PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE When I think back on this year, I am reminded of how things can change so quickly, and how we can be swept away in the moment.” President Andy Morris
Dear Alumni and Friends,
starting lineup for the first baseball game. We had hopes of preparing our plans for Greetings Mater Dei Community, prom. We had hopes of having one more April 26th was the Third Sunday of Easter. lunch in the cafeteria with our friends. We It was a few weeks before the end of the had hopes for a graduation. To be together school year and we were entering the for handshakes, high-fives and hugs in our seventh week of our pandemic shut-down. celebrations. To even simply look at one At this point we knew we would not be another and say – “have a good summer,” or completing the year in the traditional fashion, “thanks for a GREAT year.” and in several ways, our environments had For these early Christians in the reading, they adapted to this “new normal.” Everyone’s felt the same way. They were upset, they lives had dramatically changed. were disheartened and they had no idea The Third Sunday of Easter the Gospel of what the future looked like – but they reading was from Luke, chapter 24, better weren’t alone. At the end of their journey known as the “Road to Emmaus.” In this for that day, they recognized that they were reading, two individuals were traveling seven traveling with Jesus, and that all hope was miles outside of Jerusalem, and as the song not gone. He then vanished from their sight. by the same name (Bob Hurd, 2000) would Through this journey we know first and sing – they were “disheartened and lost; all foremost that Christ has been with us and for their hopes for a future had been nailed to us. We have not been alone, and even in a cross.” These two individuals had been those times of uncertainty and fear, we was witnesses to the crucifixion and believers and always close to us. followers in Christ Jesus and had left town in In the same way, this Mater Dei community a state of sadness. At the same very moment has been Christ-like to one another, and as they left, “Jesus drew near and walked we have been there for each other. As I with then, but their eyes were prevented complete my first year, I never would have from recognizing him.” (LK 15-16) imagined the journey we would endure, When I think back on this year, I am reminded and through all of this, the one thing I keep of how things can change so quickly, and coming back to is gratitude. how we can be swept away in the moment. I am so grateful for a tremendous amount For so many of us, we had so many “hopes of effort given by our teachers to change for a future.” We had hopes for being in the continued on page 7
1
