Video: 2025 Multireligious Commencement Service
This annual service reflects the diverse spiritual traditions of the Class of 2025 through a vibrant tapestry of prayers, music, poetry, and readings.
The 2025 HDS Multireligious Commencement Service was developed by members of the graduating class and featured readings, prayers, music, poetry, and more representing the religious and spiritual traditions of the class of 2025. The service provided the graduating class the opportunity to join together across the many religious and spiritual traditions represented within HDS to give thanks for and to honor the diverse ministries, vocations, and aspirations of those graduating.
The Multireligious Commencement Service took place on Wednesday, May 28, 2025.
NARRATOR 1: Harvard Divinity School.
NARRATOR 2: Multireligious Commencement Service for the Class of 2025. May 28, 2025.
(HDS JUSTICE AND MUSIC COLLECTIVE SINGING)
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine to be prepared?
You know I'm scared to be prepared
Yes, I am scared
But I know from brokenness there's hope
Yes, from brokenness there's hope
[VOCALIZING]
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine to be prepared?
You know I'm scared to be prepared
Yes, I am scared
But I know from brokenness there's hope
Yes, I know from brokenness there's hope
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
I know from brokenness there's hope
Yes, I know from brokenness there's hope
But I know from brokenness there's hope
Yes, I know from brokenness there's hope
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
DEAN MARLA F. FREDERICK: Welcome.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
It is an honor to welcome you to this year's multi-religious commencement service, a service of prayer, worship, meditation, and music created collectively with the Harvard Divinity School class of 2025.
[APPLAUSE]
This annual event honors the diverse ministries, vocations, and aspirations of our graduates. The prayers, readings, and songs for this service were selected by the graduates, who you will hear from today, drawn from the wide array of religions and traditions that animate the intellectual and spiritual life here at HDS. You will also hear an array of perspectives, some that may align with your personal worldview and some that may not. This is pluralism in action.
[APPLAUSE]
Bridging cultural and religious divides is not easy work. Ask me how I know. But we remain committed to the vision for a just world at peace, even when the work is incomplete, even when the work is difficult, and especially then. Thank you for joining us here today as part of our vibrant and multifaceted community. I would now like to invite Renee Susanto to the stage to offer a land acknowledgment. Renee, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
RENEE SUSANTO, MDIV '25: As we began our Commencement rituals with this service, we remember that Harvard University is located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. We pay respect to the people of the Massachusett tribe, past and present, and honor the land itself, which remains sacred to the Massachusett people.
EMMELINE CORDINGLEY, MDIV '25: By the powers of the East, a blessing upon you. By the air flowing through your lungs, by the breeze touching your skin, by the power of the wind, you are blessed.
CARL THOMPSON, MDIV '25: By the power of the South, a blessing to you. By the fire of the sun and the distant stars, by the warmth of the day and the living flame of your mind's own illumination, by your passion, you are blessed.
EMMELINE CORDINGLEY, MDIV '25: By the powers of the West, a blessing. By the water of the oceans, rivers, streams, and rain, by the blood of your own body, the wisdom of your emotions flowing through, you are blessed.
CARL THOMPSON, MDIV '25: By the power of the North, I bless you. By the power of Earth, the bones in our bodies, by soil, rock, green things growing, the depths of night and the seasons cycle, by tree, stone, breast and womb, by the pleasure of your own flesh, you are blessed.
EMMELINE CORDINGLEY, MDIV '25: By the powers of spirit, may we use the gifts of these elemental bodies in service of goodwill and love. So may it be. Blessed be.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(HDS COMMENCEMENT CHOIR AND BAND SINGING)
Sun rises and sings to the universe, who we are
For each child that's born
A morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are
We are our grandmothers' prayers
And we are our grandfathers' dreamings
We are the breath of our ancestors
We are the spirit of God
We are mothers of courage and fathers of time
We are daughters of dusk and the sons of great visions
We're sisters of mercy and brothers of love
We are lovers of life and the builders of nations
We're seekers of truth and keepers of faith
We are makers of peace and the wisdom of ages
We are our grandmothers' prayers
And we are our grandfathers' dreamings
We are the breath of our ancestors
We are the spirit of God
For each child that's born
A morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are
For each child that's born
A morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are
[APPLAUSE]
ALISON LUCK, MDIV '25: Great mystery, which grounds and surrounds us, small spark of life and possibility that lives within us even when all else is crumbling to dust. Be with us in our confusion, fear, and even despair. Lead us to navigate them as slowly as possible, resisting the impulse to soothe, to blame, to seek things that feel better than the hurt and the heaviness, but which ultimately leave us isolated or complacent or too suspicious of each other.
