Commissioning of Graduates

Leader: Graduates, dearly beloved children of God, it is hard for us to watch you prepare to leave this place. Yet we know there is a time for every purpose under heaven. And we know that at this time the world that you enter needs what you carry with you: the Joy of Salvation, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Motions of Grace.

Graduating seniors: We carry with us the Cross of Christ.

Leader: And do you understand what it means to carry His Cross?

Graduating seniors: It means that all we do, we do as grateful servants of Jesus.

Leader: It means that without complaining or tiring, you must pursue your vocations with energy and discipline, practice your professions with purpose and integrity, serve your families, your churches, your colleagues, your friends and your enemies with the humility and the love of Jesus.

Graduating seniors: We understand what it means and pledge to carry the Cross of Christ.

Leader: It means that you must dedicate yourselves to accomplishing all that is good in your communities, you must promote peace and justice, you must fight against cruelty and greed, you must advance healing and hope wherever you move in the world.

Graduating seniors: It means that all we do, we do as grateful servants of Jesus.

Leader: And thanks to the Living God, to carry the Cross also means to bear the light and the power of the resurrection—to carry the imagination of the Creator, the resolve of the Redeemer, the breath of the Spirit—into a world in need.

Graduating seniors: We are prepared and privileged to carry the Light of Christ into a world dark without the hope of salvation.

Leader: Then shine like stars in the world’s dark sky. Be bright with the light of Truth and Love. Become to the world a constellation, stars together that outline the beautiful story of Light and Life.

Graduating seniors: With God’s grace and help, we will.

Leader: We will thank our God for you and always remember you with joy, confident that the God who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. Carry His Cross. Hold out the Word of Life. Carry His Light into the World.

All: Thanks be to God.