years at Duke, | 37:28 | |
you have done things that have made a difference. | 37:29 | |
You've broken records on the playing fields | 37:31 | |
and you've broken through barriers of ignorance and poverty, | 37:34 | |
in tutoring children | 37:37 | |
and building houses in the City of Durham. | 37:39 | |
You have put on memorable public performances | 37:41 | |
in the theater in the concert hall. | 37:43 | |
And you have changed someone's life | 37:45 | |
by a quiet, private word of support | 37:48 | |
or encouragement at a time of despair | 37:51 | |
or deep confusion. | 37:54 | |
You've asked questions | 37:55 | |
and written papers that will help determine | 37:57 | |
how your professors teach other students | 37:59 | |
in the years ahead. | 38:01 | |
You have shaped the lives of countless friends, | 38:03 | |
just as surely as they have shaped your own. | 38:06 | |
You have spoken up, | 38:08 | |
written down, sat in and camped out | 38:09 | |
for what you believe in and your voices | 38:11 | |
in all those distinctive modes have been heard. | 38:14 | |
I'm here to tell you that Duke University | 38:17 | |
is fertile ground for the seeds you have sown. | 38:19 | |
Some of which immediately bore fruit | 38:22 | |
but others lie safely buried ready | 38:24 | |
to flourish at the appropriate season | 38:27 | |
and I urge you now as graduates | 38:29 | |
of this magnificent university | 38:31 | |
to accept the Sower | 38:34 | |
as your emblem of service | 38:35 | |
in the years that lie ahead. | 38:38 | |
To accept your responsibility | 38:40 | |
as Duke graduates to sow good seed | 38:42 | |
in the lives of those with whom you will live and work. | 38:45 | |
You have harvested richly | 38:48 | |
from seed planted by those who came long before you | 38:50 | |
who could not have known you | 38:53 | |
but who nonetheless believed in you | 38:55 | |
and in turn, you should plant seeds | 38:57 | |
that will grow up to enrich the lives of many others. | 38:59 | |
Plant not only for your personal enjoyment | 39:02 | |
or the enjoyment of your family, | 39:04 | |
or for short-term gain. | 39:06 | |
Plant the seeds of your creativity | 39:08 | |
and dedication so that many others, | 39:10 | |
including strangers you will never know, | 39:13 | |
can live better lives because of your wisdom, | 39:15 | |
your openhandedness and your faith. | 39:18 | |
It may be painful for you to hear | 39:22 | |
but I hope also comforting | 39:23 | |
that as we celebrate commencement, | 39:25 | |
some people on campus are already planning orientation | 39:26 | |
for the class of 1999 | 39:29 | |
who will follow in your footsteps | 39:31 | |
when August rolls around. | 39:33 | |
They too will experience the multifaceted nature | 39:35 | |
of this university. | 39:38 | |
They will become familiar with the statues, the gardens, | 39:39 | |
the chapel, all the wonderful nostalgic parts of Duke. | 39:42 | |
And when they come across the Sower on East Campus, | 39:45 | |
they will meet an image that not only represents wisdom | 39:49 | |
and the members of the Duke family | 39:53 | |
and the creator God | 39:54 | |
but also represents everyone of you | 39:56 | |
who have sown seeds in this fertile soil | 39:59 | |
to make Duke better | 40:01 | |
for all who will follow you. | 40:03 | |
And the Sower also represents, | 40:05 | |
let's not forget, Johnny Appleseed | 40:06 | |
who was an actual person named John Chapman | 40:09 | |
who spent the first four decades | 40:13 | |
of the 19th century wandering around Ohio, | 40:15 | |
Indiana and Western Pennsylvania | 40:17 | |
when that was frontier country sowing apple seeds. | 40:19 | |
But unlike the legendary Johnny Appleseed, | 40:22 | |
which I perpetuated by talking about seeds | 40:25 | |
that he would never see to fruition, | 40:28 | |
the real John Chapman did not abandon his seeds. | 40:30 | |
He returned regularly to his forest nurseries | 40:34 | |
