"On this day, we celebrate together the immense joy you have brought to our lives and the high hopes that we have for you and for your future. This is your day because it could not have come to pass without your personal commitment to hard work and sacrifice. And this is our day because it could not have come to pass without personal commitment to hard work and sacrifice. Graduates, my simple request, as you move to the next stages in life is that you remember that gift, that grace and that you pass that it on." - Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond

Click here to read the full text of Rev. Hammond's Commencement Address.

Photo by Barbara Johnston / Copyright University of Notre Dame