Annunciation Circle

On May 8, Ave Maria University opened Commencement weekend with a Baccalaureate Mass at Ave Maria Catholic Parish, celebrating the Class of 2026 alongside their families, faculty, staff, and students. Bishop Stephen Parkes of the Diocese of Savannah delivered the homily, drawing on the Gospel of John 15:12-17 to issue the graduating class a challenge as simple as it is demanding: love.

"Love one another as He has loved us," Bishop Parkes said, reflecting on Jesus' words. "In John chapter fifteen, it's interesting to note that Jesus says, 'This is my command.' This was not a suggestion."

Bishop Parkes opened by noting the occasion fell on the one-year anniversary of the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pope. Marking the moment, he offered graduates a framework for a life well-lived drawn from St. Augustine: "To seek God is the greatest adventure, to fall in love with Him is the greatest romance, and to find Him is the greatest human accomplishment."

Throughout his homily, Bishop Parkes emphasized that God's love is not a reward to be earned but a gift to be received and shared. "We receive God's love not because of who we are, but because of who He is," he said. He called graduates to embrace what he described as a twofold mission: to be open to love and to go out as courageous, joyful witnesses of that love to the world.

He pointed to the Blessed Mother, patroness of Ave Maria University, as a model. "Her incredible response of love in the way that she lived her life should inspire each one of us to follow her example," he said, recalling the Magnificat.

Echoing the Acts of the Apostles, Bishop Parkes reminded graduates that the early Christians were sent out into the unknown with nothing but faith, and that God watched over them. He quoted Mother Teresa: "God has called me not to be successful, but He has called me to be faithful."

He offered graduates a threefold counsel for life after graduation: stay close to God in prayer, stay close to the Church, and stay close to your family. "If you do those three things, it's pretty amazing—everything else falls into place."

His homily closed with a question he said each person will one day face before God. "I don't think he's going to want a laundry list of all of the good deeds we did in our lives," Bishop Parkes said. "But he may ask us one very simple question: How did you love?"

The spirit of that question carried into the remarks that followed. Before the final blessing, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Patrick Rainey introduced Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, founder of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth, whose religious order maintains a community on the AMU campus. In introducing her, Rainey recalled the moment he first saw Mother Olga pause before the life-size statue of Mother Teresa in the Thomas and Selby Prince Building—struck not only by the resemblance in stature, but by "her spirit of love and mercy, which she exudes at every moment."

Mother Olga, who was born in Iraq and came to the United States in 2001, grounded her remarks in Jeremiah 1:5—"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart." Drawing on her ministry in hospitals and prisons, and her own vocation story, she told graduates that a mission does not require certainty, only faithfulness. She pointed to Jeremiah 29:11 as her anchor—God's promise of plans for a future and a hope, declared not once but three times in a single verse.

"Whether you know what you are set apart for or not, I want you to trust Him," she said with a smile.

When Benjamin Franklin walked out of the Constitutional Convention and was asked what kind of government the founders had given the country, his answer was famously conditional: "A republic, if you can keep it." Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took up that same sentiment today at Ave Maria University's Commencement exercises, where he addressed more than 340 graduates and was awarded an honorary degree.

The Governor opened by praising the University's distinctive campus culture and its refusal to follow ideological trends. "You are not being swept up in the spirit of the age," he told graduates. "You have a university that regards faith and reason as complementary, and that's to provide a lens through which we can find the truth."

From there, he turned to St. Paul's charge to Timothy to "guard the deposit entrusted to you," and argued that truth—whether theological or civic—does not sustain itself. Faith, he reminded the audience, has outlasted the Roman Empire, the barbarian invasions, Enlightenment skepticism, and modern totalitarian regimes, not because it was popular but because it was objectively true. "Truth is not subject to a popular vote," he said, "and it doesn't follow popular facts. The Church's role is to shape the times through faith, not to exchange these timeless truths for temporary relevance. North is still north. Right is still right, even when you have to stand all by yourself."

That same conviction, he argued, lies at the heart of the American experiment. Some 250 ago, 56 men risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to put their names on the Declaration of Independence—knowing, he reminded graduates, that signing meant either success or death. "That is not the equivalent of just popping off on social media." The founders had studied every previous republic in human history and found a single common thread: all of them had failed. The American experiment was meant to answer once and for all whether a self-governing people, living under the rule of law and acknowledging rights given by God rather than government, was even possible.

DeSantis argued that the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are enduring precisely because they are true, rooted in an accurate account of human nature and the God-given origin of rights. Invoking George Washington's phrase, he called on graduates to preserve "the sacred fire of liberty," and he traced that flame through the signing of the Declaration, Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, the Allied landings at Normandy, and Reagan's challenge at the Berlin Wall. That flame, he cautioned, "does not run on autopilot. It requires every generation of Americans to step up and defend freedom when it is at risk."

Turning to the world the graduates are entering, DeSantis warned against being "governed by the almighty algorithm." Information overload and artificial intelligence, he said, can serve truth or obscure it; technology must "enhance the human experience, not supplant the human experience," a conviction he said flows naturally from the Catholic understanding of human dignity that AMU graduates carry with them.

He closed by returning to Franklin's challenge. "With faithful and civic-minded graduates like we honor today, who have a great foundation and are wearing the full armor of God," he said, "the answer to Franklin's question is: yes, we can keep the republic—and yes, we will keep the republic."

To listen to Governor Ron DeSantis' full Commencement speech, click here.

As growing economic uncertainty and moral confusion about markets and wealth continue to mount, Ave Maria University is offering a new "Pursuit of Wisdom" course designed to help Catholics think clearly and faithfully about economic life. "Economics and Catholic Social Teaching," taught by Dr. Gabriel X. Martinez, invites participants to explore economic principles through the lens of the Church's social doctrine, placing the dignity of the human person and the pursuit of the common good at the center of economic decision-making.

"Economic questions are never purely technical, they are deeply moral," said Dr. Martinez, associate professor of business and economics at Ave Maria University. "The Church gives us a rich tradition to evaluate systems like capitalism and socialism, not only by their efficiency, but by how well they uphold human dignity and promote authentic human flourishing."

The course walks participants through key economic concepts, including supply and demand, market equilibrium and economic growth, while grounding each topic in the wisdom of the Church. Drawing from landmark encyclicals, such as Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo Anno, Centesimus Annus, and Laudato Si', the course highlights core Catholic principles, such as subsidiarity, solidarity, and the universal destination of goods. In addition to explaining how markets function, the course challenges Catholics to consider how they live out their faith in everyday economic choices, from how they spend, save, and invest, to how they engage broader questions of public policy and social justice.

All Ave Maria University's free "Pursuit of Wisdom" courses, including "Economics and Catholic Social Teaching," can be accessed via The Pursuit of Wisdom and the free "Pursuit of Wisdom" app, available to download on major app store platforms.