CALEIGH GROGAN, MDIV '25: Let us not flee from our grief, but allow our hearts to be broken open again and again, grieving for all that has already been lost and all that is threatened now. Spirit of life and love and regeneration, help us to feel the wisdom in our bodies. Even with so much going wrong, our hearts beat with gratitude for blessings, for beauty and joy, stubbornly breaking through.
For the compassionate companionship of community, which welcomes all that we bring with us in these times and doesn't ask us to be smaller than we really are. For solidarity and mutual aid, for the trees and the wind and the stars, their cosmic witness soothing our animal souls, reminding us of the deep impermanence and the deep interconnectedness of all things.
ALISON LUCK, MDIV '25: Spirit of transformation, may our hearts break open and stretch out to join with the hearts of others who yearn for a freer world, each heart a building block of a better society, each life lived for hope and resistance, a prayer for a nobler world. Amen and blessed be.
KIANNA MAHONY, MDIV '25: Humanism is a philosophical and worldview tradition championed by atheists, agnostics, and allies. The renowned humanist Simone de Beauvoir wrote in the Ethics of Ambiguity, as long as there have been humans and they have lived, they have all felt this tragic ambiguity of their condition. But as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it. They have striven to reduce mind to matter, or to reabsorb matter into mind, or to merge them within a single substance.
But humans must not attempt to dispel the ambiguity and ambiguity of their being, but on the contrary, accept the task of realizing it. Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we can will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open to the infinite.
And in fact, any person who has known real loves, real revolts, real desire, and real will knows quite well that they have no need for any outside guarantee. Let us try to assume our fundamental ambiguity. It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our life that we must draw our strength to live and our reason for acting.
Simone de Beauvoir calls us to attach value to words, actions, forms, and whatever your heart desires and let them accord value to one another in love and friendship, and most importantly, in our humanity.
[APPLAUSE]
RUCHA MODI, MTS '25: Hi, everyone. I'll be singing a bhajan by Ganga Sati, who is a mystic from Gujarat, my ancestral homeland. The translation is in your pamphlets. But the essence of the bhajan is this notion that even if the highest mountain in the universe, the strongest axis mundi of the universe would shake and the cosmos were to collapse, a true devotee of the divine stays steady.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
DORJEY DOLMA, MDIV '25: I'll be reading verses from Bodhicaryavatara by Shantideva.
[SPEAKING SANSKRIT]
For all the beings ailing in the world until their sickness has been healed, may I become the doctor and the cure, and may I nurse them back to health. Bringing down a shower of food and drink, may I dispel the pains of thirst and hunger. And in those times of scarcity and famine, may I myself appear as food and drink.
Through whatever virtue I have gained by all the sections now performed, may the pain of every living being be cleared away entirely, never to return.
ATUL BHATTARAI, MTS '25: These are three verses also from Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara, which is an eighth-century Sanskrit manual on living in a weakened life.
[SINGING IN SANSKRIT]
This fortunate moment is so hard to come by, yet it can lead to human welfare. If this moment is neglected, who knows when it will come again? For just an instant, a flash of lightning illuminates the darkness of a clouded night. Just so, by the influence of the Buddha, people's minds are momentarily inclined towards the good. But virtue is weak and wrongdoing is strong. What goodness could conquer wrongdoing except the heart set on awakening?
