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As the headmaster of Gregory the Great Academy in Elmhurst, Pennsylvania, Sean Fitzpatrick (’02) knows well the importance of a graduation ceremony in the life of a student. So it is with sympathy that he pens his latest essay in Crisis, , a letter to members of the Class of 2020 at high schools and colleges everywhere.

“Though many have suffered grievously from this virus, you, graduating seniors, whether from high school or college, make up your own category of sufferers,” Mr. Fitzpatrick writes. “You are the forgotten class, the class of plague and circumstance, the class that graduated without a graduation. But in losing those worldly trappings you have the opportunity to become small enough to give Christ room to dwell in you.”

Missing out on the glory and joy of a graduation ceremony, the headmaster observes, is an opportunity for greatness — indeed, for sanctity — for this year’s graduates. “You went to school to learn how to become saints,” he reminds them. “Embrace your littleness, your Covid obscurity, and let Christ do good things with you. If He was bold enough to become so little to accomplish great things, we must do likewise.”

In closing, Mr. Fitzpatrick quotes the verse from Psalm 115 that graduates of his alma mater sing at the end of each year’s Commencement, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give glory.”