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You are here today to support one another in growing in faith, love, and hope as the path to Christ. In Mary, we see how these virtues filled her with grace, opened her God’s initiative, and enabled her to consent to her unique vocation, a vocation which led her to share fully in the sufferings of her Son.

As we celebrate All Souls’ Day, let us remember our beloved dead—parents, grandparents, spouses, friends, even our enemies, and let us pray earnestly for the happy repose of their souls.

Let this celebration of All Saints and this 150th anniversary of the presence of the Capuchins, combined with the installation of your new pastor – let it all conspire to bring about a renewal of hope in our hearts, as together, we journey towards the Kingdom of the Beatitudes.

It is always a pleasure to visit my alma mater, but I could not have come on a more propitious day than this – the day on which your new Rector is to be installed and the feast day of St. Simon and Jude, Simon the Zealot and Jude the Patron of Hope.

Humility, love for the poor, zeal for the truth – three qualities drawn from the Scriptures and exemplified in your professional lives and in the healthcare institutions you represent. Thank you for your service.

We’ve gathered this afternoon to celebrate the blessings of these past 25 years, as this “mission church” has proved itself to be truly a missionary church that has reached out in welcome to everyone seeking a spiritual home, and in a special way, to those who have recently come to the United States.

We are living in days that call for the unconquerable faith of Abraham, and likewise, the faith of Ignatius and the Jesuit missionaries and martyrs, not to mention my predecessors who helped lay the foundations of the Church in these United States.