to see how things were getting on, | 40:36 | |
to prune and tend his trees, | 40:38 | |
to teach the population of settlers | 40:40 | |
on the frontier in that wilderness | 40:42 | |
how to create new orchards long after he was gone. | 40:44 | |
And we hope that you will follow his example, | 40:48 | |
returning to this university | 40:50 | |
that has meant so much to you | 40:52 | |
to let us see how the seeds planted here by wisdom | 40:53 | |
are flourishing in your lives in the years ahead | 40:56 | |
and to let you see how the seeds | 40:59 | |
you have planted here on campus are getting on, | 41:01 | |
to prune and tend your ideas and projects | 41:04 | |
and to teach us how to create new orchards | 41:07 | |
in the years ahead. | 41:10 | |
And we hope that has proud graduates | 41:11 | |
of this very special place, | 41:13 | |
you will find yourself inspired by the image of the Sower | 41:16 | |
throughout your lives, | 41:18 | |
planting seeds for forests you can tend | 41:20 | |
and nurture but also orchards | 41:22 | |
that will bear fruit for generations of people | 41:24 | |
you will never know. | 41:27 | |
This will be the best | 41:28 | |
and most appropriate of all possible fruits | 41:30 | |
of your education at Duke University. | 41:33 | |
(tranquil organ music) | 41:43 | |
(congregation singing) | 42:25 | |
- | Please be seated. | 45:23 |
Please join in the responsive prayer of gratitude and hope. | 45:27 | |
Almighty God, as you have granted us a place | 45:35 | |
in this university, | 45:39 | |
hallowed to us now this day. | 45:41 | |
When we dedicate ourselves to the life | 45:44 | |
and work to which you have called us | 45:47 | |
that we may remember with gratitude the families | 45:51 | |
and friends who have cared for us. | 45:54 | |
Congregation | We ask blessing from God. | 45:58 |
That in the life ahead we may keep faith | 46:00 | |
with those who loved us and trusted us | 46:03 | |
and whose hopes follow us. | 46:07 | |
Congregation | We ask blessing from God. | 46:10 |
That we may enter with good courage | 46:12 | |
and constant purpose upon the tasks which await us. | 46:14 | |
Congregation | We ask blessing from God. | 46:18 |
- | From all vanity and pride, | 46:21 |
as if our accomplishments | 46:22 | |
were of our soul creation. | 46:25 | |
Congregation | The Lord be with us. | 46:28 |
- | From neglect of the opportunities | 46:30 |
which are all about us | 46:32 | |
and from distrust of our ability to meet the duties | 46:34 | |
of each dawning day. | 46:36 | |
(congregation mumbling) | 46:39 | |
Let the example of wise and generous people | 46:41 | |
who have gone before us and our families | 46:44 | |
and here in this university | 46:47 | |
may save us from folly and self-indulgence. | 46:49 | |
Congregation | Blessed be to God. | 46:54 |
- | More especially, that you would show to us | 46:56 |
your way of love | 46:59 | |
in all we do or say | 47:01 | |
that we should come to love the Lord our God | 47:04 | |
with our soul and mind and strength | 47:06 | |
and our neighbor as ourselves. | 47:09 | |
(congregation mumbling) | 47:12 | |
These things and whatever else you see needful | 47:15 | |
and right for us, | 47:18 | |
we ask in your holy name. | 47:20 | |
All | Amen. | 47:23 |
(dramatic organ music) | 47:38 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 48:43 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 48:52 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 49:08 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 49:10 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 49:12 | |
(choir singing) | 49:17 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 53:12 | |
- | Stand. | 53:40 |
And now Class of 1995, | 53:45 | |
may the God of grace, mercy and peace | 53:47 | |
be with you and remain with you now and evermore. | 53:51 | |
Amen. | 53:56 | |
Congregation | Amen. | 53:57 |
(tranquil organ music) | 54:12 | |
(congregation singing) | 54:56 |