For Amelia Tallarini, wearing a cap and gown at a University of Minnesota commencement ceremony May 13 meant a lot less than a Mass two weeks earlier that honored her and other faith-filled graduates involved with the Twin Cities’ campus Newman Center.
It took 45 minutes to seat all the graduates at the Gopher football team’s Huntington Bank Stadium, Tallarini said. The April 30 Mass with Father Jake Anderson, pastor of the parish and director of the Newman Center, included 33 seniors, their close friends and family.
“With commencement at the university, you could tell they were just checking the box off,” said Tallarini, 22, who received bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and classics. The Mass, on the other hand, “was lovely. … At the very end, Father Jake said a blessing over us. I thought, ‘Wow, I know most of these people and I feel celebrated.’”
The graduation Mass has been celebrated for more than 10 years at St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center in Minneapolis. About 400 people attended this year’s Mass.
In his homily, Father Anderson reflected on the Gospel of John, Chapter 10, where Jesus proclaims, “All who came (before me) are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Noting the many doors people open or pass through every day to bedrooms, bathrooms, cars, refrigerators and microwaves, Father Anderson suggested that the reason people open or go through doors is to find more life: food for sustenance, travel to visit friends or attend church.
To be one with Christ requires going through him, like a gate, and remaining with him — seeking and finding life in the Lord, Father Anderson said.
“Jesus is the door to the life for which you are seeking,” he said. “This gets into our graduating seniors. A great reason we are so proud of you is that you have entered the door many times. … A lot of us are so moved because you have a well-worn path to Christ, each of you individually and as a body, as students.”
Rachel Holmes, who serves students at the Newman Center as a member of St. Paul’s Outreach college and university ministry, said the Mass was beautiful. “It was like commissioning them (graduates) into the world,” she said. “It was hopeful and joyful.”
Tallarini said she has been with the Newman Center since her first year in college. The last two years, she has joined small groups of women who discuss living the faith. She also attends daily Mass and adoration of the Eucharist, joins others at large Unite gatherings at the Newman Center, and just hangs around the center. She has been living with other Catholic women in a house near the Newman Center. On a large campus like the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and St. Paul, being part of the Newman Center has helped her find and keep meaningful relationships, Tallarini said.
“It (is) a hub for a like-minded community of people with the same values” and a variety of interests, Tallarini said. “And being able to go to the sacraments, especially daily Mass and daily adoration, it was an oasis compared to campus, in many ways.”
Tallarini said she will start work at the end of June at an insurance company in Golden Valley. She doesn’t plan to return to the Newman Center on a regular basis, but she will stay in touch with friends she met there.
The Mass was a great send off as she leaves the university, Tallarini said. Leaders at the Newman Center seemed to be saying, “Yes, you’ve benefited; now it’s time to go out” and glorify the Lord, she said.