DEUNG MYOUNG SUNIM, MTS '25: From the From the Thousand Hand Sutra
[Korean verses (short chanting)]
Sentient beings are numberless. We vow to make them free from suffering. Delusions are endless. We vow to cut through them all. The teachings are infinite. We bow vow to learn them all. The Buddha is inconceivable. We vow to obtain.
[PERCUSSIVE INSTRUMENT]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(HANNAH DESOUZA, MDIV '25 AND RUCHA MODI, MTS '25 SINGING)
I am resilient
I trust the movement
I negate the chaos, uplift the negative
I'll show up at the table again and again and again
I'll close my mouth and learn to listen
[VOCALIZING]
These times are poignant
The winds have shifted
It's all we can do to stay uplifted
Pipelines through backyards
Wolves howling out front
Yeah, I got my crew, but truth is what I want
Realigned and on point
Power to the peaceful
Prayers to the waters
Women at the center
All vessels open to give and receive
Let's bring the system right down to its knees
[VOCALIZING]
I'm made of thunder
I'm made of lightning
I'm made of dirt, yeah
Made of the fine things
My father taught me that I'm a speck of dust
And this world was made for me
So let's go ahead and try our luck
I've got my roots down, down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down deep
I've got my roots down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
Down, down, down, down deep
I've got my roots down
Down, down deep
I've got my roots down
Down, down, deep
So what are we doing here?
What has been done?
What are you going to do about it when the world comes undone?
My voice feels tiny
And I'm sure so does yours
But put us all together, make a mighty roar
[CHEERING]
[VOCALIZING]
I am resilient
I trust the movement
I negate the chaos
Uplift the negative
I'll show up at the table again and again and again
I'll close my mouth and learn to listen
[APPLAUSE]
CHLOE-ARIZONA FODOR, MTS '25: You all are so beautiful, first of all. Start there. In traditional Jewish practice, the Shehecheyanu is said for acquisitions, Jewish festivals and new fruits. Saying the prayer on festivals is obligatory, but you only need to say it for something you have gained if that thing is new and valuable to you. This is not just an expression of gratitude for this moment, but a recognition of the deep value it has for each of us.
BECCA LEVISS, MTS '25: Growing up, my grandmother led us in this prayer every time our family gathered together to express gratitude and wonder at the many details, decisions, miracles large and small, that combined to bring all of us to this fleeting and powerful moment.
NEVIA SELMON, MTS '25: We're living in a Shehecheyanu moment, a time when the core of Jewish spirit is awakened not just through joy, but through the meeting point of pain and hope. It's a moment marked by both grief and thankfulness, when the ancient words passed down to us rise up naturally from within. Even in the hardest times, we're reminded to recognize the holiness of now because we've made it to this moment.
CHLOE-ARIZONA FODOR, MTS '25: If you know the prayer, feel free to join with us.
[SINGING IN HEBREW]
NEVIA SELMON, MTS '25: An interpretation by Andy eisenson of this prayer is, "A conscious and loving and incredibly unlikely and wildly beautiful universe, full of conscious and loving and incredibly unlikely and wildly beautiful beings are you. Shekinah."
CHLOE-ARIZONA FODOR, MTS '25: Goddess of the uncountable tiny coincidences and near-misses and impossible connections and ancestral serendipities that have made it possible for each of us to be in this place doing what we're doing.
BECCA LEVISS, MTS '25: It is unlikely to the point of being incredible that we are alive and touching each other in this gorgeous moment. And yet, here we are. Here we are. Amen.
[APPLAUSE]
UMEHANI BOKHARI, MDIV '25: Good afternoon. I will be offering something from the Islamic tradition. Imam Ali was the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and succeeded the prophet as the first imam and fourth caliph. Around 1,400 years ago, he wrote a letter to Malik Al-Ashtar, the governor of Egypt, in which he speaks about the principles of just governance. I will be reading some portions from this letter.
He writes, "Be it known to you, O Malik, that I am sending you as governor to a country which in the past has experienced both just and unjust rule. Men will scrutinize your actions with a searching eye as you used to scrutinize the actions of those before you. The fact is that the public speak well only of those who do good, maintain justice and administration, and seek the consent of the people, for the discontent of the masses sterilizes the contentment of the privileged few.
