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:
She gave God’s son a human nature; she gave the Eternal Word—God the Son, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity—flesh . . . .
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.”
The full text of his address is available here (PDF).
