Tonight the College celebrates Founders’ Day! We celebrate the courage of Boniface Wimmer and his 18 companions who crossed the ocean and came to these foothills of the Laurel Mountains and established our College and the Archabbey.

To commemorate this, we will have Vespers and an Honors Convocation at 4 pm in the Basilica, and then the ENTIRE student body will gather for dinner in the Carey Center. At the conclusion of the dinner, as is our tradition, the Benedictine monks will sing the Ultima, a song with a history stretching back over a millennium, and then we will have the lighting of Melvin Platz (with a little snow from God forecast to make it exceptionally beautiful) and then some fireworks to conclude the festivities.

At the Basilica, I will be introducing our speaker, Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, who leads all of us. Later, in the Carey Center, I will have brief remarks before dinner. For those of you who will miss one or the other of these talks – and because I have written these remarks myself so I can get a two-fer and blog it – I provide them below. See you later today!

Comments at Vespers in the Basilica:

Archabbot Douglas, Dean Spore, Dean Kaylor, and other leaders of our faculty and administration present. I want to congratulate again the students who just received "Who's Who" awards today, and welcome all of our other students here, especially our seniors.

Let me briefly single out a few students deserving of special thanks. Steven Leuschel - who has been your Student Government executive board president this year – soon will be stepping down when his replacement is elected December 5th. He has worked tirelessly on your behalf – as have all of our executive board members – Dan Brett, Michael Palscey, and Josh Dott. Our senior class continues to be led by class president Matt Feigel and the other officers, senators and hall representatives of the College. Thank you all.

I also want to congratulate senior Sherrie Dunlap who recently was chosen among College students from across the state as Pennsylvania's Communicator of the Year. Please stand up, Sherrie, so we can all honor you.

I'll have an opportunity to honor a few other students later when we assemble in the gym for our Founders' Day Dinner. For now, it is my privilege to introduce to you the gentleman - and I mean that word in its literal sense - who will give our convocation address, Archabbot Douglas Nowicki.

When my wife, five kids and I drove up to Saint Vincent for the very first time a couple of years ago, it was at night. The very first thing that we saw was the area all lit up in front of the Basilica and this huge bronze statue of a man pointing. I wasn't sure why he was pointing, but my kids knew instantly - he was pointing to the Dairy Queen.

Now that I am president of the College, I know well who the bronze figure is - our founder Boniface Wimmer - and where he is pointing. To use his own words, he is pointing forward, always forward, everywhere forward.

If that is the case, then Boniface Wimmer and his companions needed followers to carry on what they began. Archabbot Douglas, our College's Chancellor and today's speaker, has faithfully governed this archabbey, College and seminary for over 15 years, and has called these sacred grounds his home for over 40.

To know the Archabbot is to know that he is a man on a mission who seldom rests. He is tireless. He lives "always forward" every day. And while he keeps a schedule that is very demanding, he has never forgotten Mother Teresa's admonition that "if you are too busy to pray, you are too busy."

He is not too busy to pray. He is up each day around 5 and prays, and then gathers with his monks in these stalls at 6:30 for Morning Prayer, followed by Holy Mass, his day's highlight. He tries to be with his brothers for midday prayer and vespers whenever he can. He derives great strength from his prayer life, from the Eucharist that he adores, and from his confreres, his brothers, his monks.

After all, today is Founders' Day – plural possessive – because it recognizes that it was a community of monks and not just an individual great leader, who founded Saint Vincent and began the forward momentum that has lasted these161 years. This monastic family of Benedictine monks is his family. He travels to attend the funerals of the parents of his monks; he frequents the infirmary visiting his sick brothers; he is in the refectory each day he is in town breaking bread with his brothers and laughing at the jokes of the monks – even the ones that Fr. Jacques tells.

He not only is not too busy to pray, he also is not too busy to play. His training in child psychology – where he got his Ph.D. – reflects his child-like wonder and awe, and he loves to see it in the eyes of the little ones. When my four-year old daughter Marie sees the Archabbot and me, she runs up and immediately goes to hug the Archabbot. She does this particularly when it is around the time that the Archabbot sets my salary for the year. We have trained her well.

But it is true – Marie loves to see the Archabbot. He connects with her. He feels at home with young people – and also with young adults like you. He knows that his vocation and mission are tied to your well-being.