Never for any length of time keep yourself aloof from the people, for to do so as to keep oneself ignorant of their affairs. It develops in the ruler a wrong perspective and renders him unable to distinguish between what is good and what is not, between right and wrong, and between truth and falsehood. The ruler is, after all, human, and he cannot form a correct view of anything which is out of sight.
Either you are just or unjust. If you are just, then you will not keep yourself away from the people, but will listen to them and meet their requirements. But if you are unjust, the people themselves will keep away from you. What virtue is there in your keeping aloof? At all events, aloofness is not desirable, especially when it is your duty to attend to the needs of the people.
Complaints of oppression by your officers or petitions for justice should not prove irksome to you. Make it a rule of your conduct never to give even a small piece of land to any of your relations. That will prevent them from causing harm to the interests of others and save you from courting the disapprobation of both God and man.
Beware—abstain from shedding blood without a valid cause. There is nothing more harmful than this, which brings about one's ruin. The blood that is willfully shed shortens the life of a state. On the day of judgment, it is this crime for which one will have to answer first. So beware. Do not wish to build the strength of your state on blood, for it is this blood which ultimately weakens the state and passes it into other hands.
Before me and my God, no excuse for willful killing can be entertained. When the people as a whole agree upon a thing, do not impose your own will on them, and do not neglect to discharge the responsibility that rests on you in consequence. The slightest dereliction of duty will bring its own retribution.
Give close thought to the example of our prophet, his traditions, and the Commandments of the Holy Quran. I seek of God the culmination of his blessings and pray that he may grant you and me his grace and the honor of martyrdom in his cause. Verily, we must return to him. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
NOOR NOMAN, MTS '25: All right. Here's a little song called "Beginningless Love," which is about Sufi conceptions of love, of divine love and all love that my bandmates, The Hardy Boys and I wrote.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING)
Tell me how you want to know me
What you want to show me tonight
And I, I was made to know you
I was made to show you the meaning of this life
Oh, beginningless love
Oh, this beginningless love
So here, here we are again
Meeting outside time
There's no beginning, no end
And I, I think I can remember
The song of your laughter
The lyrics to your heart
Oh, beginningless love
Oh, this beginningness love
Scatter reason in the wind
I sink down into my depths and feel the waves crashing
Oh, beginningless love
Oh, this beginningness love
Oh, this love
Oh, this beginningless love
Oh, beginningless love
Oh, this beginningless love
[APPLAUSE]
JOHN CLAYTON GEHMAN, MDIV '25: Liberationism is a tradition of self-identification affirming that liberation is the unconditional state of unity. In liberation, everybody is home. We strive to honor the dignity, sanctity, and regard of all beings, especially those who are disinherited from their homes and traditions. As in all traditions, liberationists serve and move towards justice in the calling for a greater glory than ourselves.
ELIZABETH BLISS-BURGER, MTS '25: The Sound of the Genuine, an excerpt by Howard Thurman. "The sound of the genuine is flowing through you. Don't be deceived or thrown off by all the noises, even those of your dreams and ambitions so that you don't hear the sound of the genuine because that is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you don't have that, you don't have a thing.
Who are you? There is in you something that is waiting, listening for the sound of the genuine in yourself, with many vast impulses floating through your organism from generations, thousands of generations before you, long before you were even a thought in the mind of creation. Who are you?
So now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me and you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in me and up in you, so that I look at myself with your eyes, having made that pilgrimage, having seen a part of me through a part of you and the wall? Well, it will dissipate. It will break. It will divide. It will no longer exist. And so the sound of the genuine in me and the sound of the genuine in you, who are you? I look around today and I hear it. The sound of the genuine, it's here.
[APPLAUSE]
JOHN CLAYTON GEHMAN, MDIV '25: Home is the place where we most intimately liberation and ourselves. This is the political condition of God's land—what ties us to home, what home will inherit us, and to what home we genuinely belong. Home is where we find our roots and where those roots find the land of the genuine. We transform throughout our lives on the cusp and in the wake of the outward reach of our roots, deeper into life and its firmament.
