INVOCATION FOR W&M CAMPAIGN DINNER, MENLO CLUB, March

18, 2017
For a quiet moment, I invite you to reflect with gratitude: for
tonights celebration, goals met, honors and degrees earned, and
the gift of intellect, mentors, the support of family and friends, and
an appreciation for engagement, participation and philanthropy.
Continuing, reflect with gratitude and ask for blessings, on the
mission of the university, our students and alumni, our professors
and lecturers, our administrators and staff, that they may use their
knowledge, reason and skills to strive for peace, understanding
and the common good.
As we prepare to enjoy this bounteous meal, recognizing our
diversity in beliefs, values, and faith traditions, but honoring our
unity in gratitude, I invite you to reflect quietly on all that is yet
to be while expressing thanks for all that has come before.
Continuing to reflect with gratitude, ask for blessing on the
mission of The College of William and Mary in Virginia and for
those given the solemn privilege of managing and directing our
beloved alma mater in all time coming.
And as we journey forth filled with knowledge and dreams let us
continue to learn from our diversity, filled with compassion, to
honor the peaceful, nurture the fragile, empower the
impoverished, and create a future our forbearers would be proud
to witness.
At a time when many are worried about the future, may our
devotion to William and Mary increase our faith in a better future
led by graduates of our great alma mater.
May that faith together with the gratitude and enthusiasm we
experience today be the focus for our Campaign for William and
Mary For The Bold.
Now everyone, lets enjoy this wonderful dinner!
AMEN