{"id":2678,"date":"2018-05-14T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T04:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2678"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:45:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:45:30","slug":"may-14-commencement-week-just-ended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2018\/05\/14\/may-14-commencement-week-just-ended\/","title":{"rendered":"May 14 — Commencement Week just ended"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday May 14 \u2014\u00a0\u201cA silence in which another voice may speak\u201d \u00a0 Mary Oliver<\/p>\n

{a memory from 2014\u2019s ceremonies}: \u00a0\u00a0\u201cIn Dentistry many graduates are hooded by one or two or three of their kin who are already dentists; In Law three faculty have the hooding down to a rhythm. Even so, one tall grad knelt down as if to help the hooders reach over the top of his head, only to take an engagement ring out of his pocket and hold it out to one of those hooding; \u00a0 he asked her to marry him. Saturday\u2019s Baccalaureate Mass packed the Gesu Church. At the main campus commencement, the University first hooded Gerry Stockhausen, sj our immediate past president. His “Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa\u201d address was laced with wisdom and corny jokes. No one who had shared time with him at UDM was surprised. One UDM trustee, Brian Cloyd from Steelcase in Grand Rapids, told me how moved he was by the diversity of the main campus students as they walked to receive their diplomas. The whole human fabric, it seemed, showed itself; all of us were invited to pay attention to the beauty that we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

{Commencement days 2018}: \u00a0Lots of immediate work to dress campus at its best. \u00a0Lots of logistic work to get graduates dressed for the solemnity; get the music right, get hospitality ready for speakers and alums, plus this year managing lots of rain. \u00a0Also a masterpiece of family love as one of the graduates in the\u00a0McAuley School of Nursing line was surprised by her brother in his Navy working uniform holding out a bouquet of flowers. \u00a0He had arranged a micro leave to give her the flowers and hold her in a long tender embrace before he hustled out of\u00a0Caliban Hall to get back on duty. \u00a0 \u00a0Deep surprise and deep sibling love.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post has a name for this kind of paying attention; Mary Oliver calls it \u201cPraying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have a good day.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Praying<\/strong><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t have to be
\nthe blue iris, it could be
\nweeds in a vacant lot, or a few
\nsmall stones; just
\npay attention, then patch<\/p>\n

a few words together and don\u2019t try
\nto make them elaborate, this isn\u2019t
\na contest but the doorway<\/p>\n

into thanks, and a silence in which
\nanother voice may speak.<\/p>\n

Mary Oliver<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Something to catch my attention \u00a0– one flower undaunted by concrete
\nFront sidewalk of Lansing Reilly \u2013 July 20, 2008 \u2013 8:31 am<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday May 14 \u2014\u00a0\u201cA silence in which another voice may speak\u201d \u00a0 Mary Oliver {a memory from 2014\u2019s ceremonies}: \u00a0\u00a0\u201cIn Dentistry many graduates are hooded by one or two or three of their kin who are already dentists; In Law … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2678"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2681,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions\/2681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}