When we are home, we are undeniably the genuine. We are those dignified, the humane, the kind, and the beheld. For liberationists, this is the inheritance of oneself as a child of God, to be home with God and to absorb the nutrients of God's land. We are compelled deeper and deeper into justice and the unity of right relationship.
We are as kin, delivered from God's liberation to this creation as our home. Liberation, then, is no longer a vision for striving. It is a reality for being and belonging in this political condition of home, and being ourselves, the genuine of the Earth, spurring from the grace and the life of God's land.
[APPLAUSE]
JACK TRIPP, MTS '25: Deep within us all, there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a divine center, a speaking voice to which we may continually return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely to the light within is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative life that presses to birth within us.
CONNOR ROHWER, MDIV '25: Quakers worship in silence, yes, to better hear the wisdom of the inner light. In honor of this tradition, we invite you to join us in a moment of silence. Thank you, friends.
[APPLAUSE]
EVE SCHWARTZ, MDIV '25: On the porch, as I sit atop a cracked foundation, I look to the side to find my God. Sometimes they are found under a steeple, sometimes in a hospital, a meadow, a cup of coffee. Sometimes they are not found at all. If I kneel long enough, perhaps I'll hear a faint whisper in the wind. Or maybe ripples of silence will be the response, and that will be enough.
Betwixt is where I lie to make meaning of the sacred mystery that many claim to know, but few really do. Between an altar and hands elevated above it is where I reside, in the liminal space of the known and the unknown. They hand me my meal, tell me it is blessed. I stare down to find the sum of everyone and no one inside, constantly reaching out for that which can never be grasped in its entirety.
Perhaps that is the beauty found in the mystery, what comes of a spirituality built on the porch, on the margins of a tradition, a great excavation of all that has been buried.
MICHAEL FUHRMAN, MDIV '25: On the porch, in rocking chairs, I look in the yard where we keep two doves. We named them Gabriel and Michael, figured we'd lost the angels and had to find other ways to float down and meet us. Forget the halls of heaven, in the dirt is where they clean their down. Watch them dust. It's a place that feels all too familiar. Push down on the ground, looking up at the home that left you.
The dog runs through the yard, scares them away. But they come back once a season. Many of us can't be fair-weather flyers, let our orbits swing too far out. Gravity won't be pulling back.
EVE SCHWARTZ, MDIV '25: On the porch, we look back at the door that once invited us in and see a tattered frame and rusted hinges.
MICHAEL FUHRMAN, MDIV '25: We're tired of letting rigid things make rigid means.
EVE SCHWARTZ, MDIV '25: We sit outside, let the sun beat skin and rain wash in.
MICHAEL FUHRMAN, MDIV '25: Risk comfort for space to breathe, the chance to look out without any stains in the glass. Don't wait for someone to ascribe meaning to you. It's already there.
[APPLAUSE]
EVE WOLDEMIKAEL, MDIV '25: Hello, everyone. I will be sharing an Eritrean Ethiopian Orthodox Mezmur, or prayer song, from the Tewahedo tradition.
[SINGING in Ge'ez]
[APPLAUSE]
COURTNEY HAUBERT, MTS '25: Today and tomorrow, Christians around the world observe Ascension Day, which marks Jesus's ascent to heaven following the Resurrection. Ascension day is a day of duality, the promise of hope, and the bittersweet feeling of parting with earthly community. It is a farewell joined with the anticipation of a joyous future.
(SINGING) A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke
Glory to Thee, O God
Glory to Thee
Come and let us attend
KYLE BELANGER, MTS '25: As the company came near the village to which they were going, Jesus walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"
JOY CASTRO-WEHR, MDIV '25: "That same hour, they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered there. They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon." Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of bread.
ANTHONY MENSAH, MTS '25: While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. See that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have."
SHARIAH ANDERSON, MDIV '25: And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Yet for all their joy, they were still disbelieving and wondering. And he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled."
