Greetings!
"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."
- Jeremiah 29:11
It's graduation season. It is a time when our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, godchildren, and friends are closing one chapter of their lives and opening a new one. This season offers much joy, excitement, and anticipation about the future and all of the opportunities that lie ahead.
It can also be a time of doubt and fear about the future. Graduates are often grappling with the bigger life questions...Will I get married? What career field is best for me? Will there be a job available for me? What is my purpose in life?
Ultimately, what matters most is God's plan for their lives.
We see in the above passage, Jeremiah 29:11, that God has plans for all of us. He desires our welfare and not our harm. He desires for us to have a future filled with hope.
Discovering and living out this plan requires prayer and docility to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, many of our young people are not open to hearing the voice of God or discerning His plan for their lives -- the plan that will bring them fulfillment in this life, and eternity with Him in the next.
This is why it is so critical for us to pray for our graduating children and young adults. Perhaps it is our prayer that will lead them to the vocation God intends for their ultimate happiness. Or maybe our prayers will help to avert their wandering off onto distant paths away from God's plan.
It is for these reasons that Women of Grace® offers our special novena of masses for graduates. This will be celebrated by Reverend Father Kennedy Kenneth Ocan of the Archdiocese of Gulu, Northern Uganda, beginning on May 26th and ending on June 3rd.
We invite you to use the link below to send me the names of your sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, godchildren, and friends who are graduating so we can include them in this Novena of Masses for their spiritual and temporal needs. My prayer is that these Masses will be a source of abundant grace and protection for our graduates.
Let us together protect and pray for our graduates to become all that God has created them to be!
