June 7, 2023

Dear Holy Cross Class of 2023,

Peace and Good!

Well, you made it! I know you are getting a lot of advice and counsels these days as you graduate and make your way to High School. Your parents, Godparents, principal, teachers and others are congratulating you and giving you encouragement and perhaps gifts to mark this big step of transition. I trust they will give you wise counsels about many practical matters in your life. Here, I want to write to you as a spiritual father.

This is my first time writing a letter to Holy Cross graduating 8^th graders, since I arrived in 2018. Since I have walked with you for five years, including the two years of Covid, I believe I can now speak to you as a spiritual father and leave you here some counsels that I hope you will not just read, but integrate into your lives, and your souls.

Perseverance

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When I was a college student, my father sent me by mail a simple card during the week of final exams and papers. He wrote, “Keep your nose to the grindstone!” That is another way of saying, “Stay focused and don’t give up!” Everyone knows that striving for excellence in any area of life is hard work, and that the flesh is weak on its own. We easily fall into distractions. For example, how many times when you were studying, did you stop to check your phone for messages, or glance at your social media feed, or simply watch videos? This is so easy to do, right?

If you are to become the young men and women God intends you to be, you will need a good measure of stick-to-it-ness, focus, perseverance, discipline, and the *will power* to fight and work hard toward your goals. Here’s a fact: you cannot attain to these qualities on your own—you will need *grace*! Grace is the “life of God” you receive from the sacraments, the Word of God, prayer, obedience to the Holy Spirit, purity of heart, and acts of charity. The more grace you have, the more spiritual powers and capacities you will have. That is a fact of the spiritual life.

*Live* Your Faith…or Live an Empty Life

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Do *not* stop practicing your faith when you leave here! Living your faith means more than making the sign of the cross and asking for a few things from God in the morning and evening. It means reading the Gospel and literally putting it into practice—living the Word of God. It also means—showing up! Have you heard the phrase, “90% of life is showing up”? Well, the same is true with faith. If you don’t show up to church on Sundays (for those who physically are able to get there)—you are not living your faith.

If you believe in Jesus Christ and the Word of God, then you believe that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:16). Therefore, Love (God) is commanding you—not proposing or merely inviting you in the 3^rd Commandment—but commanding you to be with Him and the Body of Christ on Sundays. So, follow the logic: if you choose not to do so—my young brother and sister—then you are not in communion with Love; you are not living your faith; you are not receiving grace; and you will not be sustained by the Life who is Christ.

I know this might sound strong—but I write this from a place of love—love for God, for souls, and, here, love for *you*. I have lived life and served enough souls to know what I am writing you is true. If you walk away from the demands and commands of Love, then one day you will find yourself, at best, only superficially “happy” and lacking true inner joy; or, more likely, empty, bored, and a man or woman who is less than you ought to be; or, at worst, anxious, addicted, depressed and stuck. I invite you to read this letter when you are 30 years old, and let me know if what I am writing is true or not.

I am giving you these counsels from the experience of working many years with your older brothers and sisters in the Lord: high school students, college students, young adults and adults. I have watched very closely what happens to souls when they live lives based on their own gifts, talents, desires, passions, pursuits and goals; and, in doing so, they leave behind the *practice* of the faith. It is sad.

Later in life when they wake up to this reality, many find that it is not easy to “make up” for the lost years. Like the Prodigal Son, they “wake up to their senses” and start to “come back” and “return to God,” and, if they are sincere in repentance, they will always find His merciful embrace and forgiveness; but the process of “reversion” or “re-conversion” for the Prodigal Son had only just begun when he went home; and this process is often a long road of great struggle…but it does not have to be this way.

I implore you—even if only one or two of you read this and make the decision to continue practicing and living the faith, I thank the Lord—for the good of your soul, your life, your future—I urge you: live the faith now, after graduation, and consistently…until you die.

Keep “showing up” with an open heart to Jesus Christ—and you will find out very soon just how deep, consistent, life-giving, soul-altering, gift-bestowing, and destiny-transforming is the Love of Jesus Christ and His unfathomable graces that He will pour into the souls of those who love Him. Trust these words.

As your spiritual father, I write these words with peace because I know they are true. My deepest desires for you are: principally, your salvation in eternal life; and, secondly, that you become young men and women who give glory to God by living lives that are “fully alive,” so that your “joy may be complete.” The *only* Way to achieve these life and eternal life goals, my young brother and sister, is to conform your life completely and totally the person of Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Please do not hesitate to reach out anytime, for any need whatsoever. We are here for you!

I love you in Christ, and I will keep you in my prayers.

Sincerely in the Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Fr. Vincent Druding

The Bronx, NY