Prayers Are Stronger When We Pray Together."

Dear parents and guardians, relatives and guests; our staff, faculty, and administrators; and to our
guest speaker Mr. Norman Agatep, good evening.
And to our dear graduates, good evening.

A few days before election day, I remember posting a quote from a protestant pastor by the
name of Rev. Raphael Warnock, as a reminder of the sacredness of the act of voting. And the
complete quote goes: “A vote is a prayer about the kind of world we want to live in. And our
prayers are stronger when we pray together.”
And pray we did, pray together we did. And our prayers for a better Philippines were
expressed not only in the ballots that we cast but in the many activities that we engaged in as
well in the weeks before election. Never in my life have I witnessed so many young people
investing themselves in this elections: attending rallies, campaigning house-to-house, or posting
reminders and reflections on social media.
Pray we did both in words and in deeds and fervently we prayed. But I was told that many
among you, along with many of our young alumni and many other young people, grieve today
because you feel that your prayers have not been heard, that your hopes for a Philippines of
which you dream and desire, hopes for a country of which you can be proud, have been dashed.
And for many first-time voters, the recent elections may have been a disheartening experience.
And when we are disheartened and disillusioned, we are tempted to go to either of two
extremes—the extreme of cynicism and indifference or the extreme of radical, violent and
destructive action. My dear graduates, please resist the temptation of going to either of these
extremes. Stay in the middle.
Staying in the middle does not mean that you become fence-sitters, choosing to commit to
nothing, refusing to take action. Rather, staying in the middle means you choose the way of
active non-violence to engage the political life of the country. But to do this you have to learn
one important lesson from our recent experience of the elections: We cannot simply dream for
our country. We have to also dream with our people. The recent elections that there still is a
great divide between the rich and the poor, between the educated and miseducated, between the
haves and have-nots. Our experience tells us that perhaps we have remained trapped in the safety
of our homes secured by high walls and fences, that we have secluded ourselves in our gated
villages, that we have even been perhaps protected from all the filth of society within the four
walls of our sanitized school campus.
My dear graduates, we have to dream not only for our people but also with our people.
And to do this, please remember two things:
Always strive to be a person with and for others. Reach out to the poor, care for the
vulnerable, listen to their dreams and desires, get to know what they hope for. Get to know your
country and countrymen, and in knowing them, may you fall in love with them, then and only
then can you dream with them and work with them for a better Philippines.
Always aim for the magis, the more. Be more so that you can do more in the service of God
and country, with more love for God and country, and always for the greater glory of God. As
you move to higher education, please always bear in mind that you live in a world waiting for
goodness to be done to it; so please, please, always aim to be better so that you can bring more
goodness to this world.
I would like to end by echoing the words of Jose Rizal in his novel El Filibusterismo. As the
idealistic Simoun lay dying before him, Padre Florentino laments the loss of another young man
who loved his country. And so he murmurs:
Nasaan ang kabataang dapat mag-alay ng kaniyang, ng kaniyang mga panaginip at
sigasig ukol sa kabutihan ng kaniyan Inang Bayan? Nasaan siya na dapat kusang-loob na
magbuhos ng kaniyang dugo upang mahugasan ang napakaraming kahihiyan, ang
napakaraming pagkakasala, ang napakaraming kasuklam-suklam? Dalisay at walang
batik dapat ang alay upang tanggapin ang paghahandog! Nasaan kayo, mga kabataan, na
magsasakatauhan sa sigla ng buhay, na tumakas na sa aming mga ugat, sa kadalisayan ng
pag-iisip na nabulok sa aming mga utak, sa apoy ng sigasig na napugto sa aming mga
puso? Hinihintay naming kay, O mga kabataan! Halikayo, sapagkat hinihintay naming
kayo!
And to this I dare say, “G. Rizal, narito na sa harapan namin ang mga kabataang iyong
hinihintay!” My dear graduates, please do not let us down.
Isang maluwalhating pagpupugay sa inyong mga nagsitapos! Gōngxǐ! Congratulations and a

blessed evening to all!
The sick man said nothing, so Padre Florentino, deeply thoughtful, murmured: “Where are the
youth who will consecrate their golden hours, their illusions, and their enthusiasm to the welfare
of their native land? Where are the youth who will generously pour out their blood to wash away
so much shame, so much crime, so much abomination? Pure and spotless must the victim be that
the sacrifice may be acceptable! Where are you, youth, who will embody in yourselves the vigor
of life that has left our veins, the purity of ideas that has been contaminated in our brains, the
fire of enthusiasm that has been quenched in our hearts? We await you, O youth! Come, for we
await you!

Prayers Are Stronger When We Pray Together."

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Dear parents and guardians, relatives and guests; our staff, faculty, and administrators; and to our

guest speaker Mr. Norman Agatep, good evening.

And to our dear graduates, good evening.

Isang maluwalhating pagpupugay sa inyong mga nagsitapos! Gōngxǐ! Congratulations and a

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