Speaking at Notre Dame’s commencement ceremonies yesterday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan told graduates that Mary is not just our patroness, but our model. He explained:



Now, as you complete [your] years at this acclaimed university dedicated to her, you are asked the same pivotal question the Archangel Gabriel once posed to her: will you let God take flesh in you? Will you give God a human nature? Will He be reborn in you? . . .

Here at Notre Dame we do not strive to be like Harvard or Oxford, but like Bethlehem, Nazareth, Cana, Calvary, and the Upper Room at Pentecost . . . with Mary, as the Word becomes flesh in the one who called Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life.