Just as Boniface Wimmer's statue is pointing forward - our founder is also pointing to you to come closer. Archabbot Douglas knows this. He carries on this tradition by calling you to come closer to the Basilica, just as Jesus called his disciples, to come closer to His Heart and seek the truth about life and about yourselves; to come closer and discover the beauty and glory that resides in the heart of God; to come closer and experience the meek and humble heart of Jesus; to come closer and encounter Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus, to whom the Church and this College are entrusted; to come closer to the campus and study here, pray here, play here, rest here.

Each of you have responded and come closer and now you stand as seniors who will soon enter the world to make a living for yourself and a difference for others. It is my pleasure to invite you to listen attentively to our Chancellor Archabbot, our leader, your friend, the Right Reverend Douglas Nowicki.

Comments at the dinner in the Carey Center:

I want to welcome everyone. I am Jim Towey, your president. My wife Mary and the kids and my mom will be joining us shortly - we love our life at Saint Vincent and hope that you do, too.

I won't speak long, but I do want to grab this moment while we are all together to give you some updates and also thank some folks and honor others.

First, I want to thank the 50 or so students who joined Ryan Dreliszak who volunteered to decorate Melvin Platz and make the campus so nice – check out the nativity scene that student government set up near Placid Hall. Thanks to everyone who put in so much time on this.

Let me also thank our orientation leaders who did so much earlier this year to make our new students feel at home - Crista Hill, Glenn Rapsinski, and Ryan Retter, and all of the assistant chairs. Also, want to thank Nathan Harig, Chair of the Activities Programming Board, and all of the students who are team leaders and give so much of their time.

As for commencement in May, we're still working on attracting an excellent commencement speaker for our graduating seniors. We wanted Pope Benedict but he is coming to America in April, instead of May, so close but no Pontiff.

As for speakers other than the Pope, we can't get the president of the United States because we just had him. We can't invite the Vice President because he'll want to hunt while he’s on our campus and we don't want anyone shot.

How many students here competed in Fall Sports? Please raise your hand.

We had a great season, and I want to thank Fr. Myron, Kristen Zawacki, and all of coaches. The fall season was filled with many bright spots and a few historic achievements.

Our women's tennis team had the most wins of any Saint Vincent team ever; so did our women's soccer team, who finished strong and won seven of their last 8 games. Congratulations ladies!

Our men's cross country team was loaded with stars: Wayne Hooper finished 1st overall in the ECAC championship and Adam Smith won the PAC championship. Mary and I look forward to having your team over at our house in December for lunch. This year it was volleyball and men’s cross country’s turn, and we’ll get all of the teams in our home as soon as we can.

Laura Magnuson led our women's cross country team and also received a PAC Coaches Award. I was proud of all of our runners and watched them run at our Invitational meet and they are unbelievable. When I jog, I run over by the cemetery so in case I have the big one, it’s one – stop shopping.

Volleyball rocked with a 23-9 record – Kristin Hozak, Jamie Kelly and their teammates did a great job. They were over at our house a week ago and they are a lot of fun.

I enjoyed getting to watch some of our men's soccer and women's field hockey games. The men finished strong winning their last two games, and played powerhouse Messiah close; and the women's field hockey team won a couple of close games on the road. They played their hearts out and showed some real improvement.

Last but not least – a dedicated group of young men put on shoulder pads and helmets and brought football back to Saint Vincent, and with it a ton of excitement to our campus. They remind me of the monks of 1846 whom we honor today on Founders' Day who came from Germany to these foothills of SW Pennsylvania and braved cold nights like tonight and made many sacrifices and endured countless hardships so that future generations of monks and students would have it easier. I want to thank our football athletes – our pioneers – for all they contributed to SVC – they made us all proud, and we can't wait for next season.

Before I ask our Archabbot, Archabbot Douglas, to offer a blessing before we begin our feast, as your president, I want to say a few final words. This College cares about your intellectual, moral, and spiritual development. God has entrusted you to Saint Vincent and the good monks, faculty, staff and administrators here, for a reason. God calls you to grow. God calls you to seek the truth about yourself and your world. I hope you take advantage of the many opportunities you have here to grow.

Last night there was a meeting here on campus about the 2008 Calcutta trip I will be leading in May, and dozens of students will be applying to go. Ten who went last year shared with their fellow students their experiences – they were transformed by what they did and saw. Fr. Vincent, our director of Campus Ministry, is leading a big group to Brazil at spring break. Kelly King and Jarod Trunzo, the leaders of our College's service learning effort to get students to give and to love and to help others, are brand new to Saint Vincent. They are here as a bridge between you and the poor, between you and volunteering. Please get to know them. There are so many needs, and so many opportunities. Please get involved.

At this time, I invite Archabbot Douglas to offer a blessing for this feast. Thank you. God bless you.