On August 3, the Christendom Graduate School held its 2013 Commencement Ceremonies awarding seven Master of Arts in Theological Studies. Arlington Diocese priest and Graduate School professor Fr. Paul de Ladurantaye celebrated Mass before the ceremony, which was held in Christ the King Chapel.
During the ceremony, each graduate received the academic hood, signifying his or her Masters degree, by Graduate School Dean Dr. Kristin Burns, and then received his or her diploma from College Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Steven Snyder.
Graduate Ryan Brady gave the valedictory address.
“We graduates have so much to be thankful for,” he said. “On behalf of each one of us, I’d like to specifically thank the faculty for their innumerable sacrifices and for guiding us so wisely along the path to truth. We will truly be forever grateful. The whole Christendom community, in fact, has done so much to give us a foretaste of the community of the Blessed in Heaven.”
Valedictorian Ryan Brady
Brady reflected on the ability of man to know the truth and rejected the modern notion that man can simply create his reality or system of values and that all morality is subjective and relative.
“We have been providentially led by His grace to a Graduate School that not only believes that objective truths and norms of reality can be known, but also knows the ideal way of coming to know them,” he said.
Brady said that the truth, which can be known through reason, finds its completion in divine revelation and the Word of God, Jesus Christ.
“Having come into intimate contact with this Word through Sacred Scripture, the Sacraments, the Holy Eucharist, and so many of our teachers and friends at Christendom, may we not only treasure such a blessing, but learn to share it with others,” he said. [Click here to read his entire speech.]
The majority of the graduates will continue their graduate studies at schools such as Kings College at the University of London, Ave Maria University, and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum). This class also features the Graduate School’s first student, James May, to earn the MA completely online.
The seven Master of Arts degrees were conferred on Ryan Brady, Ramona Carter, Bradley Cypher, James Hannon, James May, Adam Richard, and Janna Stockinger.
For more information about the Christendom Graduate School please visit christendom.edu/graduate.
Christendom’s Graduate School of Theology: Class of 2013