Reflection of Father Moreno's Homily: May 29, 2011

Ask the Holy Spirit to descend upon us and those who will graduate or who have graduated.

In the sixth chapter of Saint John, at the Last Supper, Christ prays for His disciples, His apostles. Christ knows He will be betrayed, He will be tortured, He will be crucified, He will die, but He will also rise from the dead.

Father Moreno told the graduates that they had to launch out of the comfort zone.

Sometimes parents want to cling to their babies, like Mary Magdalene wanted to cling to Jesus.

Forty-nine years ago Father Moreno graduated, he was the first one in his family to leave home and go to college.

He remembers how his mother told him to kneel and she blessed him with holy oil and said, “I love you”. Just like he heard his mother tell him “I love you”, he hears Jesus tell him “I love you”.

He spent 42 years as a Chaplain in the military.

He went to Denver and heard Pope John Paul II tell the young people, “Do not be afraid and to know and always remember and never forget that they were wonderful and beautiful”. Jesus loves us and anoints us with the Holy Spirit.

Father Moreno was engaged for 2 years and then it was broken off and what kept him going was that Jesus loved him.

Father Moreno told the graduates to remember that Jesus loves them because the world will lure them with drugs, prostitution, murder and hatred and they have to cling to the reality that Jesus loves them, that Jesus is with them each time they are challenged.

Father Moreno asked each graduate to bring a rose to Jesus to thank Him. A rose represents life; the color red represents passion and love.

He told the graduates to be passionate and go for it.

His high school counselor told him that he was either going into the army or to prison.

Parents tell your children that you love them.

Father Moreno told the graduates they can begin a new life and that this can be a new beginning.

Father Moreno asked the congregation to pray in silence for the graduates.