Friday, we celebrated daughter Catie’s commencement ceremony from Divine Mercy University. Catie received her Masters in Clinical Psychology … and will continue her education, working toward a Psychology Doctorate [aka, PsyD] in another 12-18 months.

The ceremony, held on a steamy Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C., found Rick and I at the Basilica of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in northeast D.C. The ceremony was held in the Crypt Church and included a Mass celebrated by the Papal Nuncio as well as the ceremony itself.

After the conferring of the Masters of Science in Psychology, and then the Masters of Science in Clinical Psychology, the commencement concluded with the awarding of the Doctorates. There were then speeches, including the keynote by Curtis Martin, founder of the FOCUS, and the Papal Nuncio also spoke. The entire ceremony ended with the presentation of various awards … best teacher and student leadership/service award.

Our Cate received the award for student leader!

So, after a three-hour Mass and ceremony … and a rainstorm we missed … we headed out into the “great hall” and did the meet-and-greet with Catie’s teachers, cohort, and special guests. I was thrilled to see and chat with our Bishop Emeritus, the man who launched our school, as well as a former teacher at JPGHS who is now a permanent deacon and also attending DMU.

So one graduation down … and two more to go … Thomas will graduate from high school and JP will be graduating from 8th grade. Always something going on in our active family!