HANNAH DESOUZA, MDIV '25: Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
And see, I am sending upon you what my father promised. So stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." The gospel of the Lord. Graduates, friends, may we walk forward with eyes open and hearts burning, ready to recognize the divine on every road ahead.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(NICOLE MARIE, MDIV '25 AND SARAH CAPERS, MDIV '25 SINGING)
Oh, what a day
Oh, what a day
Glorious
Gather round
Gather round
There's nothing better than a friend
Oh, what a day
Ooh, what a day
Glorious
The smell of rain
The smell of rain has hitched a ride upon the wind
I got good friends to the left of me and good friends to my right
Got the open sky above me and the earth beneath my feet
Got a song inside my heart that's singing, oh, life is sweet
Oh, what a day
Oh, what a day
Oh, what a day
Glorious
All the clouds have gathered around the tops of trees
Oh, what a day
Oh, what a day
Glorious
Pitter patter, falling rain, I can't believe
All that's green lifts up its leaves
Singing water, come on in
We've been waiting all these days
Thinking you would come to quench every yearning in our bones
Water, life with you begins
Oh, what a day
[VOCALIZING]
Oh, it's raining
[VOVALIZING]
Have wings of faith
[VOCALIZING]
There's a clear river I perceive
All is well
All is well
This is a friendly place to me
Oh, what a day
Oh, what a day
Glorious
Under the sky we slept last night, just you and me
Oh, what a day
Oh, what a day
Glorious
The waning moon, our cycle is almost complete
We've got good friends to the left of us and good friends to our right
Got the open sky above us and the earth beneath our feet
Never fear, the birds are singing
Even endings can be sweet
Oh, what a day
Never fear, the birds are singing
Even endings can be sweet
Oh, what a day
[APPLAUSE]
MADDISON TENNEY, MTS '25: I'm sure many of you read in the little pamphlet given you about queer spiritualities and thought, what are they doing at Harvard? And I'll tell you. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and also as a queer person, many queer people find themselves in the intersection of their faith and their sexuality, wanting to find both spiritual home and physical home.
My offering today honor those who find themselves in the marginal intersections, those who sacralize the body, those who sacralize the soul, and those who love their community. Pray to whomever you kneel to. Jesus, nailed on his wooden or plastic cross, his suffering face bent facing you.
Buddha still under the bo tree in the scorching heat, Adonai la. Raise your arms to Mary that she may lay her palm on our brows. Trucizna the queen of heaven and Earth, or Inanna in her stripped ascent. Then you have to pray to the bus driver who takes you to work. And when you're on that bus, pray for everybody riding the bus. And then pray for everybody on all the buses in the whole world. Drop some silver and pray.
Waiting in line for the movies or the ATM for your latte and croissant. Offer your plea. Make your eating and drinking a supplication. Make the slicing of carrots a holy act, each layer of translucent onion a deeper prayer. To hawk or wolf or the great whale, let us pray. Bow to the terriers and the shepherds and the Siamese cats, fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.
Make the brushing of your hair a prayer, every strand a voice, singing of the choir in your head. As you wash your face, the water slipping through your fingers, a prayer. Water, the softest thing on Earth, gentleness that can wear away rock. Making love, of course, is already a prayer. Skin and open mouths worshipping that skin, the fragile cases we are poured into.
And if you're hungry, pray. If you're tired, pray. Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day, Shakespeare, Sappho, and Sojourner Truth. When you walk to your car, to the mailbox, to the video store, let each step be a prayer that we keep all our legs, that we do not blow off anyone else's legs or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding a bicycle or a skateboard or you're in a wheelchair, each revolution of the wheels a prayer as the Earth revolves. Less harm. Less harm. Less harm. And as you work, typing with a new manicure, a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail, or delivering soda, or drawing good blood into rubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard with yellow chalk or twirling pizzas.
With each breath in, take in the faith of those who have believed when belief was foolish, who persevered. With each breath out, cherish. Pull weeds for peace. Turn over in your sleep for peace. Feed the birds. Eat shiny seed that spills into the earth. Another second of peace. Wash your dishes, call your mom, and drink some wine.
Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk. Make a path. Fold the photo of a dead child around your Visa card. Scrub the holy water from the gutter. Gnaw at your crust. Mumble along in the streets, stumbling through your prayers. But pray. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(HDS COMMENCEMENT CHOIR SINGING)
My life goes on in endless song
Above earth's lamentation
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear music ringing
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?
What through the tempest round me roars
I hear the truth living
Though the darkness round me goes
Songs in the night he giveth
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
Since love prevails in heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
When tyrants tremble, sick with fear
The bells of freedom ringing
When friends rejoice so far and near
How can I keep from singing?
With a sound and God has found
Our hearts to then are beating
And my shame are undefined
How can I keep from singing?
Tyrants tremble as they hear the bells of freedom ringing
Friends rejoice both far and near
How can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile
Our thoughts to them are winging
When friends by shame are undefiled
How can I keep from singing?
How can I keep from singing?
How can I keep from singing?
[APPLAUSE]
TAYLON LANCASTER, MDIV '25: Would you join me for a word of prayer? Oh, God of our weary years and God of our silent tears, we come before you with hearts full of hope, some of us drowning in the unknown yet rooted in the deep soul of our ancestors' dreams. We are ever so thankful for the answering of so many prayers that could not have been answered without the great resolver.
So we stand today, praying to a God that can still answer prayers, which allows us all, especially those of African descent, to continue to walk in the legacy of struggle, soaring on the wings of possibility. As we prepare to leave this place, but never your abiding presence, position us all to fulfill our ultimate purpose.
Oh, God, let us not be afraid to feel as Bell Hooks taught us, to love ourselves fiercely, to think critically, and to heal boldly. Oh God, we pray for the audacity of Langston Hughes that we may hold fast to our dreams, letting no system of oppression convince us that we are anything less than divine.
For our Blackness that is not a burden, but it is a blessing, our heritage is not a hindrance, but yet it is holy. Oh God, may the spirit of James Cone come upon us, reminding us that the theology without justice is empty, and the power of divinity without the care for humanity and its inhabitants is nothing but a broken, eternal promise. Oh God, may the spirit of the Sankofa guide us all, that we may walk forward in the knowledge of the past, but the foreign and the possibilities of the future, in the name of the one who is still able to set the captives free, uproot evil, and save the lost, we pray. Amen and ashe.
[APPLAUSE]
KELLEY WOEHL, MDIV '25: Friends, this multi-religious commencement ceremony honors the richness of our community members at HDS, as well as our many spiritual and wisdom traditions, while also celebrating our uniting value in pluralism. We came to HDS at different times with diverse backgrounds and unique motivations, yet today we stand together, bonded by a common commitment to education, service, and exploration alongside our laughter, longings, and aspirations.
Each year at commencement, the graduating classes of the different graduate schools of Harvard process carrying representative symbols of their respective schools. Tomorrow, as we step into the yard, we from HDS will carry these ribbons as a symbol of our community.
[APPLAUSE]
Its intangible beauty and its meaning for all of our collective work, these ribbons represent. As we close today's ceremony, I want to invite us to imagine all of the knowledge and sacred texts, all of the poetry and music shared today, finding a new home within these ribbons. As we carry them tomorrow, may we remember to uplift the strength and labor of pluralism that we try to model today.
KHUSHI CHOUDHARY, MTS '25: In closing, we offer this blessing for a new year by John O'Donohue. On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you. When the canvas frays in the currach of thought and a stain of ocean blackens beneath you, may there come across the waters a path of yellow moonlight to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours. May the clarity of light be yours. May the fluency of the ocean be yours. May the protection of the ancestors be yours. And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you, an invisible cloak to mind your life.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming
What do we need to imagine?
Change is coming.
[APPLAUSE]
NARRATOR 3: The commencement choir and band are conducted by Christopher Hossfeld, director of music and ritual at HDS.
NARRATOR 4: Copyright 2025, the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Banner photo: Members of the HDS 2025 graduating class look on during Commencement exercises. Photo by Liesl Clark.
The views and opinions expressed by the speakers in this video are solely those of the individuals and do not reflect the official position or policies of HDS or Harvard University.