Spring 2025 - St. Bernard's Magazine (1) - Flipbook - Page 3
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Despair is a most unusual experience. It is not simply a profound sadness.
Rather, it is what we feel when two powerfully opposed forces clash, namely
our desire for and pursuit of some great good, and the realization that this great
good, for one reason or another, is simply beyond our reach! Such an emotion
is quite natural to us: for example, the medic who, in the desperate course of
the resuscitation of one who has drowned, suddenly realizes that his efforts are
in vain; or the poor and oppressed who, feeling the constant and seemingly
unchecked, tightening grip of economic or political tyranny, face the possibility
that they may never be delivered from their misfortune.
To not feel the grip of despair in such situations would indeed be inhuman,
a sign that something is not quite right with one’s person. However, the natural
experience of despair is not the issue. Rather, it is how we decide to release
ourselves from the despair that we feel, resolving it either by resigning
ourselves to the situation (and embracing the sadness that awaits), or by turning
boldly against those evils that afflict us and seeking a way by which we might defeat
them and realize the good that we so desire. To the former way belongs the vice
of despair, while to the latter belongs the virtue of hope.
Of the many things that can prevent one from turning to the vice of despair, the broadening of one’s vista
through education is one of the most effective, particularly as the vice of despair is realized through the
narrowing of one’s vision concerning the goods at play in one’s life and the options available to us to
overcome the evils that afflict us. Education, particularly one that is rooted in and declarative of the
great things of our Faith, is a key element at the heart of hope.
In this issue of the St. Bernard’s Magazine, we present stories of hope in which we, ever desirous of the
realization of the good things for which our Faith stands, can take heart. These are not stories of naïve
optimism, but solid, heartfelt, and realistic accounts offered by our students, alumni, and faculty
concerning their experiences in our degree and certificate programs. May they strengthen your hope and
give you cause to rejoice that through your support and prayers we have not run the race in vain.
Sincerely,
Stephen J. Loughlin, Ph.D.
President
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