Here is your awesome story of the day!
The 2010 Harvard Valedictorian, Mary Anne Marks, who delivered her valedictory speech in Latin is joining the awesome Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor. Boy I love those nuns!
Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Miss Marks in “God and Woman at Harvard “
Perhaps this is becoming a trend:
LOPEZ: I don’t know Harvard to be a great incubator or beacon of religious vocations. Am I wrong?MARKS: Yes, Deo gratias! A couple of years ago, a young man who finished Harvard in three years entered the seminary in St. Louis. A little further back, a young woman who attended Harvard and lived in the same women’s residence that I did joined the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal. One of my friends, whom I met while she was pursuing a degree at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, joined the Religious Sisters of Mercy two years ago. This July 25, two young men from Harvard joined the Eastern Province of the Dominicans.
This is wonderful news!
And Just for fun, here is her valedictory speech.
August 26, 2010 at 5:35 pm
The full Latin text and the English translation was in the program that everyone received at the door. It was an amazing speech!
Suzanne from Oklahoma
August 26, 2010 at 6:00 pm
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/05/commence-wonderment/ It is a Harvard tradition.
Pax et bonum
August 26, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Harvard has always had a Latin oratory at its major events. It is not unique to Harvard. I believe some Oxford colleges still do it too. So it is not as if this woman simply decided to address the crowd in Latin just for her own grandstanding. That is a rather callous way to think.
Also, this is not the valedictory speech (hint: salvete!). It is the salutatory speech. She begins the event with a Latin salutation, generally talking about the college. The actually keynote speeches happen sometime afterward. Don't worry, these will be in English.
August 26, 2010 at 7:01 pm
I like the Army of Mary bunch. They take mary worship to the heights where it should be. We need to stop covering up our worship of Mary to the outside world by calling it adoration and what not.Be honest, we catholics worship Mary, we bow befor her images.One day soon the Pope will declair that Mary is not just co-redeemer, but co- God. Lets come out of the closet and declair to the world that we worship Mary dear catholics. Hail Mary
August 26, 2010 at 7:22 pm
What a wonderful tradition! Keeping a rudder to one's past ensures a straighter course toward the future.
Not everyone is ignorant of Latin, by the way. Having had quite a bit of it in high school and college, I understood the speech. Those present had the translation in English. Be kind and think of others as you would have them think of you.
August 26, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Anounymous said "One day soon the Pope will declair that Mary is not just co-redeemer, but co- God."
Ummmm… you might want to do a bit more reading on the fifth Marian dogma, both pro and con.
Roman Catholics do not worship Mary, no matter how much we may love her (and we really, really do.) Even among those who promote the adoption of the terms Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces and Advocate, it is acknowledged that "…it must be understood «that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator».
There is one God, and one only.
August 26, 2010 at 7:42 pm
So the speech is in latin …. and most of the listeners read the text in english!!! Sounds just like the pre-Vatican II church … and those who love her speech are the very ones who in the church were/are reading the english side of their missalswhile the priests went on in latin. Some things, SADLY, never change
August 26, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Please drop the whiny "that's-so-pre-Vatican-II" dribble and grow up finally
August 26, 2010 at 9:14 pm
The reason that I really like this article is because I have a few atheist/agnostic friends/acquaintances at my high school who seem to have the opinion that religion is just for stupid people, which is very offensive to me. This article is proof of just the opposite and that makes me happy. It's like a silent victory for me. So I'm very happy to read this.
August 26, 2010 at 10:13 pm
One of my instructors in Latin at Berkeley gave this speech when she graduated from Harvard. She was a militant feminist atheist though, but a nice young woman. She had studied with Fr. Reginald Foster in Rome, and encouraged me to do the same. (Though I told her that as an older returning student, I had chased enough butterflies in my lifetime.) Sadly, she died in a tragic bicycle accident a couple of months after I took her class on early Republican prose. Sort of a sad footnote, but she was very, very enthusiastic about a very obscure subject (always told us that we HAD to take Greek, and Sanskrit, if we were really up to snuff).
August 26, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Anonymous said, "Sounds just like the pre-Vatican II church … and those who love her speech are the very ones who in the church were/are reading the english side of their missalswhile the priests went on in latin."
A bit presumptuous, don't you think? Are you absolutely sure that your statement is correct?
Besides, this article is about a speech given at a university that has absolutely nothing to do with the Catholic Church. It's a liberal arts education, which has this as what they do. Let them do it and don't watch if it makes one feel upset, or whatever…
Congratulations Miss Marks! Felicidades!
August 27, 2010 at 2:20 am
With due respect, I don't understand why people make a big deal when accomplished people abandon everything to serve the Lord. I remember a priest once said that people would often wonder if they see a good-looking priest, as if he had some really serious reasons behind to forego marriage when he can be every woman's dream.
Then he said, let us change our way of thinking that it seems only the broken-hearted, ugly, dumb people are in the seminaries and convents giving up the world for God.
God deserves only the best. He is befitting of the brightest among the brightest and the best among the best.
August 27, 2010 at 3:43 am
I predict, within the next millenium, Latin will be resurrected as the Universal language. Of course, this will co-incide with the renewal of the Tridentine Rite Mass and the mass conversion of first the Anglicans, then the Lutherans, then the Russian and Greek Orthodox, then the Mormons, then the Hindus, then the Buddhists and finally the Muslims to Holy Mother Church, the one, holy, Roman Catholic Church.
August 27, 2010 at 6:17 am
She inspires me really. That interview was very encouraging, hopefully more youth will head in a similar direction as her.
August 27, 2010 at 11:05 am
she seems very geeky. i'm not surprised she joined the nunnery. poor girl.
August 27, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Well, well, who would have thought it: Harvard is actually good for something.
BTW, Diane's husband is perfectly correct. The hard C and other modern mispronunciations of Latin were indeed German innovations of the 19th century. A lot of deracinated university professors wanted to sever Latin from its indissoluble connection to the Faith and pretend it was a purely academic pursuit. – Elinor Dashwood, Yale 1981
August 28, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Those who denigrate Mary are to be pitied, for they are missing out on a most wonderful truth–the communion of saints. Those whi have died in Christ are more alive than we are in a greater and more glorious reality, and we can hope that one day we will be with them.
This is not the invention of any human beings but God's great gift to us to give us hope. Jesus promised not to abandon us. He is with us always and all the saints–not just Mary–are with Him(as He promised the thief on the cross) and they are "the great crowd of witnesses" spoken of in the Bible.
And if God allows Mary to make herself visible to some of her children at times to comfort us that is a great gift. Jesus promised to be with us for all time, and since He is God why cannot He and His saints make appearances at times if He sees fit? Heaven is more real than life on this earth for it is forever. Again, it's not something anyone made up.
Ruth
August 29, 2010 at 2:21 am
Wow! A bunch of really educated folks, and no one is entering the Jesuits…That's interesting to me.
August 30, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Those Dominicans will knock that Classical pronunciation right out of her, Deo gratias.
I think there's a line in Hinton's _Goodbye, Mr. Chips_ in which Chips refuses to adopt the new (i.e. "Classical") pronunciation because it sounds ridiculous ("Veni, vidi, vici"; one sounds like Elmer Fudd and not Caesar).
September 13, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Awesome post ! Thank you very much.